Three air cargo pilots have to wonder whether the Transportation Security Administration’s “no fly list,” ostensibly a measure to keep terrorists off airplanes, isn’t being used by someone to throw them out of their jobs. Someone mailed “animal or human waste” to ABX Air executives; the three pilots, who worked for ABX Air out of the DHL hub in Cincinnati, were questioned by the FBI about the incident. They were cleared. Nonetheless, somehow their names turned up on the no fly list, according to the Cincinnnati Enquirer.
For most of us who’ve had a run in with no fly list, the consequences have been delays, or missed flights, or at worst the chilling experience of being detained by police authorities in an airport. (It can get a a lot worse if you are of Middle Eastern or South Asian origin.) But because these guys fly for a living, they are screwed if they can’t get themselves off the list.
They find themselves stuck in a Kafkaesque nightmare. Their union, Teamsters Local 1224, is trying to help:
Lynn Nowel, the union’s general counsel [said] “It’s a problem when you deny someone the ability to make a living without checking it out first. And an even bigger problem was the terrible time we had even finding out why they were on the list and how hard it was to get them off.” . . .
The FBI previously acknowledged it was conducting a criminal investigation into the acts, which it said could be covered by domestic terrorism laws because it involved the mailing of potentially biohazardous material.
. . .
TSA spokeswoman Ann Davis also would not discuss specifics about the list, but said that it gets information and recommendations from other agencies, including the FBI. “We trust that when they suggest that someone be placed on the ‘no-fly’ or ‘selectee’ list, that they do so for very good reasons,” Davis said.
Sure looks like a blacklist to me. “The term implies that someone has been prevented from having legitimate access to something due to the whims or judgments of another.” In this case it sure looks like ABX Air has the TSA doing its dirty work; I wonder if the company made any interesting campaign contributions?
Cross posted at Happening-Here?
Anytime there’s a system in which people get accused without accountability for the accuser, without rights of evidence and representation, etc. and whenever an accusation is the same as a conviction, abuse becomes injustice instantly.
From Gitmo to the Patriotic Act to the no-fly lists, the Bushheads used 9/11 to create a terrorist state against its own citizens.
Yes, the no-fly list is a blacklist, almost by definition, and certainly by the testimony of people who have been victims of it. It’s more evidence how little things have changed from the Vietnam era, when dissenters were considered enemy combatants.
I just wish my research skills were up to finding out whether ABX Air owners/managers actually made campaign contributons to the Republicans.
Using the government to grind your employees into compliance is of course a classic use of the blacklist.
ABX Air is represented by the Lemunyon Group.
Contributions in 2004 – $100,000
Agencies lobbied – US Senate, US House of Representatives, US Department of Transportation.
The Center for Public Integrity has a great database for searching lobbying connections.
Thanks — will learn all about it. 🙂
to learn if the three pilots in question have been involved in union activity within the organization…