[R-G] US government has a list

[Nicholas Morcinek]

DAVE LINDORFF, SALON  - 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 [some] 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.

http://www.salon.com/news/feature/2002/11/15/no_fly/print.html