# Man puts his wife on a Terrorist Watch List **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [January 30, 2011, 10:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/man-puts-his-wife-on-a-terrorist-watch-list/569564 "2011-01-30T22:46:05Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![notfrommensa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/f14d63/32.png) [@notfrommensa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/notfrommensa)\ **Post date:** [January 30, 2011, 10:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/man-puts-his-wife-on-a-terrorist-watch-list/569564/1 "2011-01-30T22:46:05Z")
An [UK Immigration official](http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/top-stories/2011/01/30/immigration-officer-sacked-for-putting-wife-he-didn-t-like-on-terror-watch-list-115875-22884828/) put his hated wife on a Terrorist Watch List; And it kept her in Pakistan for three years. And then he applies for a promotion that requires more security clearance, and officials finds out about the wife and ask him about it. And he admits what he did. And naturally he gets fired. ---
**Author:** ![Turek](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/turek/32/18782_2.png) [@Turek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Turek)\ **Post date:** [January 31, 2011, 1:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/man-puts-his-wife-on-a-terrorist-watch-list/569564/2 "2011-01-31T01:32:51Z")
They should have thrown his sorry ass in jail. ---
**Author:** ![carnut](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnut/32/3531_2.png) [@carnut](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnut)\ **Post date:** [January 31, 2011, 1:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/man-puts-his-wife-on-a-terrorist-watch-list/569564/3 "2011-01-31T01:53:47Z")
Perhaps he should be sent to Haiti for three years. Or someplace else where he wouldn’t have contacts. ---
**Author:** ![Princhester](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/3e96dc/32.png) [@Princhester](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Princhester)\ **Post date:** [January 31, 2011, 4:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/man-puts-his-wife-on-a-terrorist-watch-list/569564/4 "2011-01-31T04:26:34Z")
> [@Turek](#): > > They should have thrown his sorry ass in jail. Who’s to say it won’t be? This story is at a very early stage. The guy in question is an asshole but the real evil is that a watchlist can have your name erroneously put on it, and there is no way to get your name off it even though your name went on there for no reason at all. You get prevented from coming home for three years and you aren’t entitled to know why, and no one even checks to see that your name being on the watchlist correlates to any substantive reason for being on there in the first place? That is _seriously_ fucked up. ---
**Author:** ![EvilTOJ](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/ee59a6/32.png) [@EvilTOJ](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EvilTOJ)\ **Post date:** [January 31, 2011, 10:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/man-puts-his-wife-on-a-terrorist-watch-list/569564/5 "2011-01-31T10:31:40Z")
Wow, what an abuse of power. He deserves everything he’s got coming to him. ---
**Author:** ![Uosdwis\_R.Dewoh](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/9e8a1a/32.png) [@Uosdwis\_R.Dewoh](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Uosdwis_R.Dewoh)\ **Post date:** [January 31, 2011, 3:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/man-puts-his-wife-on-a-terrorist-watch-list/569564/6 "2011-01-31T15:12:06Z")
The article short on details. Why did the wife stay in Pakistan for three years? I know she couldn’t fly, but was she forbidden to leave the country at all? Where did she spend those three years, with her relatives or in a holding cell? ---
**Author:** ![AK84](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/85e7bf/32.png) [@AK84](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AK84)\ **Post date:** [January 31, 2011, 3:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/man-puts-his-wife-on-a-terrorist-watch-list/569564/7 "2011-01-31T15:18:07Z")
You are on a terror watch list your ability to travel internationally suddenly crashes. ---
**Author:** ![AK84](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/85e7bf/32.png) [@AK84](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AK84)\ **Post date:** [January 31, 2011, 6:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/man-puts-his-wife-on-a-terrorist-watch-list/569564/8 "2011-01-31T18:20:45Z")
> [@Uosdwis\_R.Dewoh](#): > > The article short on details. Why did the wife stay in Pakistan for three years? I know she couldn’t fly, but was she forbidden to leave the country at all? Where did she spend those three years, with her relatives or in a holding cell? East India. Not healthy for a Pakistani Citizen. To the West you have hell aka Afghanistan. To the South West Iran and indeed the dersert part of Iran. To the North, China and Central Asia, through the Himalayas. To the South, the Indian Ocean. Yeah flying was her only way out. ---
