http://www.cnn.com/2008/US/08/22/pilot.watch.list/index.htmlNote the ethnic name...Erich Scherfen...and not particularly common I wouldn't think, especially with the German spelling "Erich".
I don't believe that the watch list has to do with terrorism. I suspect it has other objectives.
Now here is an interesting matter: it is apparently possible to distinguish between "no flies" and "false positives". "No flies" can NEVER get a boarding pass, whereas "false positives" can, although the process is harder because unlike other people they can not book tickets online, and therefor are prone to missing flights.
Cat Stevens/Yusuf Islam/Steven Demetre Georgiou claims that his inclusion on the list is "a mistake"; in any case he did somehow manage to get into the USA for a recording session with Dolly Parton. However, the wife of Senator Ted Stevens, Catherine, was detained and made to prove that she was not "Cat Stevens", so I suspect that he was being a little glib to talk his way in. He's not welcome in Israel either, apparently due to donations for a Palestinian children's charity, and it was apparently the Israeli government that put him on the list.
Some known no-flies:
* James Moore, author and critic of Bush administration
* Jesselyn Radack, a former United States Department of Justice ethics adviser and apparent whistle-blower
* Walter F. Murphy, McCormick Professor of Jurisprudence at Princeton, who believes that his name might be on the list for a televised lecture on violations of the constitution
* David Fathi, a lawyer for the ACLU who is Iranian (bad combo, bud)
As for the unfortunate Mr. Scherfen, hopefully the negative publicity will make the TSA back down, but he is running out of time.
A similar incident involving a marine named Daniel Brown was escalated when his entire company refused to board the plane when he was barred. Good for them.
