That Woman Who Has Been Fighting To Get Off the No-Fly List for Years? It Was Due to a Paperwork Error.

We’ve previously
noted the case of Rahinah Ibraham, a scholar who has been
fighting the federal government for years trying to figure out why
she was placed on the TSA’s no-fly list and trying to get off. The
government has fought her each and every step of the way, going so
far as using their powers to keep her daughter from boarding a
plane to come testify on her behalf.

So it turns out an FBI agent filled out a form wrong.

That’s literally what happened, back in 2004. The wrong box was
checked off. Wired
reports that the judge in the case released his full ruling
today. He already ordered in January for the feds to fix it the
mistake, but now we know exactly what the mistake is:

The agent, Michael Kelly, based in San Jose, misunderstood the
directions on the form and “erroneously nominated” Rahinah Ibrahim
to the list in 2004, the judge wrote.

“He checked the wrong boxes, filling out the form exactly the
opposite way from the instructions on the form,” U.S. District
Judge William Alsup
wrote (.pdf) today.

To top it off, the agent did not realize he had made a mistake
until he was deposed for this lawsuit last September.