-Caveat Lector- > Grounded > > A federal agency confirms that it maintains an air-travel blacklist > of 1,000 people. Peace activists and civil libertarians fear they're > on it. > > By Dave Lindorff (Salon.com) > > Nov. 15, 2002 | Barbara Olshansky was in Newark International > Airport at the JetBlue departure gate last March when an airline > agent at the counter checking her boarding pass called airport > security. Olshansky was subjected to a close search and then, though > she was in view of other travelers, was ordered to pull her pants > down. The Sept. 11 terrorist attacks may have created a new era in > airport security, but even so, she was embarrassed and annoyed. > > Perhaps one such incident might've been forgotten, but Olshansky, the > assistant legal director for the left-leaning Center for > Constitutional Rights, was pulled out of line for special attention > the next time she flew. And the next time. And the next time. On one > flight this past September from Newark to Washington, six members of > the center's staff, including Olshansky, were stopped and subjected > to intense scrutiny, even though they had purchased their tickets > independently and had not checked in as a group. On that occasion, > Olshansky got angry and demanded to know why she had been singled > out. > > "The computer spit you out," she recalls the agent saying. "I don't > know why, and I don't have time to talk to you about it." > > Olshansky and her colleagues are, apparently, not alone. For months, > rumors and anecdotes have circulated among left-wing and other > activist groups about people who have been barred from flying or > delayed at security gates because they are "on a list." > > But now, a spokesman for the new Transportation Security > Administration has acknowledged for the first time that the > government has a list of about 1,000 people who are deemed "threats > to aviation" and not allowed on airplanes under any circumstances. > And in an interview with Salon, the official suggested that Olshansky > and other political activists may be on a separate list that subjects > them to strict scrutiny but allows them to fly. > > "We have a list of about 1,000 people," said David Steigman, the TSA > spokesman. The agency was created a year ago by Congress to handle > transportation safety during the war on terror. "This list is > composed of names that are provided to us by various government > organizations like the FBI, CIA and INS ... We don't ask how they > decide who to list. Each agency decides on its own who is a 'threat > to aviation.'" > > The agency has no guidelines to determine who gets on the list, > Steigman says, and no procedures for getting off the list if someone > is wrongfully on it. > > Meanwhile, airport security personnel, citing lists that are provided > by the agency and that appear to be on airline ticketing and check-in > computers, seem to be netting mostly priests, elderly nuns, Green > Party campaign operatives, left-wing journalists, right-wing > activists and people affiliated with Arab or Arab-American groups. > > Virgine Lawinger, a nun in Milwaukee and an activist with Peace > Action, a Catholic advocacy group, was stopped from boarding a flight > last spring to Washington, where she and 20 young students were > planning to lobby the Wisconsin congressional delegation against U.S. > military aid to the Colombian government. "We were all prevented from > boarding, and some of us were taken to another room and questioned by > airport security personnel and local sheriff's deputies," says > Lawinger. > > In that incident, an airline employee with Midwest Air and a local > sheriff's deputy who had been called in during the incident to help > airport security personnel detain and question the group, told some > of them that their names were "on a list," and that they were being > kept off their plane on instructions from the Transportation Security > Administration in Washington. Lawinger has filed a freedom-of- > information request with the Transportation Security Administration > seeking to learn if she is on a "threat to aviation" list. > > Last month, Rebecca Gordon and Jan Adams, two journalists with a San > Francisco-based antiwar magazine called War Times were stopped at the > check-in counter of ATA Airlines, where an airline clerk told them > that her computer showed they were on "the FBI No Fly list." The > airline called the FBI, and local police held them for a while before > telling them there had been a mistake and that they were free to go. > The two made their plane, but not before the counter attendant placed > a large S for "search" on their baggage, assuring that they got more > close scrutiny at the boarding gate. > > Art dealer Doug Stuber, who ran Ralph Nader's Green Party > presidential campaign in North Carolina in 2000, was barred last > month from getting on a flight to Hamburg, Germany, where he was > going on business, after he got engaged in a loud, though friendly, > discussion with two other passengers in a security line. During the > course of the debate, he shouted that "George Bush is as dumb as a > rock," an unfortunate comment that provoked the Raleigh-Durham > Airport security staff to call the local Secret Service bureau, which > sent out two agents to interrogate Stuber. > > "They took me into a room and questioned me all about my politics," > Stuber recalls. "They were very up on Green Party politics, too." > They fingerprinted him and took a digital eye scan. Particularly > ominous, he says, was a loose-leaf binder held by the Secret Service > agents. "It was open, and while they were questioning me, I > discreetly looked at it," he says. "It had a long list of > organizations, and I was able to recognize the Green Party, > Greenpeace, EarthFirst and Amnesty International." Stuber was > eventually released, but because he missed his flight, he had to pay > almost $2,000 for a full-fare ticket to Hamburg so that he did not > miss his business engagement. > > A Secret Service agent at the agency's Washington headquarters > confirmed that his agency had been called in to question > Stuber. "We're not normally a part of the airport security > operation," Agent Mark Connelly told Salon. "That's the FBI's job. > But when one of our protection subjects gets threatened, we check it > out." Asked about the list of organizations observed by Stuber, the > Secret Service source speculated that those organizations might be on > a list of organizations that the service, which is assigned the task > of protecting the president, might need to monitor as part of its > security responsibility. > > Additional evidence suggests that Olshansky, Stuber and other left- > leaning activists are also seen as a threat to aviation, though > perhaps of a different grade. A top official for the Eagle Forum, an > old-line conservative group led by anti-feminist icon Phyllis > Schlafly, said several of the group's members have been delayed at > security checkpoints for so long that they missed their flights. > According to Pax Christi, a Catholic peace organization, an American > member of the Falun Gong Chinese religious group was barred from > getting back on a plane that had stopped in