NYTIMES/New Jersey Cub Scout Mikey Hicks has seldom boarded a plane without a hassle because he shares the name of a suspicious person. “It’s not a myth," says his mother. 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 on the larger 13,500 “selectee” list, which sets off a high level of security screening.
In the past three years, 81,793 frustrated travelers have asked to be struck from the watch list and more than 25,000 of their cases are still pending. “We can’t just throw a bunch of names on these lists and call it security,” said New Jersey Rep. William J. Pascrell . “If we can’t get an 8-year-old off the list, the whole list becomes suspect.”