**Author:** ![Shmendrik](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ee7513/32.png) [@Shmendrik](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shmendrik)\ **Post date:** [January 31, 2011, 6:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/man-puts-his-wife-on-a-terrorist-watch-list/569564/9 "2011-01-31T18:31:29Z")
> [@AK84](#): > > East India. Not healthy for a Pakistani Citizen. To the West you have hell aka Afghanistan. To the South West Iran and indeed the dersert part of Iran. To the North, China and Central Asia, through the Himalayas. To the South, the Indian Ocean. > > Yeah flying was her only way out. Too bad there’s no way to travel across the water in some sort of buoyant floating vehicle. ---
**Author:** ![Chessic\_Sense](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/7c8e57/32.png) [@Chessic\_Sense](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chessic_Sense)\ **Post date:** [January 31, 2011, 6:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/man-puts-his-wife-on-a-terrorist-watch-list/569564/10 "2011-01-31T18:32:05Z")
> [@Princhester](#): > > The guy in question is an asshole but the real evil is that a watchlist can have your name erroneously put on it, and there is no way to get your name off it even though your name went on there for no reason at all. You get prevented from coming home for three years and you aren’t entitled to know why, and no one even checks to see that your name being on the watchlist correlates to any substantive reason for being on there in the first place? It doesn’t work that way in the US. Such an error will fuck up your travel day, sure, but not your year. ---
**Author:** ![Chessic\_Sense](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/7c8e57/32.png) [@Chessic\_Sense](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chessic_Sense)\ **Post date:** [January 31, 2011, 6:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/man-puts-his-wife-on-a-terrorist-watch-list/569564/11 "2011-01-31T18:33:52Z")
> [@Shmendrik](#): > > Too bad there’s no way to travel across the water in some sort of buoyant floating vehicle. You’re missing the point. Watchlists aren’t just for air travel. They are used to bar people at the border no matter how they arrive. If you come from, say, Mexico to the states, it doesn’t matter if you come by foot, car, plane or boat. CBP will check you all the same. So even if she can take a boat, there’s no guarantee she’ll be allowed off of it into whatever country she sails to. ---
**Author:** ![Inigo\_Montoya](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/inigo_montoya/32/124_2.png) [@Inigo\_Montoya](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Inigo_Montoya)\ **Post date:** [January 31, 2011, 6:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/man-puts-his-wife-on-a-terrorist-watch-list/569564/12 "2011-01-31T18:38:05Z")
> [@Shmendrik](#): > > Too bad there’s no way to travel across the water in some sort of buoyant floating vehicle. Actually I do have an invention I like to call a “Buoyancy Operated Aquatic Transport”, or B.O.A.T. for short. It would probably have come in quite handy. 😃 I would love it if someone put my ex on one of those lists. She’s a hag in person, but she could proably whup that neighborhood into shape well inside of 3 years simply through vicious nagging and passive aggressive mind games. plus it’d get her out of _my_ neighborhood for a while. ---
**Author:** ![Shmendrik](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ee7513/32.png) [@Shmendrik](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shmendrik)\ **Post date:** [January 31, 2011, 6:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/man-puts-his-wife-on-a-terrorist-watch-list/569564/13 "2011-01-31T18:39:28Z")
> [@Chessic\_Sense](#): > > You’re missing the point. Watchlists aren’t just for air travel. They are used to bar people at the border no matter how they arrive. If you come from, say, Mexico to the states, it doesn’t matter if you come by foot, car, plane or boat. CBP will check you all the same. > > So even if she can take a boat, there’s no guarantee she’ll be allowed off of it into whatever country she sails to. Quite possibly, although in that case **AK84** ’s geographical exposition isn’t relevant. ---
