Air Force NCO joins legal challenge to ‘no fly’

[Hoss68]

April 07, 2004
By Jim Cour
Associated Press



Air Force Master Sgt. Michelle Green, based at Eielson Air Force Base, Alaska, is among those involved in the American Civil Liberties Union's challenge to the list of travelers that the government has barred from flying by placing their names on a “no fly” list because they're considered a threat. — Ted S. Warren / AP

SEATTLE — Air Force Master Sgt. Michelle Green quit flying commercial planes with her children this year. That’s because Green, 36, a single parent, believes she has been singled out by the Transportation Security Administration for extra scrutiny by airport workers.
It’s too hard to watch her two adopted toddlers, 2 and 3, while she tries to clear security before a flight, she said.

“I have to get there a couple of hours early,” Green told a news conference Tuesday at the American Civil Liberties Union office here. “You just don’t know what’s going to happen.

“It might be 45 minutes or it could be two hours,” she said. “I’m not allowed to take care of my kids or their needs. So I can’t travel with them.”

Green, based at Eielson Air Force Base, Alaska, is one of the plaintiffs in a lawsuit filed Tuesday by the ACLU in federal court in Seattle. The lawsuit challenges the government’s “no-fly” list of suspected terrorists who may not board commercial flights and its “selectee” list of travelers singled out for extra security because they’re considered a potential threat.

A 16-year Air Force veteran, Green doesn’t have any idea how she might have gotten on the list. Since early in January, she has been unable to board flights without significant delays.

“I’ve been humiliated and embarrassed in front of my supervisors and fellow passengers,” Green said. “One of the most frustrating parts if that every time I change planes, I must undergo the same security measures.

“I’m frustrated and I’m tired. I’m looking for a way to change the process and clear my name. You just don’t know what put you on that list.”

Green said she went to the ACLU as a last-ditch attempt to get her name taken off the list after failing in repeated attempts with the TSA.

Other plaintiffs who appeared at the news conference here were Mohamed Ibrahim, 51, a coordinator for the American Friends Service Committee in Philadelphia who immigrated to the United States from Sudan, and Sarosh Syed, 26, a special projects coordinator at the ACLU of Washington in Seattle who immigrated to the U.S. from Pakistan. Both are U.S. citizens.

“I am an anti-terrorist person,” Ibrahim said. “This is a funny thing. I don’t know how it happened.”

Syed said the country has changed since Sept. 11, 2001.

“This is definitely not the America that I immigrated to,” he said.

Aaron Caplan of the ACLU’s state chapter said thousands of innocent Americans were being stopped at the nation’s airports because of the lists.

“Imagine how this would feel if it was happening to you,” he said. “This ‘no fly’ list is not making us safe. We still don’t know how a person gets on the list. We still don’t know how a person gets off the list.”

[JohnRN]

And people wonder why I have a problem with airport security :p

Airport security is a joke. When I first came to the US two years back, I was strip searched six times (had three flights, so was searched after boarding and after alighting). The after alighting part made no sense. If I was safe on the plane and the plane had landed safely, how was I still considered a threat?

Each time, I was told that the checks were completely random and selected by computer. Two things :

1. How stupid do you think I am? Since when have security checks been simply 'random' instead of being based on percieved threat?
2. How stupid do you think I am? 6 times in less than 24 hours? How 'random' is that?

The highlight of the whole deal? I came home and from my backpack emerged a full can of lighter fluid, a prohibited substance (which I came to know about later). Now, if this is the result after being searched SIX times, of a potentially high risk suspect (I was 18, on a single ticket and looked middle-eastern in appearance); frankly I don't see how effective airport security is.

[Hoss68]

I am sorry you had to be put through that honey...

We went to Vegas 2 years ago. All of us prior military. 2 Marines and 2 Army. We all got searched several times going in, on and off, all because of the way we looked and carried ourselves. The 2 men had military reg haircuts, and we were with them...

[cb88]

I've not been searched like that, but several times carried text books through so I could study on the plain, and I want to warn y'all, they search your bags if those go through the xray machine. They "say" they look like C-4. Ok, now, if I was a terrorist, do I look THAT stupid that I'd just carry a brick of C-4 right through on my carry on?????