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U.S. Agency Tries to Fix No-Fly List Mistakes
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O'Dwyer even carried a letter from the Customs and Border Protection Office of Field Operations saying, "(Y)ou are not, nor have you ever been, on record as a criminal suspect."
But, he said, customs officers told him the letter could have been forged. He said he offered to submit to fingerprints, just as foreign flight crews do, but to no avail.
O'Dwyer become so frustrated that he gave up flying internationally in May, a move that he said cost him $10,000 a year in salary and expenses. He said he is still stopped when he reaches the domestic gate, and a supervisor must help him get cleared.
Christopher White, a spokesman for the Transportation Security Administration, which handles domestic passengers, declined to comment on O'Dwyer's case, saying that the agency does not publicly verify names on its watch lists. About 15,000 people per week apply for redress, saying they have been mistakenly placed on the TSA's rolls. About 33,000 have applied to be removed from those lists as of April, the most recent date available. Soon, TSA's no-fly list will be pared of names erroneously included, officials said.
The FBI also declined to discuss specific cases. FBI spokesman Paul Bresson noted that the agencies are "refining" their watch lists, "removing names when they're cleared."
Wagner, the customs official, said that though the system for eliminating false positives applies only to international flights, eventually it will extend to domestic travelers. And the Homeland Security Department, which houses both Customs and Border Protection and the TSA, will soon begin a Traveler Redress Inquiry Program for people who believe they have been wrongfully subjected to additional screening or denied permission to board flights to or from the United States.
O'Dwyer, for one, still does not know why he was detained, gleaning only through "offhand" comments from customs agents that his name nearly matched that of an IRA operative. One IRA leader with whom he could be confused is Ciaran O'Dwyer, according to World-Check, a British firm that maintains a global database of terrorists, high-risk individuals and political figures. The IRA leader, born about 1955, was convicted in June 2005 and sentenced to five years and nine months.
O'Dwyer, the pilot, who also was born in 1955, has not lost all hope. In the spring, he intends to test the customs screening system when he goes on holiday to Italy.
Staff researcher Richard Drezen contributed to this report.
