[Peace-discuss] Another scary story "And then they came for us…"

[Morton K. Brussel]

Author of Bush's Brain Put On No-Fly list
by Maccabee
Thu Jan 05, 2006 at 06:51:58 AM PDT

> From his bio at Huffington Post.
>

James Moore is an Emmy-winning former television news correspondent  
and the co-author of the bestselling, Bush's Brain: How Karl Rove  
Made George W. Bush Presidential. He has been writing and reporting  
from Texas for the past 25 years on the rise of Rove and Bush and has  
traveled extensively on every presidential campaign since 1976.

This author was placed on the no fly list. Two points: there's  
nothing you or I  can do to help him but make this public, and two-  
we are all targets here. Excerpt, Link and horror story on the flip.

   a.. Maccabee's diary :: ::
   b..


   I made it a point to arrive very early at the airport. My  
reservation was confirmed before I left home. I went to the  
electronic kiosk and punched in my confirmation number to print out  
my boarding pass and luggage tags. Another error message appeared,  
"Please see agent."

   I did. She took my Texas driver's license and punched in the  
relevant information to her computer system.

   "I'm sorry, sir," she said. "There seems to be a problem. You've  
been placed on the No Fly Watch List."

   "Excuse me?"

   "I'm afraid there isn't much more that I can tell you," she  
explained. "It's just the list that's maintained by TSA to check for  
people who might have terrorist connections."

   "You're serious?"

   "I'm afraid so, sir. Here's an 800 number in Washington. You need  
to call them before I can clear you for the flight."

   Exasperated, I dialed the number from my cell, determined to clear  
up what I was sure was a clerical error. The woman who answered  
offered me no more information than the ticket agent.

   "Mam, I'd like to know how I got on the No Fly Watch List."

   "I'm not really authorized to tell you that, sir," she explained  
after taking down my social security and Texas driver's license numbers.

   "What can you tell me?"

   "All I can tell you is that there is something in your background  
that in some way is similar to someone they are looking for."

   "Well, let me get this straight then," I said. "Our government is  
looking for a guy who may have a mundane Anglo name, who pays tens of  
thousands of dollars every year in taxes, has never been arrested or  
even late on a credit card payment, is more uninteresting than a  
Tupperware party, and cries after the first two notes of the national  
anthem? We need to find this guy. He sounds dangerous to me."

   "I'm sorry, sir, I've already told you everything I can."

   "Oh, wait," I said. "One last thing: this guy they are looking  
for? Did he write books critical of the Bush administration, too?"

   I have been on the No Fly Watch List for a year. I will never be  
told the official reason. No one ever is. You cannot sue to get the  
information. Nothing I have done has moved me any closer to getting  
off the list. There were 35,000 Americans in that database last year.  
According to a European government that screens hundreds of thousands  
of American travelers every year, the list they have been given to  
work from has since grown to 80,000.


Link here This should make you scared and pissed at the same time. If  
it doesn't, check your pulse.