I was on the TSA’s no-fly list up until six months back. Apparently "John Lynch" was a suspected terrorist - if so, he probably was in the Irish Republican Army in the 1980’s and thus receiving funding from a good number of patriotic Americans on the east coast during that time.
It meant I could not check-in online or for that matter using the computer terminals at the airport. Instead I had to get in line and wait while the attendant phoned some unknown entity who - often after ten minutes - decided that I was fit to fly the friendly skies. No doubt you all felt safer because of it.
There is paperwork that you can do to get your name taken off the list. You fill in an online form. You provide your social security card. And passport. And Green Card. And wait. And wait. You check the website. And find that they never received your materials, so somewhere out there in the postal system there apparently are copies of all the above documents, waiting for someone to give them a good home. By this time, of course, your application has expired and you have to go back to square one again. By that time, you just give in to the system and resign yourself to a life without online check-in, and wonder whether the starting safety for the Denver Broncos has similarly resigned himself to such a fate.
Until one day, in a fit of boredom, you try to check-in online and find you can. You wonder whether you had forgotten that the Department of "Homeland Security" had sent you a letter telling you that all was well and the skies were friendly again. But no - no such letter even appeared. Apparently the DHS believes we are all psychic.
Your government at work. Heck of a job.
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Ah, but now you have worse problems. Your name is a racial slur that could get you fired from the Golf Channel!
Funny thing is, I have an acquaintance who was in Provisional Sinn Féin and the H-block committee. She wasn't a terrorist, but you'd think she would warrant a close look. Needless to say, she's never had any bother getting into the US.
The security state works better when you don't know what is happening. Or at least, it works better for them. You don't count.
You'd think that they'd have other info besides a name to flag individuals, since lots of unrelated people share names. But I guess having a brain isn't a requirement in security, as evidenced by this news video: http://www.king5.com/video/featured-index.html?nvid=206446
On the January 13 edition of Le Show, Harry Shearer mentions the dodginess of the TSA's website devoted to helping those erroneously put on their watch list. You can hear what he has to say here. The segment starts about two minutes into the show.