The Transportation Security Administration, under scrutiny after last month’s bombing attempt, has on its Web site a “mythbuster†that tries to reassure the public. Enlarge This Image Fred R. Conrad/The New York Times Michael Hicks, 8, a Cub Scout in Clifton, N.J., has the same name as a suspicious person. Readers' Comments Share your thoughts. Post a Comment » Read All Comments (555) » Myth: The No-Fly list includes an 8-year-old boy. Buster: No 8-year-old is on a T.S.A. watch list. “Meet Mikey Hicks,†said Najlah Feanny Hicks, introducing her 8-year-old son, a New Jersey Cub Scout and frequent traveler who has seldom boarded a plane without a hassle because he shares the name of a suspicious person. “It’s not a myth.†Michael Winston Hicks’s mother initially sensed trouble when he was a baby and she could not get a seat for him on their flight to Florida at an airport kiosk; airline officials explained that his name “was on the list,†she recalled. The first time he was patted down, at Newark Liberty International Airport, Mikey was 2. He cried. After years of long delays and waits for supervisors at every airport ticket counter, this year’s vacation to the Bahamas badly shook up the family. Mikey was frisked on the way there, then more aggressively on the way home. “Up your arms, down your arms, up your crotch — someone is patting your 8-year-old down like he’s a criminal,†Mrs. Hicks recounted. “A terrorist can blow his underwear up and they don’t catch him. But my 8-year-old can’t walk through security without being frisked.†It is true that Mikey is not on the federal government’s “no-fly†list, which includes about 2,500 people, less than 10 percent of them from the United States. But his name appears to be among some 13,500 on the larger “selectee†list, which sets off a high level of security screening. At some point, someone named Michael Hicks made the Department of Homeland Security suspicious, and little Mikey is still paying the price. (His father, also named Michael Hicks, was stopped for the first time on the Bahamas trip.) Both lists are maintained by the Terrorist Screening Center, which includes the Federal Bureau of Investigation. They are given to the Transportation Security Administration, which in turn sends them to the airlines. A spokesman for the T.S.A., James Fotenos, said that as a rule, “there are no children on the no-fly or selectee lists,†but would not comment on Mikey’s situation specifically. For every person on the lists, hundreds of others may get caught up simply because they share the same name; a quick scan through a national phone directory unearthed 1,600 Michael Hickses. Over the past three years, 81,793 frustrated travelers have formally asked that they be struck from the watch list through the Department of Homeland Security; more than 25,000 of their cases are still pending. Others have taken more drastic measures. Mario Labbé, a frequent-flying Canadian record-company executive, started having problems at airports shortly after Sept. 11, 2001, with lengthy delays at checkpoints and mysterious questions about Japan. By 2005, he stopped flying to the United States from Canada, instead meeting American clients in France. Then a forced rerouting to Miami in 2008 led to six hours of questions. “What’s the name of your mother? Your father? When were you last in Japan?†Mr. Labbé recalled being asked. “Always the same questions in different order. And sometimes, it’s quite aggressive, not funny at all.†Fed up, in the summer of 2008, he changed his name to François Mario Labbé. The problem vanished. Several Web sites, including the T.S.A.’s own blog, are rife with tales of misidentification and strategies for solving them. Some travelers purposely misspell their own names when buying tickets, apparently enough to fool the system. Even the late Senator Edward M. Kennedy once found himself on a list. “We can’t just throw a bunch of names on these lists and call it security,†said Representative William J. Pascrell Jr., a New Jersey Democrat. “If we can’t get an 8-year-old off the list, the whole list becomes suspect.†Mr. Fotenos, the T.S.A. spokesman, promised improvements in a few months, as the agency’s Secure Flight Program takes full effect. Under the new system, airlines will collect every passenger’s birth date and gender, along with their names. The T.S.A. will cross-check all that with the watch lists. Previously, the airlines cross-checked the lists themselves, using only the names. Certainly, Mikey’s date of birth, less than a month before 9/11, should prevent him from being mistaken as a terrorist. A third grader at a parochial school in Clifton, N.J., Mikey recites the drill like the world-weary traveler he is. Leave early for the airport, always with his passport. Try to get a boarding pass at the counter. This will send up a flag. The ticket agent, peering down at tiny bespectacled Mikey, will apologize or roll her eyes, and call for a supervisor. The supervisor, after a phone call — or, more likely, a series of phone calls — will ultimately finagle him onto the plane. But the Hickses are