My name is T. Kennedy. I am a terrorist.

[BuyingThyme]

60 Minutes did a segment on the No Fly List last night.

They took shots at the Terrorist Screening Center (TSC), poking fun at their silly list of 44,000 names. There wasn’t much to the report – just another attempt at convincing Americans that CBS is still in the business of investigative journalism.

I got to thinking about T. Kennedy.

T. Kennedy has been on the No Fly List for some time now. Not Ted Kennedy, mind you, but T Kennedy. I got to wondering how a terror suspect comes to be known as T in the first place. Does he carry a Nevada driver’s license under the name T? Does his Saudi passport identify him as T? Does he look like Mr. T?

60 Minutes did not touch on the T question, but an ex-FBI guy explained:

I know in our particular case they basically did a massive data dump and said 'Ok anybody that’s got a nexus to terrorism, let’s make sure they get on the list.' ...And once that train left the station, or once that bullet went down range. There was no calling it back. And that is where we are.

So, maybe T isn’t a terrorist after all. Maybe his name, or initial, inadvertently got dumped with all the others. Maybe T has had the post-9/11 attention of the FBI, the CIA, or the NSA for completely benign reasons. Or maybe he got caught up in the “terrorist surveillance program” back when it was first implemented, in early 2001, immediately after Bush took office, long before we were attacked.

Yes. That might be it. They may have been keeping a file on T since long before 9/11 even went down, before the “terrorist surveillance program” was retroactively (re-)named the Terrorist Surveillance Program. Perhaps Cheney’s people mistakenly dumped the name, or the initial, of a guy who was being surveilled by the “program” long before the “program” even started focusing on “terrorists.” Maybe that’s the applicable “nexus.”

Maybe they’ve been keeping a file on T ever since his brother was murdered. Or maybe since his other brother was murdered. And once that train left the station, or once that bullet went down range, there was no calling it back. And that is where we are.

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2006/10/05/60minutes/main2066624.shtml
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A17073-2004Aug19.html
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=364&topic_id=446700

[Up2Late]

1. It's not that un-common, lot's of actors have names like that...

...like A. Whitney Brown. I can't think of any others right now, but a lot of very rich people use names like that too.

BTW, Ted Kennedy has been stopped at Airports over the last few years, several famous people have said that they have trouble too.

[Ken Burch]

2. And, of course there was B. Traven,

Who wrote "The Treasure of Sierra Madre".

[Bozita]

7. and H. L. Mencken who wrote about everything

http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/authors/h/h_l_mencken.html

A church is a place in which gentlemen who have never been to heaven brag about it to persons who will never get there.
H. L. Mencken

A cynic is a man who, when he smells flowers, looks around for a coffin.
H. L. Mencken

A good politician is quite as unthinkable as an honest burglar.
H. L. Mencken

A judge is a law student who marks his own examination papers.
H. L. Mencken

A man always remembers his first love with special tenderness, but after that he begins to bunch them.
H. L. Mencken

A man may be a fool and not know it, but not if he is married.
H. L. Mencken

more...

[BuyingThyme]

8. Not all actors and rich people are terrorists, but we might want to add

W.C. Fields to the list.

[mmonk]

3. The government has "no fly" lists and harassment lists.

Here's an example
http://www.alternet.org/story/14563/

(snip)

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.

(snip)

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 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."

(snip)

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 allraises 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.

[magellan]

5. If the Dems win, can we have a harrassment list too?

One to ensure all Repugs are placed on flights heading for the Netherlands....?

[mmonk]

6. I'm thinking Siberia, but as long as they leave.

[tkmorris]

4. And thus begins the story of 'K'

The whole thing is rather Kafka-esque, you must admit.

[BuyingThyme]

9. ..

Just days after Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge called Mr. Kennedy in early April to apologize and to promise that the problems would be resolved, another airline agent tried to stop Mr. Kennedy from boarding a plane yet again. The alias used by the suspected terrorist on the watch list was Edward Kennedy, said David Smith, a spokesman for the senator.

http://www.nytimes.com/2004/08/20/national/20flight.html?ex=1250654400&en=f0c8707234bed6fb&ei=5090&partner=rssuserland