The TSA screws the pooch ... again

[unixronin]

The Boston Globe reports:

Cape Air pilot Robert Gray said he feels like he's living a nightmare.  Two months after he sued the federal government for refusing to let him take flight training courses so he could fly larger planes, he said yesterday, his situation has only worsened.

When Gray showed up for work a couple of weeks ago, he said Cape Air told him the government had placed him on its no-fly list, making it impossible for him to do his job.  Gray, a Belfast native and British citizen, said the government still won't tell him why it thinks he's a threat.

Gray has no criminal record and has never been involved in any way with terrorism, and there appears to be no reason why he would be placed on the No Fly list, unless....

Yesterday, Gray's lawyers, Paul Holtzman and Sarah Wunsch, accused the government of retaliating against Gray because of his lawsuit and urged a federal judge to order the government to take Gray's name off the no-fly list.  But, US District Judge Douglas P. Woodlock said he lacks jurisdiction over the matter, which must be decided by the US Court of Appeals for the First Circuit.

What, some petty bureaucrat abusing the power of his office for personal revenge?  Tell me with a straight face that's never happened.

He said he has invested $50,000 in flight training and has been flying small commuter planes for eight years, even ferrying US Representative William D. Delahunt and US Senator Edward M. Kennedy.

Oh, well, there you are then.  Transporting Ted Kennedy ... that explains EVERYTHING.  That's clearly a threat to national security.

But last fall the Transportation Security Administration rejected Gray's request to take flight training courses, saying its decision was based on ''derogatory information" that indicated he posted a threat to aviation or national security.

The agency denied an administrative appeal by Gray and refused to disclose what information it had, but it provided Gray's lawyers with a computer printout that indicated it was about a Robert Gray who is Hispanic.  The Cape Air pilot is white.

''If they can't get that right, then what else have they got wrong?" Gray said yesterday outside the federal courthouse in Boston.

And isn't that the $64,000 question?  But in this case, just as in so many others, it seems the simple fact that when the TSA (or insert any other government agency of your choice) makes an obvious mistake, that doesn't lead to any responsibility on the part of the TSA to fix it.  "What, we screwed up your life through a clerical error?  Tough luck.  NEXT!"

Just a quick Google search turns up at least six different non-historic Robert Grays on the first page.  One is a Stanford profeessor, one a bookseller, one an engineer, one a poet, one a watercolor artist.  There is a Robert Gray who maintains a website on geometric interests, one is a blogger, one a former director of First American Bank, one an author, one apparently a former CEO of St. John Knits International, at least one is apparently an attorney.... are ALL these Robert Grays now on the no-fly list?  It's hard to tell, because the Feds are refusing to even confirm whether or not he's on the list, citing "national security concerns."  I observe once again that the Federal Government has lost sight of the distinction between "security" and "raving paranoia."

TSA.  Where do you want to be prevented from going today?

Comments

[nephthys510.livejournal.com]

Belfast native

Enough said

He's a member of the IRA

[unixronin.livejournal.com]

A Hispanic Irishman? They can't have it both ways.

[nephthys510.livejournal.com]

The is the TSA we are talking about. Sure they can. They can fondle me because my underwire sets off the metal detectors.

I feel so much safer now than I did before. Really. I do.

[unixronin.livejournal.com]

And me without a metal detector. ;)

[cymrullewes.livejournal.com]

*whistles innocently as she glances downwards and wonders if a Geiger counter would pick up a heavy metal underwire*

[unixronin.livejournal.com]

If it would, you probably wouldn't want to be wearing it. ;)
I doubt one could produce a "hot" underwire with a sufficiently directed radiation pattern to be therapeutic ....

[technoshaman.livejournal.com]

It's enough to make a man turn terrorist.

(woops, was that my out loud voice?)

[nephthys510.livejournal.com]

They didn't mean that. They would never condone violence in any form. This poster knows that it's BAD BAD BAD and they would never ever question the powers that be.

Look! They are into penguins, just like all the neocons who are flocking (no pun intended) to see the fabulous penguin movie!

Nothing to worry about here, move along.

[technoshaman.livejournal.com]

Question authority? Hell, son, I question reality. Too bad this little meter says my blood pressure keeps going *up*... I think it's a conspiracy on the part of Big Pharma myself... */thinly-veiled-sarcasm*

[unixronin.livejournal.com]

Just FYI, our Nephthys is of the vive-la-difference gender. ;)

[unixronin.livejournal.com]

BTW, is it just me, or is Livejournal confused as regards the timestamps on these comments?

[freetrav.livejournal.com]

The worst part of this is that in spite of seeing shit like this time and again, nothing is changing - and the vast majority of the sheeple don't seem to give a damn (until it inconveniences THEM, PERSONALLY). Until the vast majority of the sheeple DO give a damn (no, I'm not taking mind-altering pharmaceuticals; did I say I _expected_ this to happen?), nothing WILL change, regardless of whether you elect red authoritarians or blue ones to Washington.

[olafthunderfoot.livejournal.com]

ah, but they're well served by the one eyed brainwashing machine, i mean television!