Decorated Army general delayed by TSA's No-Fly list

KUSA – Retired Major General Vernon Lewis, Jr. has served in two wars, was a Brigade Commander and holds a top-secret security clearance. However, 9Wants to Know has learned the Transportation Security Administration keeps confusing him with a terrorist.

"My credentials are impeccable," said Lewis. who has been decorated four times for valor and received the Army's highest medal for service, the Distinguished Service Medal. "It burns me up to be treated like a terrorist."

He is now retired from the U.S. Army after serving more than 30 years during Vietnam and Korea with the 82nd Airborne Division and the 82nd's 319th Field Artillery.

Lewis started getting delayed at airports three years ago because he shares a name with a terrorist on the TSA's No-Fly list.

The frequent flier has been delayed more than 40 times. Each time, he has to stand in line and check in with an airline attendant, who then takes his drivers' license and determines he's not a terrorist.

"If I have two or three bags, then I have to lug them to the desk and since I'm a partially disabled, it's hard for me to do that," said Lewis.

He tried to get off the list by calling his Congressional representatives and by taking part in the TSA's Traveler Redress Program.

For that, he mailed in his driver's license, his passport, his military ID and other information.

The TSA sent him a letter back in May 2006 saying he had been cleared off the list. However, the next time he tried to fly, he was stopped again.

"It burns me up that they can't correct it," said Lewis. "You can't tell me with the technology we've got today that the TSA can't sort me and about 20, 30 or 40,000 other people just like me who are on that watch list and get harassed."

The retired general is just one of dozens of people interviewed by 9Wants to Know on the government's No-Fly list, including 21 people named John Thompson who share a name with the IRA terrorist John Thompson.

The IRA member was convicted in Belfast in 2002 for possessing weapons with the intent to commit a terrorist act.

"They had to bring out a supervisor to interview me and go over my paperwork and identification just to make sure I wasn't the terrorist," said John Thompson of Loveland, a computer room specialist.

Thompson, who has had trouble getting on airplanes several times, was told by a United Airlines agent to trick the no-fly list by booking his tickets with his first name, middle initial and last name. Thompson does that now and no longer gets delayed.

"It doesn't sound like a very safe system if that's all it takes to trick it," said Thompson. "With my middle initial, I've been able to get boarding passes online and I haven't had to go through the secondary screening."

The TSA did not respond to 9NEWS when asked about the ability to get around the No-Fly list by using a middle name or middle initial on tickets.

In the past, the TSA has told 9Wants to Know that it hopes its Secure Flight program will fix problems with misidentifications when it's expected to be released late next year.

Secure Flight has cost taxpayers $200 million so far but the program has been plagued with problems and is four years overdue.

The No-Fly list is maintained by the FBI's Terrorist Screening Center in Virginia.

The list, about 38,000 names long, is part of the government's terrorist watch list which contains the names of known or suspected terrorists.

The list of people who may pose a threat to commercial airlines are sent from the Center in Virginia to the TSA, which shares the list with the airlines.

People who are misidentified as terrorists are not actually on the list. Only the terrorist is on the no-fly list. However, because the TSA does not always share dates of birth or other identifying information with the airlines, they can't tell the difference between innocent passengers and the terrorists until they check in and the airlines look at their driver's licenses.

The Department of Homeland Security said in a hearing last week that more than 15,000 people have appealed to get off the terrorist watch list.

The complaints have caused such a backlog that the TSA says it takes about 44 days to process a complaint. However, people who have gone through the process tell 9Wants To Know that they are still delayed at the airport.

Rep. Ed Perlmutter (D-Colorado) and Representative Yvette Clark (D-N.Y.) are co-sponsoring legislation to try to streamline the process.