typically the last to select seats and the last to board, which means they sometimes can’t sit together. Mrs. Hicks, a photojournalist who herself got Secret Service clearance to travel aboard Air Force II with then-Vice President Al Gore, anticipated additional chaos following the attempted underwear bombing. Before leaving for the Bahamas on Jan. 2, she reached out to Congressman Pascrell’s office, which then enlisted a T.S.A. agent to meet the family at the airport. Even this did not prevent Mikey from an extra pat-down. On the way home last Friday, Mikey’s boarding pass showed four giant red S’s at the airport in Nassau. “Oh, random screening,†Mrs. Hicks said. Mikey asked his mother not to worry and said he would use his tae kwon do — he has a junior black belt — if needed. Mrs. Hicks said she wanted to take pictures of her son being frisked but was told it was against the rules. Mikey, who would rather talk about BMX bikes and his athletic trophies than airport security, remains perplexed about the “list†and the hurdles he must clear. “Why do they think a kid is a terrorist?†Mikey asked his mother at one point during the interview. Mrs. Hicks said the family was amused by the mistake at first. But that amusement quickly turned to annoyance and anger. It should not take seven years to correct the problem, Mrs. Hicks said. She applied for redress in December when she first heard about the Department of Homeland Security’s program. “I understand the need for security,†she added. “But this is ridiculous. It’s quite clear that he is 8 years old, and while he may have terroristic tendencies at home, he does not have those on a plane.†-headdesk- If crap like this continues, I'm moving to Canada and staying there. How in the hell can they think a TWO YEAR OLD would be a terrorist? Like "Mikey Hicks" would be an unique name. They had nothing else on this guy? Like, hmm.. AGE?
America's security sucks. They go to extremes when it obviously isn't required, but they overlook something so blatent as someone changing their name.
Wow just wow. I mean I can understand that people want to keep the country secure but don't they have any common sense. I mean the kid is 8, how could he be a terroist?
Wait wait wait... Are you telling me that a portion of the American Security System is based on nothing other than a person's name?!? The single easiest piece of information to change about yourself? I mean, did it not occur to someone in charge that more than one person may have the same name? At least include a date of birth for chist's sake!! What get's me here that the Airport staff honestly believed that a two year old would be included on the no-fly list, when his passport would show that he has never flown before. Ok, I understand that not complying with this would be a prosecutable offense, but didn't someone think to send a message up the line?
Now I can understand the possibility that maybe a mother, father or anyone close to the child might be able to strap explosive chemicals. But still, I don't know what this says about the American security system, that they will even suspect a child from the age of 2 years, and treat him like a hardened murderer for simply travelling. And I may be wrong, but most terrorist Muslim-based groups generally take members that willing give their lives for 'the cause'. And at the age of 8 you would not even be considered an adult, therefore you would not be able to become a full fledged member. Though I am most likely incorrect with my information in with the increase in failed attempts in Western countries, some terrorist groups may make exceptions.
Lol This just shows how ******ed the American security system is. Although, I suppose I can't talk considering most of the government of my country consists of ex terrorists =/ Even so, the USA needs to get on the ball and start actually being a responsible nation. Rather than a pile of **** in the global spectrum.
I read this earlier in the morning. It's pretty damn stupid. How can an eight year old be a terrorist? And at two years of age as well? Seriously, it's freaking stupid. The boy is eight, someone can't expect him to be a terrorist at that age. As said before already, these people should have looked at the age of the person that had the same name as the boy.
I read this. I honestly feel horrible for the boy. I hope he doesn't grow up with some self-identity problems and such. It would be hard growing up considered a terrorist. This whole ordeal is utterly stupid. Poor kid...
No wonder every other country hates us. We do stuff like this, and still consider ourselves the greatest country in the world.
Holy... That is the most ******ed thing I've ever heard in my life! That poor kid... I understand that airports need security but this is just bullshit. The US security system needs to grow a brain.
This, along with the fact recent news of an airport employee being fired brings America to more shame. The employee played a prank on a college student by putting a bag of white powder in her luggage and then screened her. She was in tears before she found out.
