Trapped by the Security State

by Lewis Marshall, PhD Candidate in Chemical Engineering

In January 2005, a graduate of Construction Engineering and Management at Stanford attempted to board a plane at SFO. She was told that her name was on the No-Fly list. She was detained for two hours, and then informed that her name had been cleared.

The next day, she attempted to fly out again, and was again told that her name was on the No-Fly list. This time, however, she was allowed to board the plane and fly to Malaysia. Not long after, her student visa was revoked. She has not been allowed to return to the United States since.

Rahinah Ibrahim is one of approximately 400,000 people on the US No-Fly list, a list established in the months after the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001. I say approximately because the number of names on the list is a secret. (The TSA released approximate figures on their blog four years ago in response to ACLU estimates.) The identities of the people on the list are also a secret, not only from the general public, but the from the individuals themselves. There is no website you can check, no phone number to call. As the ACLU says, the only way to know whether you are on the list is to book a trip. “If you are ultimately allowed onto a plane, this means you are not on the No Fly List.”