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The US Transportation Security Administration (TSA) maintains a watchlist of names of individuals suspected of posing "a risk of air piracy or terrorism or a threat to airline or passenger safety." While initially denying to the media that such a list existed, the TSA finally acknowledged its existence in October 2002.
On April 6 2004 the American Civil Liberties Union filed a nationwide class-action challenge to this government "No-Fly" list. They charge that many innocent travelers whose names appear on the list are routinely subject to stigmatization and repeated interrogations, delays, enhanced searches, detentions, and/or other travel impediments, and find that they have no way to find out why their name is on the list, and no way to clear their names.
In August 2004, Senator Edward (Ted) M. Kennedy revealed to a Senate Judiciary Committee discussing the no fly list, that he had appeared on the list and had been repeatedly delayed at airports. He said he it had taken him three weeks of appeals direct to Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge to have him removed from the list of potential terrorists. Kennedy said that he was eventually told that the name "T Kennedy" was once used as an alias of a suspected terrorist and thus the name was added to the list. There are estimated to be around 7,000 American men called T Kennedy. Recognising that as a senator he was in a privileged position in being able to contact Ridge, Kennedy said of "ordinary citizens", "How are they going to be able to get to be treated fairly and not have their rights abused?"
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