Does TSA fear diaper bombers?

An 18 month old little girl Ryanna the daughter of Middle Eastern descent Americans from New Jersey was prevented from boarding a flight from Florida. TSA agents boarded the plane just as it was about to depart. The parents who wished to remain anonymous called the whole incident absurd.

An airline employee approached the mother and told her that TSA agents were waiting to speak with the family back at the terminal. The mother asked why and the employee said: 'Well, it's not you or your husband. Your daughter was flagged as no fly.’”

The couple think that the TSA actually wanted to question them. Riyannas father said:"It's absurd," "It made no sense. Why would an 18-month-old child be on a no-fly list?" The wife wears a hijab.

The couple were humiliated and embarrassed when after the questioning they were cleared for boarding and went back to be seated in the plane that had been delayed for half an hour.

The TSA said it was a mistake by the airline that identified the little girl as on the no fly list. However, the airline said it was an issue for the TSA. It is not that uncommon for people to be interrogated because they have the same name as someone on the no fly list. No doubt this is what may have happened. However, one would think common sense would tell employees there had been some error given the age of the daughter. But maybe they fear diaper bombers. For more see this article,

More than 900,000 on U.S. terror list.

Wow! Surely this creates a niche market and leaves room for an operator to fly terror suspects. Perhaps those flights that the CIA used for rendition could now be resumed as for profit flights to help recoup some of the U.S. taxpayers money that was spent on costly rendition flights of terror susspects to foreign torture sites.

http://rawstory.com/news/2008/ACLU_calls_out_US_over_absurd_0227.html
ACLU calls out US over 'absurd bloating' of terror watch list

Nick Juliano
The Raw Story

More that 900,000 people are currently listed as suspected terrorists
on the
US government's "do not fly" list, and that number will grow to beyond
1
million by summer, says the American Civil Liberties Union.

"If there were a million terrorists in this country, our cities would
be in
ruins," Barry Steinhardt, director of the ACLU's Technology and Liberty
Program, stated in a press release from the group. "The absurd bloating
of
the terrorist watch lists is yet another example of how incompetence by
our
security apparatus threatens our rights without offering any real
security."

The ACLU has launched a new Web site to track the growth of the watch
list,
which it says includes thousands of innocent Americans, including
prominent
politicians and authors as well as people with common names.

CONTINUES:
http://rawstory.com/news/2008/ACLU_calls_out_US_over_absurd_0227.html
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