What the hell?

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/34855425/ns ... ?GT1=43001

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just call me Brad

Twitter @BUrbanowicz13

You can tell though if you look long and close. He's got those skills with making fire and technical stuff as a boy scout, and he's got that little gleam in his eye, like he's knows something that we don't.

Looks suspicious to me...

I don't trust that guy.

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Wheelhouse

But they were padding him down when he was 2 years old? What 2 year old is going to blow up a plane?

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just call me Brad

Twitter @BUrbanowicz13

...fixed

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"...they came down into the stands and asked if I knew how to do play by play. I said...No. But. I'll take a shot at it if you want".- Rick Jeanneret

You don't have the trained observation and behavioral analysis skills that experts have. I'll bet he wasn't like any other baby. One minute you think he's just playing gaga-googoo with his rattler, the next thing you know BLAMMO!!!! Baby toy bomb and everyone's dead.

This is retarded, why and how is the USA so fucked up that it just doesn't let an 8 year old on a plane without trouble?

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The same thing happens to my little brother and my dad everytime they go through the airport..(they have the same first and last name) It's really not that bad. They just payed more attention to them that's it. It takes an extra 5 10 minutes to get it straightened out everytime. Just another pointless news story to me.

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Norcal's #1 Sabres fan.

You think terrorists are above using children to accomplish their mission?

The family needs to STFU already...it's just a part of today's world. Accept it, or don't fly.

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To be serious, the people working at the airport have NO IDEA why the kid's name is on a watchlist. They have no choice but to take the extra measures required by rules/guidelines/policies. Typical red tape will prevent any meaningful communication between airline or TSA personnel with Homeland Security. Those people at the airport are probably pretty sure that it's only a mix up with the name, and nothing to do with the boy himself. They see this lots of times, but there is almost nothing they can do about it.

It will take contact with a person of power directly with Homeland Security to do something that would remove the boy's name from the list. I'm sure the list could be modified some to be more accurate, by adding all kinds of other details like DOB, SSN, etc. This story is really not so much about stupidity of airport personnel or airport security, it's another commentary on how gov't red tape slows the response to mistakes in record keeping, "official" documents, and so on.

They can't just "take his name off the list"... unfortunately, it's something he and his family are just going to have to deal with. They're terribly short-sighted if they believe that he's coming off the list.

Adding additional data doesn't really help, as all of those documents can be "forged". The watch list isn't just a list of real names, but aliases, too. Tell me what the SSN is of a terrorist's alias...

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Bear in mind that HE is not on the list. Someone else, who shares his name, is.

It would be nice if there was some common sense involved in the process.

If 'Mikey Hicks, 45 year old male' is on the list, running an 8 year old with a common name through the gauntlet is kinda silly.

The TSA has the right ideas, they just fail miserably in practice. Their own staff doesn't know their own rules a lot of the time.

NYI, no , the name doesn't come off the list, but it's not hard to add information that eliminates this kid from further scrutiny. It really isn't hard at all, it just takes the right person to make it happen. There are lots of people that are going to have the same names as actual "persons of interest". Streamlining that list in whatever way possible is in the best interest of everyone involved, not just the passengers.

I suppose fingerprinting would work, but would require periodic updates...

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HAHAHA

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"Do not go where the path may lead, go instead where there is no path and leave a trail." - Ralph Waldo Emerson

Hockey Night in Buffalo

El Al employs college graduates that speak multiple languages as their security screeners.
They're safe and they don't look like bumbling jackasses a la the TSA.
Just sayin'.

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Hold my beer and watch this...

well he is a boyscout...

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Proud LGBTQQ Individual

I agree with you on this, NY. At first, it seems very severe to think a little boy would be linked to terrorism, but I think of it this way...if it were MY plane I was flying on and putting my family on, I'd appreciated him being checked out. Terrorists will go to ANY length to get theri mission accomplished.

I think its extremely unfortunate that this family has to go through this everytime they travel, but it IS a screwed up world we live in. If they travel so much, maybe they should get some documentation from the powers that be that say something to the effect of, yes, he has this name, but he's prescreened by us and he's cool.

People need to start pointing fingers at the horrible people that do these terrorist attacks for making the world so unstable and scary and stop getting mad at those that are trying to protect us and makign trying to make the world safer.

Everyone's scared when it comes to security at airports. But I believe the powers that be are not to blame as much as the people that are trying to kill us and terrorize us. Imagine the time that the real mikey Hicks gets on a planne and blows it up and airport security says, "Well, we thought he was the little nine-year-old's dad! They come through all the time and we get in trouble every time we take time to check them out..." I understand the argument, but I also think its better to be safe than sorry. Sucks to be them, though, for sure...

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Its NNYFAN, but you can just call me Kris.

I wish I could put enough emphasis on this without going into too much detail, but this really is not a hard situation to make right. I worked in the screening areas and watched TSA (and everyone else) for several years. I talked with TSA personnel and airport police enough about issues such as these.

Perhaps it's just a one sided view of things, but what I heard over and over is that they (personnel at the airport) simply act on the information provided to them by Homeland security. If they simply had a little more basic information, there would never be mix ups like this where a totally different person gets flagged every time just because they have the same name as an actual dangerous person that's on a legitimate watch list.

To me, with my background and experience, what TSA has told me makes total sense. In law enforcement, officers need a lot more than just a name in order to verify someone's true identity. The vast majority of the time there is much more information available, one way or another. Certainly at an airport, with people that have already paid for tickets and submitted ID for boarding passes, that information is available on that end of things. It's up to Homeland Security to provide something more than just a name for TSA to act on. Homeland Security should obviously know a DOB, or a previously used DOB, alias, race and a bunch of physical descriptors to enable TSA to streamline their efforts.

It is not in anyone's best interest to muck up the process with wasted time processing people that are erroniously flagged. Whether it's the difference between a grown man and an 8 year old, an ethnic difference, or just two days off the DOB, flagging the wrong people for an extra effort at security is a waste of time and resources. It shouldn't be hard to make sure that Homeland Security's info is accurate and complete, and that it's all forwarded to TSA correctly. On the other hand, I know first hand how the wheels of gov't beaurocracy turn like a slow, rusty wheel. I'm obviously all about security, but what's the point of putting a lot of effort in the wrong direction, especially over something that should be so easily corrected?