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TSA keeps us safe from 7-year-old terrorist suspect

July 26, 2007

The Transportation Security Administration has done it again. Earlier this summer it prevented a dangerous sippy cup from being carried on board a plane in Washington. This week, it stopped a 7-year-old Florida boy from boarding his flight because he’s on the no-fly list. It was his third attempt to get on a plane.

Have a look at young Michael Martin of Coral Springs, Fla. Does this look like a terrorist?

“He thought he did something wrong,” the boy’s mother, Krista Martin, told the South Florida Sun-Sentinel.

In fact, the TSA did something wrong. Very wrong.

The government requires that airlines exempt kids from the no-fly list when they ticket passengers. But an AirTran spokeswoman said the only way an airline can clear children is to see them first. That’s why Martin has been stopped again and again — the airline has to “see” him before it knows he’s not the terrorist Michael Martin.

Now, it doesn’t take a lot of common sense to know that this is nuts. We know that the no-fly list is bloated and inaccurate … but kids, for goodness sake! That should be a no-brainer.

The TSA has a new program called Traveler Redress Inquiry — or TRIP — that could help the Martins and any other kids who are unfortunate enough to be tagged as terrorists.

But I’ve been covering the TSA since its inception, and I’m not sure one program can solve this problem. It’s been tried before. The trouble isn’t with passengers interfacing with the government — it’s the no-fly list that’s in desperate need of a good editor.

Christopher Elliott is the author of Scammed: How to Save Your Money and Find Better Service in a World of Schemes, Swindles, and Shady Deals. Critics have called it “eye-opening” and “inspiring” — it’ll “grab your attention and won’t let go.” Order your copy now on Amazon, Barnes & Noble or iTunes.

8 comments

  • Rette

    Of course they should stop that 7 year old. Doesn’t he look just like the kids in the news that have bombs strapped to them? Who knows, maybe there’s a cell in a Coral Gables grade school.

    Another thing they should do is install mens and women’s locker rooms. We could walk in, completely strip, be handed a TSA robe, be required to use our shampoo, toothpaste, etc to prove what it is, have them paw through our clothes in the dirty bins, with their filthy gloves… So, we could then worry more about the germs and viruses passed to us, and less about the terrorists. By golly, I think that’s a solution.

  • stephen reed

    This story is very misleading. The young man was not prevented in boarding. The name was on the watch list but once the ticket agent actually saw him he was allowed to continue his flight. The only thing that was a problem was that he was not allowed to use a kiosk. The Sunsentinal in Fort Lauderdale also blew this way out of proportion.

  • Donna Williams

    My husband (or rather someone with his same, very common name) was on the no-fly list for awhile. He could not check in on-line or at a ticket kiosk, but had to go up to an agent, who then had to call the airline security (at times, a lengthy wait) who would ask his birth date and then clear him. I always wondered if it were that simple why they couldn’t just include the birthdate in the reservation somehow and eliminate all the hassle. But I suppose that would have been too simple (and sensible) He finally filled out a lot of paperwork and sent it to TSA and got off the list–no clue how that worked: did the guilty guy with the same name get taken off the list? Were the 10,000 or 100,000 people with same common name taken off the list? I can hardly believe that somhow the system could identify my husband alone and take him out of their system/list and leave the others (including the guilty one)on. Like so many things to do with our supposed airport security, it’s a mystery…

  • Robert Davis

    Elliott,
    The same thing has started happening to my 13 year old daughter. Sometime between Easter and the end of April her name made the watch list and so she could not check in online with Southwest. The first time the gate agent made some calls and gave her a pass. The second time the gate agent asked which of my 2 daughters was the 13 y.o. and when they pointer to the blond haired, blue eyed one he chuckled and printed the boarding pass without making any calls. It’s pretty ridiculous. Since she does not need ID we will probably have her fly under her middle name to avoid the problems.

    As a side note, I contacted a cousin who was Tom Ridge’s chief assistant when he was put in charge of Homeland Security. So she called the TSA to try and get some inside information was told there is little we can do other than file with TRIP and hope for the best.

    With such things happening on a regular basis I don’t feel more than marginally safer than I did before all this security was put in place.
    Bob Davis

  • Ann Harris

    Is there anyway to know if my name or any people traveling can find out if they or their children are on the no-fly list before they travel??

  • Craig Brown

    I really don’t understand why they bother having this no-fly list. I mean, if someone is considered so big a risk to security that they’re forbidden from flying then why aren’t they under arrest? Why are they banned from flying but conversely not prevented from boarding a train, without going through any security, with any size of suitcase that could potentially be filled with explosives?

  • Comman Man’s Omsbudsman

    The only way this is going to stop is for a very large percentage of people to write their Congressmen over and over, and over again. In addition, boycott air travel until this gross government buffoonery ends. Three months of a widespread boycott will bring the government to its senses, as the airlines all go on the verge of extinction. Vote with your wallets: Drive or take the bus or train and/or forgo your pleasure trips, and business people start using video teleconferencing and electronic white boards. Belive me, the travel and airline and aviation indutry will sit bolt upright and change these egregious practices so fast your heads will spin. The only thing the government and business will listen to is the all-mighty dollar. Yes, yes, yes, I am all for preventing terrorism and I am a red-blooded American Patriot! But, when we allow our government to dispose with our liberties, then the terrorists have won without firing another shot. Thomas Jefferson would view us citizen-sheep as cowards undeserving of our liberties.

  • Airline Employee

    @ common man-

    Yah and put airline employees like me living paycheck to paycheck out of a job. Great idea. Screw me over so you can enjoy hassle free travel. your beef is with the government, not airline industry, the watch list nonsense is forced on us.

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