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No-Fly List vs Selectee List
[Jan 2010] - We read a story in the NY Times about Mickey Hicks, an 8 year old who has the misfortune to share a name with someone that the Department of Homeland Security is suspicious of. Now, this doesn't mean he can't fly, but he has been subject to many delays and additional security checks.
To understand this, we must first understand the difference between the two lists. If you're on the No-Fly List, this means that the Department of Homeland Security doesn't like you and can't board a plane in the US. The Selectee List seems to mean that you are suspicious, or in the case of the young Mr. Hicks, share a name with a suspicious person. The aforementioned NY Times article includes:
A spokesman for the T.S.A., James Fotenos, said that as a rule, “there are no children on the no-fly or selectee lists,” but would not comment on Mikey’s situation specifically.
Not to go all Return of the Jedi on Mr. Fotenos and Mr. Hicks, but from Mr. Fotenos point of view, there are no children on the selectee lists; the T.S.A. and the Department of Homeland Security put a different Mr. Hicks on the list, not the 8 year old New Jersey Cub Scout (a Webelos as of this writing), so he's telling the truth, sort of. The problem is, the selectee list is just that: a list, like your common grocery list. This is an absurd way to try to keep us safe, and everybody knows it, which is why the Secure Flight Program, and this will cross check every passengers' birth date, gender and names against the watch lists instead of just checking the names. This will prevent little Mikey Hicks from getting frisked when he goes on family vacation. Now its great that this summer, little Mikey won't get harassed, but the real achievement is that they're actually fixing something that is totally broken, and its not broken just because they're detaining 8 year olds. But Kudos to you folks at T.S.A. and the Department of Homeland Security: getting stuff done, and just a shade before the 10 year anniversary of 9/11. Way to go. You're truly champions in our eyes. Now if the airlines could just stop scheduling 3 hours of flight time for 2 hour flights and pretend, "Hey, we got in early!" and when they're embarrassingly behind schedule they can say they stuck to the schedule, even if you spent an hour locked in a metal tube waiting for your turn to roll onto some god forsaken run way and ended up forgetting your MP3 player in the front seat pocket because you just couldn't wait to run your full bladdered claustrophobic ass the hell out of the plane, we'd be all set!
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