Retired Major General Vernon Lewis, Jr. has served in two wars, was a Brigade Commander and holds a top-secret security clearance. However, the Transportation Security Administration keeps confusing him with a terrorist.
“My credentials are impeccable,” said Lewis. who has been decorated four times for valor and received the Army’s highest medal for service, the Distinguished Service Medal. “It burns me up to be treated like a terrorist.”
He is now retired from the U.S. Army after serving more than 30 years during Vietnam and Korea with the 82nd Airborne Division and the 82nd’s 319th Field Artillery.
He tried to get off the list by calling his Congressional representatives and by taking part in the TSA’s Traveler Redress Program…The TSA sent him a letter back in May 2006 saying he had been cleared off the list. However, the next time he tried to fly, he was stopped again.
“It burns me up that they can’t correct it,” said Lewis. “You can’t tell me with the technology we’ve got today that the TSA can’t sort me and about 20, 30 or 40,000 other people just like me who are on that watch list and get harassed.”
The funniest note in this too sad article is about the 21 people named John Thompson who all get stopped every time they try to fly. One of them was told by a United Airlines agent to trick the no-fly list by booking his tickets with his first name, middle initial and last name. He does that now and no longer gets delayed.
At which end of the incompetent line do the TSA-types stand?
The end where they judge people by rote and inconvenience thousands with the “wrong” name? Or the end where you beat their system by adding one letter to your login?
A fitting chapter in the Bush Legacy.
A fitting chapter in the Bush Legacy.
I wonder if the next president will kill this list.
With proper profiling, no one named Vernon would be on a terrorist list.
3,
As is your comment.
The only thing saving us from tyranny is incompetence.
Isn’t this just another example of what governments do best? That would be – mostly punish the innocent and almost never the guilty. Well, I can only conclude that federal taxes or way too high.
Hey YOU were the one who said he was bonkers.
Man you guys have it bad in the US. You all might as well just go break the law and get it over with so the TSA has a REAL reason to criminalize you.
And you all though that socializing your health care was the path to dictatorship…
It’s awful that innocent people are being harassed like that. This burns me up.
stupid knee-jerk crap like watch-lists won’t protect us from terrorists any more than keyword watch lists protect us from spam
it’s high time that we elected an adult who can comprehend the subtlety of a mature, robust security system, instead of erecting facile headline catching bullshit.
My question is: What f#$@king moron thinks that a person’s name or address can uniquely identify a passenger?
As someone who works in the IT industry I feel like I have to apologize to General Lewis.
#3 – Jimmie Colina
>>More angry Bush posts. How predictable…
>>and ineffective.
Not so ineffective after all, Jimmie. Only 146 days remain until Bush’s legacy is flushed down the toidy, mixing with the human excrement and waste products with which it has so much in common.
On January 9th, your worship and adulation of the new Administration will be well noted.
#12–QB==how many QB’s live at your address? I know only one bobbo at mine.
Google => Results 1 – 10 of about 458,000 for bobbo
Ah Cubie==do they give my address.
MY ADDRESS!!!!!!!
The no fly list is just the name==not even age with all the seven year olds being banned.
Sad really. Whenever I hanker towards trusting the government, they go and do something this stupid.
I wonder which idealogy does more harm to the family of man? Business aggregating the wealth of the world to as few as possible, or the government alternatively helping them and then trying to stop it?
Tough call.
bobbo,
P.S. I can guarantee you that your dental insurance company (e.g. Metlife) has 5-10 “unique” addresses for you.
For example
123 Main St., MyTown, CA
123 Main Street Mytwon CALIF
123 MAIN STR, MYTOWN CAL
123 Mane St My Town California
It sounds easy, but the permutations go on forever….
James Hill said: “More angry Bush posts. How predictable… and ineffective.”
I think we all understand that this is the only kind of bush you like.
The department of homeland security was created to deal with a clear and present threat.
Due to inapt leadership, slovenly oversight, and poor management it now is becoming at least as big a problem as the problem was.
Question: Which organizations scares you most—The Talaban or the Department of Homeland Security?
Bin Laden must be laughing in his cave.
#20 – I’ve lived in Afghanistan and I can assure you, as much as I dislike the DHS, I fear the Taliban much more.
By the way, don’t accuse anyone of being slovenly until you get a better spell checker.
# 20 deowll said:
“The department of homeland security was created to deal with a clear and present threat.
Due to inapt leadership, slovenly oversight, and poor management it now is becoming at least as big a problem as the problem was.”
I have come to the conclusion that ineptitude and stupidity are official policy wherever White House influence can reach. “Government is not the solution — government is the problem” is an article of faith to the neocons, and the administration is determined to prove it by making sure government is the problem wherever possible.
Unluckily for us, this is easier than trying to govern well.
>> James Hill said,
>> More angry Bush posts. How predictable… and ineffective.
It’s funny that you assume anti-incompetency posts are anti-Bush!
As for me, I miss the days when conservatives were against big, oppressive government.