Iceland, reportedly based > on information supplied to Icelandic customs by U.S. authorities. The > person was reportedly permitted to fly onward on a later flight. > > Hussein Ibish, communications director of the American Arab Anti- > Discrimination Committee, says his group has documented over 80 > cases -- involving 200 people -- in which fliers with Arabic names > have been delayed at the airport, or barred altogether from flying. > Some, he says, appear to involve people who have no political > involvement at all, and he speculated that they suffered the > misfortune of having the same name as someone "on the list" for > legitimate security reasons. > > Until Steigman's confirmation of the no-fly list, the government had > never admitted its existence. While FBI spokesman Paul Bresson > confirmed existence of the list, officials at the CIA and U.S. > Immigration and Naturalization Service declined to comment and > referred inquiries back to the TSA. Details of how it was assembled > and how it is being used by the government, airports and airlines are > largely kept secret. > > A security officer at United Airlines, speaking on condition of > anonymity, confirmed that the airlines receive no-fly lists from the > Transportation Security Administration but declined further comment, > saying it was a security matter. A USAir spokeswoman, however, > declined to comment, saying that the airline's security relationship > with the federal transit agency was a security matter and that > discussing it could "jeopardize passenger safety." > > Steigman declined to say who was on the no-fly list, but he conceded > that people like Lawinger, Stuber, Gordon, Adams and Olshansky were > not "threats to aviation," because they were being allowed to fly > after being interrogated and searched. But then, in a Byzantine > twist, he raised the possibility that the security agency might have > more than one list. "I checked with our security people," he > said, "and they said there is no [second] list," he said. "Of course, > that could mean one of two things: Either there is no second list, or > there is a list and they're not going to talk about it for security > reasons." > > In fact, most of those who have been stopped from boarding flights > (like Lawinger, Stuber, Gordon and Adams) were able to fly later. > Obviously, if the TSA thought someone was a genuine "threat to > aviation" -- like those on the 1,000-name no-fly list, they would > simply be barred from flying. So does the agency have more than one > list perhaps -- one for people who are totally barred from flying and > another for people who are simply harassed and delayed? > > Asked why the TSA would be barring a 74-year-old nun from flying, > Steigman said: "I don't know. You could get on the list if you were > arrested for a federal felony." > > Sister Lawinger says she was arrested only once, back in the 1980s, > for sitting down and refusing to leave the district office of a local > congressman. And even then, she says, she was never officially > charged or fined. But another person who was in the Peace Action > delegation that day, Judith Williams, says she was arrested and spent > three days in jail for a protest at the White House back in 1991. In > that protest, Williams and other Catholic peace activists had scaled > the White House perimeter fence and scattered baby dolls around the > lawn to protest the bombing of Iraq. She says that the charge from > that incident was a misdemeanor, an infraction that would not seem > enough to establish her as a threat to aviation. > > Inevitably, such questions about how one gets on a federal transit > list creates questions about how to get off it. It is a classic -- > and unnerving -- Catch-22: Because the Transportation Security > Administration says it compiles the list from names provided by other > agencies, it has no procedure for correcting a problem. Aggrieved > parties would have to go to the agency that first reported their > names, but for security reasons, the TSA won't disclose which agency > put someone on the list. > > Bresson, the FBI spokesperson, would not explain the criteria for > classifying someone as a threat to aviation, but suggests that fliers > who believe they're on the list improperly should "report to airport > security and they should be able to contact the TSA or us and get it > cleared up." He concedes that might mean missed flights or other > inconveniences. His explanation: "Airline security has gotten very > complicated." > > Many critics of the security agency's methods accept the need for > heightened air security, but remain troubled by the more Kafka-esque > traits of the system. Waters, at the Eagle Forum, worries that the > government has offered no explanation for how a "threat to aviation" > is determined. "Maybe the people being stopped are already being > profiled," she says. "If they're profiling people, what kind of > things are they looking for? Whether you fit in in your > neighborhood?" > > "I agree that the government should be keeping known 'threats to > aviation' off of planes," Ibish says. "I certainly don't want those > people on my plane! But there has to be a procedure for appealing > this, and there isn't. There are no safeguards and there is no > recourse." > > Meanwhile, nobody in the federal government has explained why so many > law-abiding but mostly left-leaning political activists and antiwar > activists are being harassed at check-in time at airports. "This all > raises serious concerns about whether the government has made a > decision to target Americans based on their political beliefs," says > Katie Corrigan, an ACLU official. The ACLU has set up a No Fly List > Complaint Form on its Web site. > > One particular concern about the government's threat to aviation list > and any other possible lists of people to be subjected to extra > security investigation at airports is that names are being made > available to private companies -- the airlines and airport > authorities -- charged with alerting security personnel. Unlike most > other law-enforcement watch lists, these lists are not being closely > held within the national security or law-enforcement files and > computers, but are apparently being widely dispersed. > > "It's bad enough when the federal government has lists like this with > no guidelines on how they're compiled or how to use them," says > Olshansky at the Center for Constitutional Rights. "But when these > lists are then given to the private sector, there are even less > controls over how they are used or misused." Noting that airlines > have "a free hand" to decide whether someone can board a plane or > not, she says the result is a "tremendous chilling of the First > Amendment right to travel and speak freely." > > But Olshansky, alarmed by her own experience and the number of others > reporting apparent political harassment, is fighting back. She says > now that the government has confirmed the existence of a blacklist, > her center is planning a First Amendment lawsuit against the federal > government. CCR has already signed up Lawinger, Stuber, and several > others from Milwaukee's Peace Action group. >
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