mo Why's a Retired Army Lieutenant Colonel on the"No-Fly" List?

[David Farber <dave () farber net>]

Begin forwarded message:

From: Tim Finin <finin () cs umbc edu>
Date: February 27, 2006 8:39:50 AM EST
To: dave () farber net
Subject: mo Why's a Retired Army Lieutenant Colonel on the"No-Fly" List?

What struck me about "Robert Johnson" being on the TSA no fly
list is that it is as generic a name as I can imagine.  He
must have a lot of company.  Running the name through
people.yahoo.com yields over 12,000 matches.  And these are
just the Bob Johnsons in the USA with landline phone numbers
listed in their name.  There must be on the four times this
many worldwide.

All people with first name Robert and last name Johnson can't
be blocked, can they?  I wonder what other characteristics are
tied to the block.  Middle name?  Country of origin? Home
address?  Approximate age?  I am sure the TSA would want to
keep the details secret, appropriately, but it would be nice
to know that the net is not sweeping up tens of thousands of
people needlessly.


--
 Tim Finin, Computer Science & Electrical Engineering, Univ of Maryland
 Baltimore County, 1000 Hilltop Cir, Baltimore MD 21250. finin () umbc edu
 http://ebiquity.umbc.edu 410-455-3522 fax:-3969 http://umbc.edu/~finin


-------------------------------------
You are subscribed as lists-ip () insecure org
To manage your subscription, go to
 http://v2.listbox.com/member/?listname=ip

Archives at: http://www.interesting-people.org/archives/interesting-people/