We are all aware, or should be aware, of the infamous secret ‘no-fly list’ that the US government maintains that can result in people being abruptly told that they cannot board a plane without being told why or any means of getting off the list, short of going to court. It appears that the government also maintains another secret list called an ‘inhibited persons list’ that flags people for harassment.
Kevin Gosztola writes abut how Jesselyn Radack, a lawyer with the Government Accountability Project who also represents Edward Snowden, discovered that she was on this particular list when she was singled out for aggressive questioning at London’s Heathrow airport.
Notably, Radack mentioned she was told she was on an “inhibited persons list.” Jennifer Robinson, an Australian human rights lawyer who has represented WikiLeaks, discovered she was on this list in April of 2012.
According to a report by Australian journalist Bernard Keane, this is a term the Department of Homeland Security uses. From a DHS document:
‘Inhibited status’, as defined in this rule, means the status of a passenger or non-traveling individual to whom TSA [Transportation Security Administration] has instructed a covered aircraft operator or a covered airport operator not to issue a boarding pass or to provide access to the sterile area.
Keane highlighted the fact that in March 2012, “as part of the US government’s seemingly remorseless attempt to impose its laws on the rest of the world, the UK agreed to new rules that required airlines to provide the Department of Homeland Security with details of passengers even if they weren’t traveling to the United States, but to countries near the US, such as Canada, Mexico and Cuba.”
As I have said before, the US government thinks that it owns the world and unfortunately many other countries (notably the UK) seems willing to act like subservient client states and do its bidding.
I wonder how many different kinds of lists there are?
I wonder how long it will be until we emulate apartheid South Africa and introduce “banning orders”…oh wait, we’re most of the way there in the UK already -- just google “TPIM”.
I’m on one ofthese lsists because of my political activism. I ALWAYS get singled out for extra security measures, including aggressive patdowns, at airports, and have always been told the selection is random (so I’m at the very edge of a Bell curve), but one time, exhasperated, I burstout “Why is it ALWAYS me?”, and the senior security officer (this was in Hong Kong) started the usual guff about “purely random, nothing personal”, when his nervous green junior newbie assistant blurted out that I was on a list. I can only imagne that this is the Japanese government getting at me for my anti-racism activism.
How is this any different from being on the no-fly list? If you can’t get a boarding pass or enter a sterile area, how the hell are you going to get on a plane?
… the sterile area.
Our
government’scontrollers’ terminology has moved past Orwellianism into Godwinesque science fiction.Kimpatsu @ # 2 -- The Japanese government can pull “security” strings in Hong Kong?!?
How is this any different from being on the no-fly list?
Because when there’s a freedom of information request or subpona for a “no fly” list they can say ‘nope! no such person on THAT list!’
Now they’re going to have to start the “Mildly Vexed Person’s List”
[NOFORN] [FOUO] [UNCLAS]
OH COME ON! THAT’S JUST BLATANTLY EVIL!
((innocent look)) what?
@#3,
I think that with the ‘inhibited persons list’ you are not definitely refused a boarding pass (although the article does not make that clear) but may be refused one. At the least you are subjected to aggressive searches and hostile questioning.
I AM GLAD PEOPLE ARE STARTING TO TAKE NOTE OF THIS MODERN DICTATORIAL PRACTICES.
I CANNOT COMMENT FURTHER AS I AM INVOLVED IN A PROCESS RCURRENTLY TO THESE “”LISTS”” BUT ALSO U*NDER A GAG ORDER RELATED TO OTHER RELEVANT ISSUES.
I SHALL KEEP AN EYE ON THIS BLOG AND SEE WHERE THIS LEADS US
There’s probably a list of them to help keep track somewhere.
Oh FFS, did we learn absolutely nothing from McCarthy? Is the point of this to give kooks material for their conspiracy theories?
How about a list of those whose names appear on another list somewhere else…?
If you can’t make that list, then you are just listless. Perhaps a good laxative would help.
I SHALL KEEP AN EYE ON THIS BLOG AND SEE WHERE THIS LEADS US
Will it lead you to perhaps hit the (caps lock) key?