There’s no doubt that getting on this list, as many innocent Americans have, is a major inconvenience:
Former Assistant Attorney General Jim Robinson would know: He’s one of them.
Robinson joined another mistaken-identity American and the American Civil Liberties Union on Monday to urge fixing the list that’s supposed to identify suspected terrorists.
“It’s a pain in the neck, and significantly interferes with my travel arrangements,” said Robinson, the head of the Justice Department’s criminal division during the Clinton administration. He believes his name matches that of someone who was put on the list in early 2005, and is routinely delayed while flying — despite having his own government top-secret security clearances renewed last year.
“I suppose if I were convinced that America is a safer place because I get hassled at the airport, I might put up with it,” Robinson said. “But I doubt it.”
No offense to Jim Robinson, he’s probably a decent guy, but half of the Clinton administration and a good number of their associates and appointees probably belong on that list. =)
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July 15th, 2008 at 1:35 am
Missing out on the last part of the article?
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” Chicago-area computer consultant Akif Rahman, who was born in Springfield, Illinois, said he has been detained at least seven times after traveling abroad. During one such incident in May, he said, he was held for five hours, shackled to a chair and kicked by a Customs Service agent after being stopped at a U.S. checkpoint on the Canadian border.
“I was fearful for my own safety and that of my family,” said Rahman, who is suing the government to have his identity cleared from the watch list. “I simply could not believe that I, a born U.S. citizen, was going though this experience simply re-entering my own country.”"
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