Faces of the ‘No Fly’ list

Brock N. Meeks Chief Washington correspondent • Profile • E-mail

WASHINGTON - They have served in our wars, they enforce and adjudicate our laws, they hold top secret security clearances and their entrepreneurial spirit helps energize the economy.  Leading lives of ordinary distinction they have little in common, save this: when they fly they are pulled into a demeaning orbit of “suspect until proven innocent” because their names are on a government terrorist watch list.

Every day thousands of airline passengers are wrongly identified as being on the Transportation Security Administration list of known or potential threats to commercial aviation.  Actually, there are two lists.  One is the hardcore "No Fly" list. A traveler identified on that list will not be permitted on a commercial airliner. The other list is called the "Selectee list,” which allows travel but only after full vetting of personal history.

The hardcore list contains name of people who are known terrorists or have solid ties to terrorism.  Persons may land on the "Selectee list" for a variety of reasons, including prior dangerous behavior, such as trying to pass a gun through a security checkpoint or because information linking them to terrorism isn’t solid enough to place on them the "No Fly" list.

Such nuance is cold comfort for the thousands of persons each day that become ensnared in this hassle of having to prove their innocence just to hop a flight.  MSNBC.com recently heard from dozens of those whose names are on the watch list.  Some of them agreed to tell us their stories. 

Balancing hassle and privacy
Richard Gilbert, 57, knows more than most about weighing options, about how to balance possibility with probability.  Gilbert is a juvenile-domestic relations master for the third judicial circuit in Maryland, where he adjudicates cases like a judge. 

Courtesy Richard Gilbert Richard Gilbert

Gilbert said he found out he was on a TSA watch list earlier this year when he ordered tickets online and subsequently wasn’t allowed to get a boarding pass at an airport kiosk for his wife or himself.  An airline ticket agent who came to help him told him his name was on the TSA watch list, though he wasn’t told how he managed to get on the list.

As a rule, the TSA does not release the names of those on its watch lists.

Although he has flown after 9/11, including a trip out of the country, the problem only showed up this year.

He was told by the airline that he could contact the TSA and apply for clearance.  But that process only served to make him more skittish. 

“Have you ever seen how much information the TSA wants?” Gilbert asked.  “They want you give them all of your identity.  And there’s a place to sign indicating that the information provided is being ‘voluntarily given’ which isn’t quite true because you have to submit it if you want to get off the list.”

The overarching concern for Gilbert is the TSA's ability to handle and safeguard the information under its control.  Given recent high profile incidents involving the agency's questionable handling of personal data, Gilbert said he has second thoughts about turning over his personal data in exchange for the possibility of removing himself from the watch list.

He says he’ll continue to fly and just endure the hassle rather than send any information to the TSA.  “I’ll just continue to bring enough identification with me to the airport to prove who I am,” he said.  After all, “I have no idea who’s opening the mail at TSA.”

And so he has chosen to stay on the list, it’s a balance he says.  “I think it’s a fair trade to protect my privacy."

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