Hundreds Report Watch-List Trials

Some Ended Hassles at Airports by Making Slight Change to Name

Rep. John Lewis, here with Teresa Heinz Kerry, now uses his middle initial to book tickets. (John Amis -- AP)

For more than a year and a half, Rep. John Lewis has endured lengthy delays at the ticket counter, intense questioning by airline employees and suspicious glances by fellow passengers.

Airport security guards have combed through his luggage as he stood in front of his constituents at the Atlanta airport. An airline employee has paged him on board a flight for further questioning, he said. On at least 35 occasions, the Georgia Democrat said, he was treated like a criminal because his name, like that of Sen. Edward M. Kennedy (D-Mass.), appeared on a government terrorist watch list.

While Kennedy managed to get security officials to end his airlines hassles after three weeks of trying, Lewis had no luck for months. Then he found his own way around the security mess.

Lewis added his middle initial to his name when making his airline reservations. The computer system apparently didn't flag tickets for "Rep. John R. Lewis," and the hassles suddenly ended.

"The 'R' is the only thing that has been saving me," Lewis said from Atlanta yesterday.

Hundreds of passengers -- possibly thousands -- have contacted the Transportation Security Administration complaining that the government's secret watch lists are unfairly targeting innocent travelers and causing travel headaches. Just last month, more than 250 passengers sought to be removed from the list.

But even more disconcerting, some of these travelers and security experts say, is that the system can be easily circumvented by a simple adjustment to one's name. "The no-fly list assumes that dangerous people are going to use the same name the government thinks they use. If I'm Osama bin Laden, I'm going to use a fake ID when I go on an airline and hijack it," said Aaron H. Caplan, attorney at the American Civil Liberties Union. "The whole notion that keeping a list of names contributes to safety is kind of questionable, especially when terrorists use aliases all the time."

Some passengers who were told that their names matched others on the watch lists said they have been tipped off by airline employees who were embarrassed and apologetic about having to delay them when the passengers were known to the employees.

John W. Lewis, a 76-year-old doctor who lives in Camden, Maine, said he was stopped and questioned before several Continental Airlines flights to Houston, where he teaches a course. When he arrived for his usual flight in June, airline agents had some advice for him. "They said, 'You're not on the list, but your name is, and if you change your name, it will be okay,' " Lewis said.

So he changed the name on his credit card and his airline tickets to "Dr. John W. Lewis," but it has not eliminated the problem entirely, he said. Airline agents still stop him when he checks in at the ticket counter, he said. But no one raises any questions on the return trip. He said he has contacted Maine Sen. Susan Collins (R) and Rep. Lewis to try to fix the problem permanently. "I can't believe we are all on the hit list," he said, referring to people named John Lewis.