The whole terrorist watch list is ridiculous.  It is fraught with inaccuracies, there seems to be no clear standard of who is either placed on the list or removed from it, there are lots of people who have trouble flying because they have the same name as someone else who is on the list, and the example of Erich Scherfen shows clearly that the list is doing more harm than good.  This is a bad way to deal with (actual or suspected) terrorists; if you have good reason to believe that someone is a terrorist, he or she should be arrested on charges of terrorism (or at the least, should be closely investigated to determine if an arrest is warranted), not just prevented from boarding a plane, and if you DON'T have good reason to believe that someone is a terrorist, then there is no reason to infringe upon that person's rights.

At least Scherfen is a Muslim, married to a foreign-born Muslim spouse. I'm not saying that excuses the utter stupidity of the TSA but at least it provides some (very weak) possible explanation as to how the original mistake may have been made.

But take pO157's example from the 'q, "James Robinson". WTF? I've never met a muslim with a name like that. Or Ted Kennedy, or any of a half-dozen other names that have supposedly shown up on this "list".

Makes me think that the TSA is getting militia names from the mid-1990s (or maybe even IRA names from the 1980s?), despite the fact those guys never even threatened to hijack or use commercial aircraft for any kind of nefarious purposes.

This is never going to get straightened out until the FBI is forced by Congress to detail just how they came up with this thing in the first place.

{Insert amusing quotation here}

"No person shall be ... deprived of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law ...."

Fine, the government wants to make its petty little evil-doer blacklist.  Maybe check people on those lists extra carefully at airports - carry out investigations, hell, even order up an IRS audit or two.  Whatever, that's all well and good.

But they cross a line when they forbid travel, merely based on your name being on a list.  They definitely cross a line when the presence of your name on that same list robs you of your livelihood.

If these folks are guilty of a crime, please prove it and lock them up - otherwise let them live their lives just like any other American citizen.

"The odd thing about Scherfen being on a list of possible terrorists is that his personal background flies in the face of him being a terrorist. He served in the US military for more than 13 years: he fought in the first Gulf War and flew helos in the National Guard. Since getting his honorable discharge"

His background reminds me of this guy's:

"He was a decorated veteran of the United States Army, having served in the Gulf War, where he was awarded a Bronze Star. He had been a top scoring gunner with the 25mm cannon of the light-armored Bradley Fighting Vehicles used by the U.S. 1st Infantry Division to which he was assigned. He served at Fort Riley, Kansas, before Operation Desert Storm...  [He] was given an honorable discharge from the Army Reserve..."

Are Obama's friends Bill Ayers, Bernardine Dorn and Micheal Klonsky on this list? If not, why?

I'm hardly  fan of the TSA, and consider nearly all airport security measures since 9/11 to be security theater. Still the part I don't follow is why he is not allowed to fly.

Everyone else who has had experience with the TSA 'watch list' gets some secondary screening which requires them to prove that they are really MayorBob and not MayorBinBob. Once done, they get to go on their way (making their flight/take the next flight). However from the writeup it seems as if he's prevented from flying at all -- which is a whole other order of shennanigan than the typical b.s. the TSA gets up.

Could the man/his lawyers really be overstating his case, or is the TSA rules really preventing him from flying?

Memory is a strange bell, jubilee and knell.