Monday, April 09, 2007
Abusing the "no fly" list
This story, if true, is outrageous.
Andrew Sullivan reports that Princeton professor emeritus Walter F. Murphy found himself on the Terrorist No-Fly List.
"I presented my credentials from the Marine Corps to a very polite clerk for American Airlines. One of the two people to whom I talked asked a question and offered a frightening comment: "Have you been in any peace marches? We ban a lot of people from flying because of that." I explained that I had not so marched but had, in September, 2006, given a lecture at Princeton, televised and put on the Web, highly critical of George Bush for his many violations of the Constitution. "That'll do it," the man said."
Here's the full story.
In addition to being a United States Marine and a devoted Catholic, Walter Murphy taught Constitutional Interpretation, then widely regarded as the most challenging undergraduate course involving reading and writing. Professor Murphy was also my junior paper advisor, and 25 years ago I knew him pretty well. Today, he must be well into his seventies. The idea that he should be on any terror "no-fly" list is not only asinine, it certainly looks like the unlawful use of anti-terror measures to chill opposition to the Bush administration. This story needs to be investigated, and if the responsible person inside Homeland Security does not have some very credible defense (such as "I meant the other Walter F. Murphy, who used to run guns for the IRA and now advises British Muslim terror cells"), he or she should be fired. (Orin Kerr wonders whether the story is, in fact, true. Let's hope that it isn't. Via Glenn Reynolds.)
For all conservatives -- including me -- complain that Homeland Security is not sufficiently scrutinizing, say, visiting Saudis, they need to complain equally when some hack diverts resources for unlawful or retributive objectives unrelated to catching and killing jihadis. Things like this discredit the war on Islamic terrorism, and should be punished severely.
UPDATE (5:30 pm April 11, 2007): This is looking more like smoke than fire.
8 Comments:
By 
GreenmanTim, at
Mon Apr 09, 10:57:00 AM:
Hear, hear! And the idea that attendees of peace marches should a priori be considered terror threats is Nixonian paranoia in the extreme. Or maybe Orwellian: nonviolence = terror. Such misbegotten profiling would keep a significant portion of my extended family out of the air, and cousin TH can attest that we are an odd bunch, certainly, with left-leaning sensibilities, but hardly violent.
By Georg Felis, at
Mon Apr 09, 11:03:00 AM:
Couple of things.
I’m a little suspicious of how fast your professor’s story has “gotten out there”. Do a google search of “Walter Murphy no fly” and see how many hits you get.
I’m not surprised at all that somebody with a common name would wind up with that name on the no-fly list. You could say it’s Murphy’s Law (ouch!)
The phrase “No-fly List” is also a bit of a misnomer. If your name is on the list, normally you just get to talk with the supervisor (and a little extra TLC from TSA) before getting your boarding pass.
Even Teddy Kennedy wound up on the No-fly List, because some nogoodnik used the alias “T. Kennedy”, so Professor Murphy is in good company.
And last if not least. Suppose TSA catches a bomber who is using the alias W. Murphy. Would the eminent Professor Murphy apologize for his defamation of an agency who is trying to prevent another attack? Not likely.
Summary: Professor Murphy will probably need to make sure he shows up 30 minutes earlier for his flights, and takes a few more sensible precautions when traveling by air. Big whoop.
By 
, at
Mon Apr 09, 09:07:00 PM:
If you want to read about these no-fly list and national ID card ideas, then just visit http://www.schneier.com/blog site. Bruce Schneier, the author of the aforementioned blog, wrote a couple of books about security, highly intelligent, and best of all, highly articulate.
Vilmos
By , at
Tue Apr 10, 12:05:00 AM:
ANDREW SULLIVAN should quit flapping his mouth and giving away all those secrets
By , at
Tue Apr 10, 05:08:00 AM:
If a person was wrongly included in the no fly list then it should be addressed and corrected.
However, that is not an excuse to throw the proverbial baby out with the bath water.
Clean and validate, but still use.
Don't let the cleaning become a coat hanger abortion
By Dawnfire82, at
Tue Apr 10, 07:18:00 PM:
"Have you been in any peace marches? We ban a lot of people from flying because of that." I explained that I had not so marched but had, in September, 2006, given a lecture at Princeton, televised and put on the Web, highly critical of George Bush for his many violations of the Constitution. "That'll do it," the man said."
My bullshit meter is off the charts.
By Cassandra, at
Wed Apr 11, 08:47:00 PM:
And the idea that attendees of peace marches should a priori be considered terror threats is Nixonian paranoia in the extreme.
Considering the many, many peace marches over the past 7 years and how few stories of this kind there are circulating about, doesn't that make you wonder about that particular comment at all, Tim?
Just a bit? Come to think of it, has anyone seen Keith Olbermann lately. Gosh, I hope he's OK.
Good Lord.
By Cassandra, at
Wed Apr 11, 09:11:00 PM:
And here we go again:
Try watching this.
My husband is an active duty Colonel in the Marine Corps. He has been pulled over and searched countless times, even when traveling on official orders while I breeze right through security behind him. I'm sure if he wanted to he could come up with a beaut of a 'story' to explain why he's being "unfairly targeted" and shop it on the InterTubes.
However for some inexplicable reason, he doesn't feel the need to make a big fuss over it or spout stupid conspiracy theories, unlike some people.
