The International Herald Tribune (the global edition of the New York Times) reported yesterday that an 8 year old kid named Mickey Hicks is on the “No Fly” list and has been so almost since his birth, roughly a month before the 9/11 incident.
This is a prime example of the stupidity that continues to cause Americans to lose faith in the ability of government agencies.
I don’t mean that this kid with the same name as some supposed terrorist is on the list. Names are common, that shouldn’t be a problem – look at the name, the birthdate, figure that someone made a mistake and send the kid on through security.
I mean that after 9 years of being on notice of the need to use a little common sense, nobody’s thought to cross-reference the list to birthdates, photographs, social security or passport numbers.
The nonsensical nature of TSA’s reasoning is heightened by the fact that Mickey is a “Jr.” – his dad, Michael Hicks, has exactly the same name, but he passes through security without much of a problem. The Times reports that lots of people who’ve found they are on the “no fly” list end up using different names, or misspelling their names, or doing something else that would make TSA totally oblivious to them.
All it takes to get past airport security if you’re a bad guy is to change the spelling on your name?? C’mon, where’s the reasoning there! Clark Kent had a better disguise than that to keep Superman from being recognized, and that didn't really fool anyone, did it? Thinking like this is how we got a guy with explosives in his underwear on a jet on Christmas Day.
TSA, of course, roundly denies that any children are on the “no fly” list.
Never mind that Mikey’s mom is an international photojournalist (who’s been denied the opportunity to photograph her 8 year old being patted down) or all the stamps on his passport that confirm that he exists and is subject to this nonsense.
Don’t get me started about the fact that TSA is going to tell me that I can’t photograph my own kid, especially when his civil liberties are being violated. That’s another piece altogether.
Nope. According to a TSA spokesperson who has the audacity to stand up and tell the New York Times in front of overwhelming evidence otherwise, “Didn’t happen. It’s all bein’ made up.”
This is the same agency that, in 2008, got sued over the fact that they made a woman in Texas remove her nipple rings while going through a metal detector.
The jewelry didn’t set it off. TSA didn’t offer to do screening privately that would have confirmed that there wasn’t a problem. Instead, they gave her a pair of pliers (apparently they weren’t easily removed), made her take them out and go through the metal again.
While they stood there and giggled.
In the ensuing firestorm, the agency issued a statement saying that they had reviewed the policy, and that changes needed to be made.
Duh! There’s a news flash. And yet, here we are 18 months later, the lawsuit presumably settled very quietly for significant amounts of taxpayer dollars, and the travelling public continues to confront foolishness from the TSA.
It’s a huge bureaucracy, with scores of employees. Anyone who’s ever worked in any large organization knows that there are some idiots there, but most of them are probably decent folks who are trying to do their job. The problem is, nobody has taken the time to write out common-sense rules and then to test those to see what works and what doesn’t.
Let me also point out, lest anyone think that I’m blaming President Obama for the most recent fiasco, that I do not think the issues rest with him at all. Lord knows, the man has enough on his plate without worrying about this kind of stupidity. You’d think that one of the underlings could step up to the plate and deal with some of this, or at least create a plan for approval. That would have been a fair assumption, although, now that it’s been proven otherwise the boss does have to get involved and fix it.
George W. had several years to try to do something, instead choosing to appoint his friends and the party loyals into these important jobs, rather than qualified individuals who might actually be able to get something done. We saw how well that worked.
Hell of a job, Brownie!
That is not to say that Obama hasn’t had some of his own staff members who ought to be slapped up side the head. For Janet Napolitano, head of Homeland Security to try to say, in any way, shape, or form, that the system worked, is beyond stupid. She may get by with a bit of scar tissue this time, but obscenely inane statements like that should not be tolerated again. They ought to be met with a phone call from the President’s assistant that says, “Mr. Obama saw you on television. Don’t bother to come in to clean out your desk, we’ll have your stuff boxed and send it to you.”
Blunders such as hers provide no credibility for the administration as a whole and makes them all look like bumbling fools.
She should have been up there expressing outrage over the fiasco of the system, immediately have called in those in the next tier down to have a “come to Jesus” meeting with them, and then left them to administer their departments accordingly. Obama should have then called in the directors of each of the agencies involved (Homeland Security, FBI, CIA, etc) advised them that they WILL find a solution with a very short time frame – say 60 days – and WILL devise a workable plan to get over their turf wars and begin cooperating, or people WILL start being terminated down the chain of command until someone gets a bit of common sense.
If that were to happen, someone would pick up on the problems and, if for no other reason than their own self interests, will see that they need to remain employed and working with other agencies regardless of their own personal feelings.
The American people have gotten what we deserved for not demanding more accountability from the Bush administration. Obama can’t be expected to fix everything at once, but it’s important to get on top of this kind of stuff now, to catch up for all the years of neglect.
We can only hope that Obama can get past the Republican obstructionists to insure that the political hacks are fired, qualified people are hired and a new plan is put into place to keep our country secure.
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