Taking the Mountain to …
Via CBC:
A Quebec businessman whose name is one of the many that have erroneously landed on the U.S. Department of Homeland Security’s flight passenger watch list has decided to change his name to avoid lengthy security hassles at the airport.
Mario Labbé, an executive with a Montreal-based record company, says his Canadian passport triggers a red alert on the computers of U.S. customs agents every time he tries to board a flight to the U.S. — which is about once a month for the past seven years.
…
Although Labbé wrote letters to the U.S. department, his efforts were in vain, prompting him to legally change his name.“So now, my official name is François Mario Labbé,” he said.
“Then you have to change everything: driver’s license, social insurance, medicare, credit card — everything.”
Although it’s not a big change from Mario Labbé, he said it’s been enough to foil the U.S. customs computers.
It turns out that terrorists aren’t allowed to legally change their name, so I guess we can consider that security hole firmly plugged.
Tags: Humor, incompetence, war on terror
September 13th, 2008 at 1:03 pm
[...] Win. (via NeedleNose) [...]
September 13th, 2008 at 7:19 pm
please tell me that they’re not using his actual name in the news article.
I’d hate to think that all the TSA folks have to do is tune in CBC in order to have a new name to add to the no-fly list.
September 14th, 2008 at 4:08 am
[...] HT Needlenose [...]
September 14th, 2008 at 7:01 am
I’d hate to think that all the TSA folks have to do is tune in CBC in order to have a new name to add to the no-fly list.
Except, you see, TSA employees are forbidden to listen to CBC under pain of Gitmo. And they’ll have to put themselves on the no-fly list.
I might mention at this point that I am the bee’s knees. No flies on me!
September 14th, 2008 at 9:16 am
[...] (h/t) [...]