**Author:** ![MeanOldLady](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/meanoldlady/32/10737_2.png) [@MeanOldLady](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MeanOldLady)\ **Post date:** [January 31, 2011, 7:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/man-puts-his-wife-on-a-terrorist-watch-list/569564/14 "2011-01-31T19:06:56Z")
> [@Princhester](#): > > The guy in question is an asshole but the real evil is that a watchlist can have your name erroneously put on it, and there is no way to get your name off it even though your name went on there for no reason at all. You get prevented from coming home for three years and you aren’t entitled to know why, and no one even checks to see that your name being on the watchlist correlates to any substantive reason for being on there in the first place? That is _seriously_ fucked up. Yeah. How many news stories have we seen about toddlers erroneously being placed on the No Fly List because they have names that are similar to bad guys’. They get cleared up, but I suppose it’s easier to do for a three year old from Macon, GA than it is for a Pakistani woman. ---
**Author:** ![Zebra](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/c0e974/32.png) [@Zebra](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zebra)\ **Post date:** [January 31, 2011, 7:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/man-puts-his-wife-on-a-terrorist-watch-list/569564/15 "2011-01-31T19:14:10Z")
> [@Shmendrik](#): > > Too bad there’s no way to travel across the water in some sort of buoyant floating vehicle. There is a special they are running on PBS right now about two guys from New York who try to travel in Marco Polo’s foot steps. This is pre-911, post the fall of the soviet union. They had a hell of a hard time crossing boarders in that area. Getting a boat from Shanghai to India on the return portion was damn near impossible then India didn’t want to let them off the boat. So just because you got on a boat you may not be able to get off it. ---
**Author:** ![Arnold\_Winkelried](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/3d9bf3/32.png) [@Arnold\_Winkelried](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Arnold_Winkelried)\ **Post date:** [January 31, 2011, 10:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/man-puts-his-wife-on-a-terrorist-watch-list/569564/16 "2011-01-31T22:50:20Z")
These quotes especially show how the watch lists are obnoxious: “When she went to the airport to get her return flight back, officials told her she could not board the plane and did not explain why.” “The officer … simply had to log on to a computer database to add his wife as a potential suspect.” You would think that someone would review these watch lists once in a while. ---
**Author:** ![Chessic\_Sense](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/7c8e57/32.png) [@Chessic\_Sense](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chessic_Sense)\ **Post date:** [February 2, 2011, 4:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/man-puts-his-wife-on-a-terrorist-watch-list/569564/17 "2011-02-02T04:34:20Z")
> [@Arnold\_Winkelried](#): > > You would think that someone would review these watch lists once in a while. In the US, they do. ---
**Author:** ![Nava](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/da6949/32.png) [@Nava](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nava)\ **Post date:** [February 2, 2011, 7:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/man-puts-his-wife-on-a-terrorist-watch-list/569564/18 "2011-02-02T07:18:59Z")
> [@Arnold\_Winkelried](#): > > You would think that someone would review these watch lists once in a while. If the reviewer happened to be that same guy, it wouldn’t do much good. ---
**Author:** ![Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bosda_di_chi_of_tricor/32/16845_2.png) [@Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bosda_Di_Chi_of_Tricor)\ **Post date:** [February 2, 2011, 11:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/man-puts-his-wife-on-a-terrorist-watch-list/569564/19 "2011-02-02T23:19:09Z")
> [@Chessic\_Sense](#): > > In the US, they do. Prove it. :dubious: Cite? ---
**Author:** ![billfish678](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7bcc69/32.png) [@billfish678](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/billfish678)\ **Post date:** [February 3, 2011, 12:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/man-puts-his-wife-on-a-terrorist-watch-list/569564/20 "2011-02-03T00:32:39Z")
While what this guy did was WAY wrong, I have a dream. That the wife WAS the SO/person from hell/somebody Satan himself would kick out. And that this guy’s actions were where the bad person finally gets what karma has been saving up for years 🙂 Very likely not the case, but the possibility does make me chuckle a bit. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/man-puts-his-wife-on-a-terrorist-watch-list/569564.md?page=2)