Shortly after the Sept. 11th terrorist attacks in 2001 the U.S. government created the Transportation Security Administration (TSA). Its stated mission is to "protect(s) the Nation's transportation systems to ensure freedom of movement for people and commerce." However, it soon became a controversial organization for doing the exact opposite: preventing ordinary American citizens from free movement via air within the U.S. and abroad.
Yet, most of the people who were prevented from traveling and came forward to tell their stories did have one thing in common that made them stand out from your average Joe traveler; they were all members of political organizations on the left who were actively denouncing U.S. policies at home and abroad.
After repeatedly denying the existence of a "no-fly list," the TSA finally admitted that they had assembled a list of approximately 1,000 people who are deemed "threats to aviation," and are therefore never to be allowed to fly on an airplane. Apparently, the TSA has no official procedures for who is placed on the list, but instead relies upon names given to them by a range of other federal agencies. Even more worrisome, there are also no official procedures in place for removing one's name from the no-fly list.
The example that should hit home most strongly for us regards the case of Doug Stuber, a Hillsborough, N.C., resident. Stuber is an artist by profession, but is also well known here for having organized the Green Party's Ralph Nader's presidential campaign in North Carolina in 2000. Stuber was prevented from flying out of our very own Raleigh-Durham Airport, where he was trying to catch a flight to Europe in order to collect a number of artists for a Henry James collection in Raleigh. With his ticket in hand, Stuber was told he would not be allowed to fly that day. When he asked why, he was told it was because of a conversation (clearly monitored) he had with two other gentlemen in which he stated, "Bush is as dumb as a rock."
Flabbergasted, Stuber still complied and went home. The next day he returned again at 6am for an 11:45am flight, and was forced to purchase a same-day ticket for $2,600 (up from his original $670 fair). One hour before departure, Stuber was approached by the same police officer who had escorted him out of the airport the previous day, and asked to step aside. After one hour of questioning with this officer, Stuber was introduced to two secret service agents who proceeded to grill him on the politics and positions of the Green Party. When Stuber asked if they really believed the Green Party to be equivalent to al Qaeda in its threat to national security he was shown a Justice Department list of numerous American political organizations deemed as likely terrorist threats that included the Greens, Amnesty International, Earth First! and Greenpeace.
At the end of the conversation, Stuber was taken back to the Delta counter to receive a new boarding pass. But upon boarding for this last flight, he was again pulled out of line by the same police officer and told he couldn't fly out of RDU. Instead, he was encouraged to try Greensboro airport, where no one would know him. Stuber proceeded to try and depart via Greensboro and Charlotte, but was told at both places that he was not permitted to fly domestically or internationally. He was grounded.
In Stuber's case, it seems he has gained his own spot on the no-fly list. But other political activists have been singled out and excessively harassed or prevented from flying only temporarily, implying the existence of another TSA list of potential dangers to aviation, that is not specifically a no-fly list. Those in this category include Barbara Olshansky, assistant legal director for the Center for Constitutional Rights in New York. Three times she was forced to pull down her pants in full view of other passengers. Once, when she questioned them as to why she was repeatedly being singled out, the response from the airline agent was "The computer spit you out."
Others in this category include a 74-year-old nun and member of Peace Action, Virgine Lawinger. Lawinger was on her way, along with around 20 other activists, from Milwaukee to Washington to lobby the Wisconsin members of congress against military aid to Colombia. At the airport the ticketing agents along with the local sheriff's deputies told her that at least one of them was on a list and that the TSA had asked that they be kept off their plane. Lawinger filed a Freedom of Information request with the TSA demanding to know if they had files on her. The TSA did admit to having a file on her, but a month later refused to release any of it except for a local newspaper clipping on file about her experience at the Milwaukee airport.
There are many more accounts of people being targeted at airports for their political views. The ACLU is currently documenting these cases as people become more willing to come forward with their stories. While it seems logical that a department like TSA would have a list of actual terror suspects who would be prevented from flying, the above cases along with others are causing citizens to raise their eyebrows. Unlike popular opinion, it is in times such as these that citizens should be most interrogative of their government, demanding strict adherence to the Constitution. Additionally, an increased public awareness is needed on how governments throughout history--both American and foreign--have attempted to take advantage of widespread fear to use the jargon of national security in order to silence political dissent.
Yousuf Al-Bulushi is a Trinity senior. His column appears every other Tuesday.
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