Due Process Vanishes in Thin Air

wired news ^ | 4.8.03 | Ryan Singel

[freepatriot32]

Asif Iqbal, a Rochester, New York, management consultant, must get FBI clearance every Monday and Thursday when he flies to and from Syracuse for business. Iqbal can't get off a government watch list because he shares the same name as a suspected terrorist.

But Asif Iqbal, the suspected terrorist, is eight years younger than his Rochester namesake.

What's more, the suspected terrorist Iqbal has been in U.S. custody at the U.S. naval base in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, since January 2002 when he was captured in Afghanistan. In a letter to his congressional representative, Iqbal of New York said he was first denied the ability to board a plane on Feb. 18, 2002, almost a full month after the British Foreign Office informed the suspected terrorist Iqbal's family that he was being held as an "enemy combatant."

[dark_lord]

Suggestion for this guy: go change his name to "John Smith". Problem solved. Fighting the fed bureaucrats is a doomed mission.

[woofie]

he could change his name

[LurkedLongEnough]

You ever notice that, right before a "computer" magazine goes out of business, it starts printing political pieces? Example: Red Herring magazine.

[gcruse]

"Why are you flinging popcorn onto the lawn?"
"It keeps the giraffes away."

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[Dimensio]

Yes, he should undergo the financial expense and overall hassle of changing his name to correct a situation that is not at all his fault.

[Not Insane]

I thought this thread was going to be about men in family court.

But that's old news - nobody is much interested any more.

[dljordan]

Kind of like the FBI's recent statement that it can't be responsible for inaccurate data on it's NCIC database.

[Asclepius]

Yes, he should undergo the financial expense and overall hassle of changing his name to correct a situation that is not at all his fault.

How is it not his fault?

[ArrogantBustard]

"John Smith".

That works just fine, until some jerk named "John Smith" makes terroristic threats against the President, or some such, and that name gets on the "no-fly" list.

In the "old country" my real last name is as common as Smith is in England. Given the numerous immigrants to the USA, over the last century, from that country (including my grandfather), the name is fairly common here. Fortunately (for me), my real last name is as unlikely as "Smith" to match that of an islamic terrorist. But the problem is real. There needs to be a mechanism, linked to DL# or some such, to weed out the "John Smith" who makes terrorist threats from all the others who are not. And when the terrorist "John Smith" is incarcerated in Gitmo, the name should be removed from the list.

[Dimensio]

It's his fault that he happens to have the same name as a terrorist?

[Asclepius]

It's his fault that he happens to have the same name as a terrorist?

If not his, then whose?

[Dimensio]

If not his, then whose?

I'm not sure that 'blame' can be assigned here. If it can, then it falls onto the suspected terrorist for engaging in acts that made him a suspected terrorist. I'm having trouble believing that you're seriously suggesting that a man is responsible for his name being associated with terrorism simply because someone else with the same name does something wrong.

[Sloth]

On the basis of his statements here, I nominate Asclepius for the "Do Not Bother Responding" list.

[ArrogantBustard]

If not his, then whose?

That has to be the dumbest question I've ever seen on FR. Really. Just pathetic. Moronic. Stupid. Beyond stupid.

Whose fault? The terrorists, of course. And the brain-dead morons at TSA who can't seem to comprehend that a terrorist incarcerated in Guantanamo Bay isn't going to be boarding any commercial airliners. DUH!

[Asclepius]

... I'm not sure that 'blame' can be assigned here ...

This is precisely my point.

This issue here is not due process. The issue is simply the way dumb-a$$ bureauracies work etc.

[Asclepius]

That has to be the dumbest question I've ever seen on FR. Really. Just pathetic. Moronic. Stupid. Beyond stupid.

Chill, little one. I was making a point.

[TC Rider]

I hate it when that happens. Because of Arabs, we are all inconvenienced a bit at the airport. It's somehow fitting that some Arabs, although innocent, should be inconvenienced a little bit more.

[Nataku X]

What do you think the people named Hilter did?