Citizens Banned From Flights But Terrorists Allowed To Fly Freely

A ‘minor’ miscommunication has resulted in suspected and KNOWN terrorists to board flights in the United States. The failure to update the details of terrorist on witness protection programs who had been given new identities resulted in them boarding and traveling on domestic and international flights.

The Inspector Generals report found that:

“it was possible for known or suspected terrorists to fly on commercial airplanes in or over the United States and evade one of the government’s primary means of identifying and tracking terrorists’ movements and actions”.

Terrorism linked witnesses have been eligible for witness protection for many years and this allows them to be given new identities and to be resettled in other parts of the United States. The program has shielded those who have co-operated with federal government in helping secure prosecutions for incidents such as the World Trade Center bombing in 1993, the Oklahoma bombing in 1995 and the New York City suicide bomb plot in 2009.

I wonder how it can be right that measures are put in place to ensure that upstanding American veterans such as Saadiq Long have to fight for months to be allowed to return home to the United States because they are on a no-fly list but known terrorists, and those who by their own admission have terrorist links can be allowed to travel around freely due to a ‘minor’ miscommunication.

The Justice Department has said it has reviewed and amended its information sharing policy and a restrictive travel policy has now been implemented.