Grounded.  A federal agency confirms that it maintains an air-travel blacklist of 1,000 people.  Peace activists and civil libertarians fear they're on it.  [this is premium content on Salon.com, but you can access it for free by watching a Mercedes commercial that, as a really cool sidenote, has a spinning car.  Emphasis in italics is mine.]

... a spokesman for the new Transportation Security Administration has acknowledged for the first time that the government has a list of about 1,000 people who are deemed "threats to aviation" and not allowed on airplanes under any circumstances.  And in an interview with Salon, the official suggested that Olshansky and other political activists may be on a separate list that subjects them to strict scrutiny but allows them to fly.

I have known about the existence of the no-fly list and the extra-security list for quite a while, because I have determined that I am on it.  In fact, I truly believe the list spans more than simply flying.  Here's why.

For years, starting well before September 11th, I have regularly been subjected to extra searches as I pass through airline security.  Always, regardless of the type of ticket I was using, how I paid for it, where I was going--it didn't matter.  I was always searched.  It used to be at the initial security screening at checkin--I'd always be directed to "go over there" for extra security screening of my checked luggage.  Then, when I went through the security checkpoint, my hand baggage would be searched, nine times out of ten.  Post-September 11th, of the probably fifteen or so flights I've been on, I've been pulled aside for the "random" security check at the gate all but one time.  I recognize the code on the boarding card that tells the gate agent whether or not to check me! 

For a while, I though perhaps this was a fluke of the laws of chance, that I was really being "randomly" checked.  However, on one flight this summer, when I was heading to the LawNet conference in Florida, I overheard the security-check person ask, as I was pulled aside to be checked, "is this a random check?"  The gate agent looked at her list, looked at my card and at me, and quite clearly said "No, this isn't a random."

My suspicions were confirmed.

Then, in September, I was traveling on the EuroStar train from London to Paris to visit my sister.  Just about everything there is electronic; you simply pass your boarding card through a feeder and enter.  My boarding card, however, would not allow me to pass through, and I was again taken to a "special" line for what appeared to be closer scrutiny of my passport and belongings.

So yes.  Now that the extra security checks I go through have extended to (a) a train in (b) another country, I'm thoroughly convinced I'm on a security list somewhere.  Why am I on this list?  I have no idea.  Beyond a traffic ticket, I've never been in trouble with the law; while I have a mildly-activist streak in me, I've never done any heavy-duty protesting of anything; and I've certainly never advocated violence of any sort.  I consider myself a rather model citizen!  Perhaps my name was ticked-off on a list at some point by accident; the person in the seat next to me appeared threatening to a flight attendant or something.  Or perhaps I was on a mailing-list for some ultra-libertarian (is there even any such thing??) organization that the FBI was watching. 

To be fair, unlike in the story from Salon, I've never been denied boarding.  I've never even been harassed from an individual security guard or gate agent.  I've been embarassed, certainly, and inconvenienced to a greater degree than most other passengers, but I've always made it to where I was heading in the end.  Clearly, I'm not on the "A" list.  But something out there has my name on it, and I just wish I knew what it was.