It appears that the FBI and a murky new part of the Dept. of Transportation have gotten together to create "no-fly" lists to keep "suspicious" people from getting on flights. It would appear that the lists include such dangerous individuals as antiwar nuns and priests an other peace activists. If you are unlucky enough to be on the "no-fly" list, be prepared to be pulled aside when you attempt check your baggage, and then detained long enough that you miss whatever flight you were supposed to be on. And no one will be able to tell you why you were on the list, who put you there, or how to get off the list.
Of course no one seems to know how the list is generated or by whom, and no one will say how large the list is, or who is likely to be on it. From the experience of one group that tried to fly to Washington, D.C. from Milwaukee, it may simply be that you're on the list because you want to use your First Amendment rights to free speech and assembly. If, that is, your opinions differ from those of the government.
If such lists are used, and you get detained for no reason that the government will give, it is almost certainly a civil rights issue. The 4th Amendment is supposed to protect us from unreasonable search and seizure of ourselves and our property, and it would certainly seem that if you don't have a criminal record, don't belong to a terrorist or other criminal organization, that there must be some reason beyond being on a list compiled by a faceless bureaucrat to detain you.
I used to believe that this sort of thing was in the past for the United States, sadly, the scales have been lifted from my eyes. I guess it's fitting that I chose "Paul" as my Confirmation name....
http://www.progressive.org/webex/wxmc042702.html
Posted by Chris at May 2, 2002 10:58 PM