As someone who travels for work, nothing about flying surprises me anymore. I wonder if with the increased overbooking airlines are doing to ensure full flights air marshals who aren’t prevented from boarding ever get bumped. If they show their ID, no more anonymity.
Air marshals grounded in list mix-ups
False identifications based on a terrorist no-fly list have for years prevented some federal air marshals from boarding flights they are assigned to protect, according to officials with the agency, which is finally taking steps to address the problem.
Federal Air Marshals (FAMs) familiar with the situation say the mix-ups, in which marshals are mistaken for terrorism suspects who share the same names, have gone on for years — just as they have for thousands of members of the traveling public.
One air marshal said it has been “a major problem, where guys are denied boarding by the airline.”
“In some cases, planes have departed without any coverage because the airline employees were adamant they would not fly,” said the air marshal, who asked not to be named because the job requires anonymity. “I’ve seen guys actually being denied boarding.”
A second air marshal said one agent “has been getting harassed for six years because his exact name is on the no-fly list.”
ha ha ha,
And this has been going on for how many years?
Sorry, Mr. Mohamed Atta, we can’t allow you to board this flight.
Badges? We don’t care about your stinking badges!
Is there an adult in charge anywhere in this administration? This is what you get when you have an idiot in charge and he brings his friends along.
This is government buffoonery at its best.
I was on this list myself for a while. During a vacation, I was hassled at every airport. The people behind the counter just sighed helplessly and shuffled through the motions as best they could.
The real problem is that even though this system is tediouis, expensive and probably ineffective, it will never be dropped – there’s too much investment in it.
It’s been 7 years since the attack. We have air marshals, secure cockpit doors, pilots with guns, and (I assume) greatly increased investigation and enforcement behind the scenes. How safe can we be, realistically?
Its interesting that this may be a reason to GET A TATTOO and tag and BAG every person in the USA, 1984 HERE WE COME..
I find this very funny.
We have known that NAME identification is a PAIN for ALOT of years..
How many JOE SMITHS live in the USA??
With the TECh of the last 20 years..
What would it take?? :
to Have PICTURES of those on the no FLY LIST??
finger print of the OFFENDER??
to inbed a Micro tag in the Hand/arm/leg/?? of the Marshals to PROVE Identification..
Finger print of the Marshall??
Ifs a BUNCH of CF, of Bureaucratic Nincompoops..
Nah, implants.
I still get the feeling that they are TRYING to make it inconvenient/Pain of a process.
They want to Force something, or MAKE something happen. And all its leading up to is STUPIDITY and showing a Lack of resources/ideas/Concepts/and TECH knowledge..
This is almost as bad as WWI, and the USA jumping into a war with 50 year old weapons, and the Germans had Machine guns.
They hire Air Marshals with names like Mohammad these days?
Interesting…
#9, there may be some truth to that. After 9/11 the airlines needed a big dramatic show of security to get the public flying again. All this searching of shoes and belts is just theater.
Its no different than the gas tax holiday. “looks like” congress is doing something when in fact all they are doing is harming USA and most people can’t tell the difference or think it’s a good idea. And that’s why the downward spiral accelerates.
Department of Homeland In-Security – SNAFUed AGAIN !!!
I’ve said it here on this blog before, and nobody seemed to care: best I can tell, Bush & Co are trying to end American’s freedom to travel.
http://tinyurl.com/6y8knm
I don’t know the exact status of this legislation but, best I can tell, this isn’t tin foil hat stuff. It’s the real-deal.