Guten tag, your papers, and full name please

Ever since shortly after 9/11 regular travellers have been made aware by their travel agents and some media reports of the merits of ensuring that you book flights in your name precisely as it appears in your passport.

That was one of the early precautions against being challenged by airport security in the clanking big fiasco that has become airport security in the US, and to lesser degrees elsewhere.

My full name for example isn’t Ben, it is something longer than that, something that made me often ask my parents what were they thinking when they choose it, but it was in the family Bible, so that was that, even though my namesake was a born loser in an old testament sort of way.

(OK, so I DO have an explanation).

So I began ensuring everything is booked under my christened name. And that at least one credit card and when it was renewed my driving licence were all in synch.

This also helped automated boarding pass booths correctly locate my booking and ensured that what was printed on it matched what my passport said.

Which made this update on where this aspect of data gathering for security purposes by the airlines for the American government so interesting.

America now has enormous lists of registered, suspected, or potential terrorists threats. All that is required is to check those lists before the suspected threat flies, so that he or she can be denied entry.

There are lists of non pork eaters, of vegetarians, of Arabs, people who look like Arabs, people who cunningly don’t look like Arabs but are Muslim, people who are intellectuals, scientists, biologists, and, who are working foreign media.

The madness continues to spread. And it is all based on the belief that those who could constitute a threat are enrolled on such lists.

It is so childishly stupid. A light goes ding somewhere in DC that shows that a team of terr-ists have all booked to fly to America at a certain time. (If they have booked an a US carrier this will sure save on the water boarding and rectal amusements in Gitmo since they may be close to admitting to anything by the time they get to LAX.)

What this article in Travel Weekly in the US proves is that the security juggernaut is as out of control as ever and that you should seriously consider whether or not your trip there is worth the aggravation.