While this post has no direct connection to the IRR, or the Army, or even life as an Army Spouse, I did feel the need to comment on a news story published today about the no-fly list maintainted by the TSA.  Apparently “T. Kennedy” is an alias used by someone on the list of terrorist subjects.  Not a problem for most of us, but if you are Senator Ted Kennedy, you might find yourself barred from boarding your aircraft....   This did, in fact, happen several times to the Senator, in a scene that I am sure was reminiscent of the Visa commercials where a celebrity is asked for some ID when writing a check.  Although Mr. Kennedy  probably did not see the humor in the situation.

One aspect of this story that concerns me is that MSNBC is reporting it took the Senator and his staff more than three weeks to clear up this error.  And if Ted Kennedy, one of the most connected people in the world, takes that long to clear up a situation like this, what is the reality for the average Joe Citizen when J. Citizen is added to that list?

The real question though, is the effectiveness of the list and other similar policies designed to stop terrorist threats in the United States.  What this story does not tell us, nor have I been able to find elsewhere, is whether any other T. Kennedys, like the potential terrorist perhaps?, have been barred from their flights.  How do we know that these measures are having any effect on national security?  Some would point to the lack of any more disasters like the World Trade Center.  Of course, these same people would also likely point to the deployment of thousands of our servicemen to Iraq as effective deterrents.  I guess without the benefit of alternate realities, we can never truly know the “what if's” of a given situation.  But it sure would be nice to see someone report some real situations with real results where these measures really had an effect.