Ted Kennedy Mistakenly Put On 'Watch' List
by NBC4.TV
Link to ArticleThe Department of Homeland Security is explaining why Sen. Ted Kennedy, D-Mass., has had some problems trying to board commercial airline flights recently.Kennedy Thursday told a hearing of the Senate Judicary Committee that when he tried to board a flight from Washington to Boston a few months ago, a ticket agent said he couldn't sell Kennedy a ticket -- and he couldn't tell him why not. A supervisor intervened, and Kennedy got on the flight, but he said the same thing happened when he tried to return to Washington. In all, Kennedy said, it happened three more times -- and he said it took weeks to get his name off a "watch" list, with the help of Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge. According to a DHS spokesman, on one flight, Kennedy was misidentified as someone who needed extra screening when going through security because he was mistakenly identified as someone on a "watch" list.Another time, the spokesman said, Kennedy was tagged for extra screening under a security system that watches for such factors as a person buying a one-way ticket or paying with cash. He said Kennedy was never on a "no-fly" list, which automatically keeps a person off a plane. These icons link to social bookmarking sites where readers can share and discover new web pages. If you have accounts on these bookmarking sites, you can post this story to share it with others.
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