Federal Government Removes 7 Americans From No-Fly List

An anonymous reader writes: In response to a district judge ruling that declared the Department of Homeland Security's Traveler Redress Inquiry Program unconstitutional, the federal government has annouced its removal of seven Americans from its no-fly list (PDF). The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) is representing a total of 13 people suing to get off that list, and the government has until January of this year to deal with remaining six in that group. "Federal agencies have nominated more than 1.5 million names to terrorist watch lists over the past five years alone. Yet being a terrorist isn't a condition of getting on a roster that, until now, has been virtually impossible to be removed from..." One of the seven removed from the list is Marine Corps veteran and dog trainer Ibraheim Mashal of Illinois. The others had similarly Middle-Eastern-sounding names.

Comments

"Until now"?

[Anonymous Coward]

1.5 million names on, 7 names off...

Which of those two statistics says that it's no longer "virtually impossible" to get off the list?

Re:"Until now"?

[Mitreya]

Are there other lawsuits pending? Is there something of a 'proper channels' method to appealing, and how many cases have been submitted to that?

I am quite sure there isn't such channel
I think the ones suing have some accidental way of proving that they are, in fact, on the no-fly list. I don't believe there is a channel to confirm if you are on the no-fly list. Very Kafkaesque indeed.

That whole list

[DaMattster]

Just needs to go the fuck away! The Patriot Act is mostly a failure and we're no safer and have significantly less liberties. Another tragic knee-jerk reaction by government results in an abysmal travesty of justice.

I have never understood this

[PapayaSF]

What exactly is the point of this odd half-assed sort of category, a "no-fly list"? If the federal government suspects a citizen or resident might be a terrorist, OK, then get a friggin' warrant and bug their phone and search their house and get some real evidence. Since terrorists can do a lot more than hijack airplanes, what's the message here? "We want to prevent you from hijacking an airliner, but a bus is OK?" Either treat them like a suspected terrorist, or just stop hassling them.