Associated Press – October 31, 2006:

A California congresswoman said she was briefly denied access to a United Airlines flight last week because her name appeared on a “no fly list” set up after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.

Rep. Loretta Sanchez, a Democrat who has been a critic of the no-fly list, said her staff had booked her a one-way ticket from Boise, Idaho, to Cincinnati through Denver. But they were prevented from printing her boarding pass online and at an airport kiosk.

Sanchez said she was instructed to check in with a United employee, who told her she was on the terrorist watch list. The employee asked her for identification, Sanchez said.

I handed over my congressional ID and he started laughing and said, ‘I’m going to need an ID that has your birthday on it,'” Sanchez said in a phone interview with The Associated Press.

The employee used Sanchez’s birth date to determine she was not the same Loretta Sanchez on the list, and she was able to board her flight, she said.



  1. Angel H. Wong says:

    #1

    You’re just saying that because Salma Hayek is in into geeky white men but not geeky white like you 😛

  2. Leonard says:

    So a random congressperson, since there are more Republicans, more likely it was a Republican. Nope, Well, a random Democrat. Nope, a vocal critic of the no-fly list. Can anyone believe this is by chance?

  3. Gregory says:

    Yes I can believe it to be chance – because nothing about that list is well thought out or planned. It’s a joke.

  4. TJGeezer says:

    “Never blame conspiracy for that which can be adequately explained by simple stupidity.” Here’s a case in point.

  5. Serves her right for all the illegal votes she got in her first election.

  6. Olo Baggins of Bywater says:

    Take two…

    This is the perfect reprisal. Whomever entered her name in the DNF list got the date wrong intentionally…she eventually gets on the plane but it sure looks like a mistake.

    Doesn’t anyone remember what Nixon’s goons did to the Dems in ’72? This is exactly the sort of stuff they tried. (OK, so I was nine then and had to read about it in a book, but still…)

  7. Awake says:

    So this is TSA’s grand idea of security????

    Customer walks up to ticket agent and says:
    – For some reason I can’t get my ticket. My name is Mohammed Atta.
    – ‘m sorry sir, I will need to see some ID with your birthday on it. Your Driver’s License will be fine.
    (Atta shows well made fake ID, with the name Mohammed Atta).
    -OK, I see that your birthday is different from the birthday that I have on my ‘no fly list’… my apologies… have a nice flight.

    If someone is on the ‘No fly list’ shouldn’t there be some well trained Israeli-like airport security guy conducting an in-depth interview? If you are on the no-fly list, shouldn’t you be immediately detained by the police until you are cleared? If you are on the no-fly list, shouldn’t there be someone at the airport waiting there to arrest you when you show up… after all.. you must be really dangerous to be on that list!!!
    What is the point of the no-fly list if a ticket agent can clear you right through.?????

    This whole TSA security thing is such a joke… the double-boarding pass security hole is re-exposed last week after 2 years after it was initially exposed and nothing has been done, and the FBI hassles the guy that re-exposes it… but in the mean time my coffee and hand cream are WMD’s although there is no evidence at all that the ‘liquid explosive’ plot would have ever worked.

    Actual case that I read in “Salon.com”: guy forgets that he has some hotel mouthwash in a mini-bottle in his briefcase. The X-Ray guy sees it, takes him aside, gives him a hard time, and says that he has to put it in a baggie with the other liquids. So the guy takes the little bottle, puts it in the baggie with his other stuff, and holds the baggie in his hand. “Can I go now?” “Yes, you are free to go”. The guy walks away with the baggie in his hand. So placing the little bottle in the bag made the flight safe.

    We need real solutions, not this BS “TSA theater.”
    We need intelligent government, not ‘Heckuva job Brownie” cronyism.
    We need a real change in government, and we can start by throwing out the party in power, the current real decision makers that give us this BS sense of security, and grow from there. Keeping these idiots in power is just enabling more of the same.

    Read this story published in Rolling Stone this week if you want to learn some of the real truth (not the Limbaugh and Air America bullshit):
    “Inside the worse Congress Ever”
    http://tinyurl.com/yajvzy

  8. tallwookie says:

    I like how #1 is commenting to himself – thats nice – prolly related to the blog error earlier…

    Just one more reason to get rid of the TSA – useless bastards

  9. WokTiny says:

    I vaguely remember posting to this…
    something about how it would not make sense as a ‘pay back’ action against her because it only reenforces her drive to oppose the no fly list.

  10. NoflyFun says:

    I am also on the No Fly List. The full list which is automated at some ticket counters but can require a lengthy phone call at others verifies birthdate as the second check, and I have never gotten to the third. I know that the jerk with my same name was born in 1955 after a little social engineering with one gate agent. Once you are on the no fly list there isnt any way to get off only put on a second OK list but you can say goodbye to printing out your boarding pass. This is why the NWA boarding pass hack was such a big deal last week on boingboing. The guy that was born in 1955 could print out a boarding pass with his valid information to get past the security point. Of course he wouldn’t have anything to get on a plane with but that migth not be the point.

  11. sh says:

    She looks like an illegal alien

  12. robin says:

    This country is really beginning to suck the big one.


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