My life on the watch list

I am not a terrorist. But like 2,000 other Americans every month, I am forced to prove it when I travel.

Like those thousands of other people, my name gets flagged by the FBI's terrorist "watch list" database. Someone on that list has the same name as I do. As a result, I frequently can't get a boarding pass in advance for airline flights and face delays at airports. Now the Department of Homeland Security wants to ease my pain. All I have to do is give up a little bit more of my privacy and my problems will go away. Maybe.

The current state of affairs is certainly annoying. When I go to check my bags with the skycap I'm referred inside to someone who checks my license or passport, asks a few security questions and goes back and forth on the computer for several minutes before letting me pass through. If I'm on a Southwest flight, I can't check in 24 hours before my flight departs at the airport. I'm always in the "C" group and dead last in line for seating. On a recent vacation flight my family checked in early and made the "A" list while I was forced back into the "C" group.

Your name doesn't have to be Mohammed Atta to make this list. An anglo name such as Robert Mitchell will do quite fine. All that needs to happen is for just one person with a name similar to yours to get added to the watch list and you'll be setting off those alarm bells. Even Senator Ted Kennedy has the same problem, which lead DHS Secretary Michael Chertoff to recently call the watch list mismatch issue the "Ted Kennedy problem."

Until now my only choice was to try the DHS Traveler Redress Inquiry Program. That program doesn't exactly have a reputation for speedy resolution. Now I'll have another choice. I can provide the booking airline with my date of birth. Once I've gone through the screening process once, I'll be able to get a boarding pass in advance and check luggage with the skycap like everyone else. According to a DHS press release, "By voluntarily providing this limited biographical data to an airline and verifying that information once at the ticket counter, travelers that were previously inconvenienced on every trip will now be able to check-in online or at remote kiosks."

The downside? I'll have to go through this process with every airline I fly, and those airlines will need to modify their internal databases to accomodate the additional data about me. So I have a choice. I can provide this information to a half dozen or so commercial airlines - if they chose to participate in this new, voluntary program. Or I can provide similar information to the federal government to clear my name. Or I can do nothing and accept my lot in life as a Robert Mitchell terrorist watch list mismatch.

On the one hand, giving up a little bit of information about myself to avoid annoying delays isn't such a big deal. On the other hand, the more personally identifying information about me there is out there the more I am at risk for identity theft. I'm not sure I want every commercial airline storing this data. I could give it to the government, but how ironic that in its effort to protect its citizens the government must create an additional identity record for the innocent to prove that they are not terrorists, simply because they have the same name as one. It's not enough that this data is already in the State department of motor vehicles database and available at the Department of State where my passport was processed. It's not enough that my date of birth appears clearly on my drivers license and my passport. It apparently needs to reside in another database, as a check against a database of known and suspected criminals.

Why is this my problem? Because in the war against terror, the terrorist watch list is a blunt instrument. If there was a "Rob" on the watch list would we stop every "Rob" in airports across America? Sounds silly. But we will stop the "Robert Mitchells." How smart is that? There are two dozen Robert Mitchells in the area surrounding the small community in which I live. There are thousands nationwide. Is stopping thousands of Robert Mitchells across America because the name matches up with one person on the list the best way to catch terrorists and prevent terrorism? Surely there must be a better way to solve the identity issue.

The consequence of the war on terror is that it's incumbent on every citizen to prove beyond a shadow of a doubt who they are - and who they are not. The routine of my travel life is ruled by the watch list. Will yours be next?

I'm going to make a choice, but first I'd like to hear what you think. If you're inclined, check out these Travel Redress program information and DHS press release links.