Senator? Terrorist? Kennedy victim of terrorist watch list

Veteran Senator Edward Kennedy said yesterday he had been misidentified on a terrorism watch list five times when he tried to board airliners between Washington and Boston.

The Massachusetts Democrat, who has been in the U.S. Senate since 1962, was stopped as he tried to board US Airways shuttles because his name resembled an alias used by a suspected terrorist, his aides said.

"If they have that kind of difficulty with a member of Congress, how in the world are average Americans, who are getting caught up in this thing, how are they going to be treated fairly and not have their rights abused?" Kennedy asked Homeland Security Undersecretary Asa Hutchinson.

Hutchinson, who apologized for "any inconvenience" to the senator, was testifying before the Senate Judiciary Committee on the need for the federal government to take over the watch lists, which are currently administered by the airlines.

Kennedy said he was stopped at airports in Washington, D.C., and Boston three times in March.

Airline agents told him he would not be sold a ticket because his name was on a list.

Instead of acknowledging the silver-haired septuagenarian as the congressional leader whose face has flashed across the nation's television sets for decades, the airline agents acted as if they had stumbled across a fanatic who might blow up an airplane and refused to give him his ticket.

`How in the world are average Americans going to be treated fairly?'

Edward Kennedy, U.S. senator

When Kennedy asked the agent why, he was told, "We can't tell you.''

The Senate chamber erupted in laughter when Kennedy said: "I went up to the desk and said, `I've been getting on this plane, you know, for 42 years. Why can't I get on the plane?'''

Each time, a supervisor recognized Kennedy and got him on the flight. But after the third incident, Kennedy's staff called the Transportation Security Administration and asked to clear up the confusion.

The TSA said a name similar to Kennedy's was on the watch list, and he was later flagged to go through additional screening. TSA also said the airlines didn't handle the matter properly.

Just days after Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge called Kennedy in early April to apologize and to promise that the problems would be resolved, another airline agent tried to stop Kennedy from boarding a plane yet again.

The alias used by the suspected terrorist on the watch list was Edward Kennedy, said David Smith, a spokesman for the senator.

The American Civil Liberties Union has filed lawsuits in San Francisco and Seattle over this issue, demanding that the government explain how wrongly flagged travellers can get off the lists.

Hutchinson said that people who experience problems can call the TSA ombudsman to clear things up.