Homeland Insecurity: TB traveler was on government no-fly list

Today, the AJC has an excellent story about a Fulton County man who flew to and from Europe despite being infected with a rare and exceptionally dangerous strain of tuberculosis.

Worthy of another front-page story is the fact that the man discovered an unlocked backdoor into the United States.

The infected man evaded the U.S. “no-fly” restrictions, returning to the United States by flying from Prague to Montreal on Czech Air and driving from Canada.

Did the American keepers of the “no-fly” list tell Czech Air about the man? Did they tell Czech passport-control officials? Did they tell Canadian passport officials? Did anyone even bother telling the U.S. agents on the Canadian border? Who knows?

The precise nature of the screw-up is as yet unclear, but the bottom line is this:

It’s been almost six years since 9/11 and the United States still can’t even stop an American citizen using his own passport from getting on a plane in a friendly country, or stop him at the border.

Other than admiring my shoes, what exactly is the Department of Homeland Security doing with its $40 billion annual budget?