Ladies and gentlemen, your War on Terror: The Transportation Security Administration, under scrutiny after last month’s bombing attempt, has on its Web site a “mythbuster” that tries to reassure the public. Myth: The No-Fly list includes an 8-year-old boy. Buster: No 8-year-old is on a T.S.A. watch list. “Meet Mikey Hicks,” said Najlah Feanny Hicks, introducing her 8-year-old son, a New Jersey Cub Scout and frequent traveler who has seldom boarded a plane without a hassle because he shares the name of a suspicious person. “It’s not a myth.” Michael Winston Hicks’s mother initially sensed trouble when he was a baby and she could not get a seat for him on their flight to Florida at an airport kiosk; airline officials explained that his name “was on the list,” she recalled. The first time he was patted down, at Newark Liberty International Airport, Mikey was 2. He cried. After years of long delays and waits for supervisors at every airport ticket counter, this year’s vacation to the Bahamas badly shook up the family. Mikey was frisked on the way there, then more aggressively on the way home. “Up your arms, down your arms, up your crotch — someone is patting your 8-year-old down like he’s a criminal,” Mrs. Hicks recounted. “A terrorist can blow his underwear up and they don’t catch him. But my 8-year-old can’t walk through security without being frisked.” It is true that Mikey is not on the federal government’s “no-fly” list, which includes about 2,500 people, less than 10 percent of them from the United States. But his name appears to be among some 13,500 on the larger “selectee” list, which sets off a high level of security screening. (Alvarez) Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image! Security threat: "Hi, my name is Michael, and I'm a suspected terrorist." (Photo credit: Fred R. Conrad/New York Times) I think the biggest peeve I have about the War on Terror is that we lost it a long time ago. Really, this kid was first frisked at age two. If this isn't a sign that we, the People, are terrorized, I'm not sure what is. It would appear that the terrorists have won. Many thanks to my American neighbors for their stalwart efforts to make that true. ____________________ Notes: Alvarez, Lizette. "Meet Mikey, 8: U.S. Has Him on Watch List". The New York Times. January 14, 2010; page A1. NYTimes.com. January 14, 2010. http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/14/nyregion/14watchlist.html
Others don't think so. And one error on a watch list of some kind is hardly evidence of anything ...good or bad. You're stretching, Tiassa, to try to make some point ....but you've failed, even with all the wordiness and the footnote garbage! Baron Max
You know how every once in a while we meet a person who knows how to press the buttons of another person? Well the terrorists have got the reaction and results they wanted because with Bush as the President and Republicans in power at the time, he was the prime person to get suckered into it.
So what are you suggesting that we do about terrorism? Can't simply ignore it, can we? Or is that what you're suggesting - that when the FBI or someone hears of some plot, they just ignore it until the explosion is done? ...then go in and pick up the bloody pieces? What do you suggest we do? Baron Max
To which post or which comment are you referring? I mean, I agree with your statement, but it just comes in out of the blue and seems a bit .....odd. Baron Max
These lists are on computers, right? Why can't they include a bit of demographic information regarding the actual person they're concerned about. It could be something as simple as: John HIcks 34 year old Black Male Fred Thompson 24 year old Asian male Joe Vasselo 50 year old white male Then, when a two year old shows up with the same name, they can just let him pass thru.
And what do you suggest, Spider? And, no, I'm not talking about the little kid. That was just a simple mistake and a little foolishness ....which comes with having humans involved. What do you suggest that we do to stop bombers like the "Crotch Bomber", and such terrorists? Baron Max
So we're making this thread about this one little kid and this one human error in judgement? Or is it about the greater part of the issue ....stopping terrorists? And what's funny, sad, not humorous, is that the next thing the terrorists might try is to strap some explosives to a real little kid, then set it off once they're in the air. So now, with that little scenario, how much of an error is it to search a little kid? Baron Max
If they did that I doubt they'd use a kid who happened to have the same name as someone on the watch list.
We lost because ignorant people fought it as a war of bombs and bullets rather than the war of ideas it truly is.
I would think it would be fairly obvious Properly speaking, "it" refers to the War on Terror in that sentence. Or to express it simply: We, the People of the United States of America, have lost the war on terror. The enemy has created tremendous fear, to the point that our responses are overstated (a war in Iraq?), comparable to the enemy (enhanced interrogation), and illogical (yes, a two-year old did something to get on the watch list) at the very least. "They hate us," explained President Bush, "for our freedom." So we turned around and started ravaging that freedom. We gave them exactly what they wanted, at least according to Bush's outlook. For those more inclined to rational thought, however, the people are frightened. All those security measures, and what have we to rely on to prevent attacks? Incompetent terrorists and airline passengers who now understand what to do when someone pisses them off by trying to kill them. We are hideously terrified, as a people, and yet the enemy isn't all that good at what they're doing. A terrorist could shut down Sea-Tac airport without ever passing through the security check. And he could kill a lot of people in the process. Why are they waiting until they get on the plane? Why hit the airports, anyway, when there are plenty of exposed targets embodying American immorality? When the terrorists get smart enough to hit the targets that are there for the hitting, then I'll think about whether it's time to actually worry about them. In the meantime, the biggest threats to liberty and stability in the United States of America are my fellow Americans and the officials we elect to govern us. When it gets to the point that we're doing the terrorists' jobs for them? Yeah, we've lost the fucking war. • • • General Note: If you're at TSA, what prevents you from asking two simple questions? For instance, a two year-old comes to the gate, and the computer flashes that his name is on a watch list. Two simple questions: • What did this kid do to piss off TSA? • And when? If that simple process is somehow out of bounds, or if additional and useful data such as Madanthonywayne suggested is unavailable, what the hell is TSA actually doing, other than freaking people out and creating a huge knot of people with a big terrorist's bull's-eyes on their backs?
They are following names on a list. It's prudent to do so. It's just unfortunate that this young man shares his name with a suspicious person.
well than damn it put up an indication. some of us(ok me) have a hard enough problem picking it up with oudio and visual clues let alone picking it up through solely the written word.