The Bush Administration Conspiracy de Jour

The name Walter Murphy appears on the “no-fly list’ for scrutiny at airline check-in.

“On 1 March 07, I was scheduled to fly on American Airlines to Newark, NJ, to attend an academic conference at Princeton University, designed to focus on my latest scholarly book, Constitutional Democracy, published by Johns Hopkins University Press this past Thanksgiving."

"When I tried to use the curb-side check in at the Sunport, I was denied a boarding pass because I was on the Terrorist Watch list. I was instructed to go inside and talk to a clerk.”

The name Walter Murphy is on the list either for a reason or through a bureaucratic mistake. Let’s assume for the sake of discussion the name is on the list for a reason.

It could be there’s a suspected terrorist by the name of Walter Murphy (IRA for example) and that’s why the name is on the list. That would be the simplest explanation and similar to the problems Sen.Ted Kennedy encountered.

Professor Murphy, emeritus of Princeton University, believes he’s being “singled out for governmental harassment” because he made a speech critical of President Bush.

"I presented my credentials from the Marine Corps to a very polite clerk for American Airlines. One of the two people to whom I talked asked a question and offered a frightening comment: "Have you been in any peace marches? We ban a lot of people from flying because of that." I explained that I had not so marched but had, in September, 2006, given a lecture at Princeton, televised and put on the Web, highly critical of George Bush for his many violations of the Constitution. "That'll do it," the man said."

For Prof. Murphy’s take to be plausible you have to believe:

• · The name on the list is unique to the professor.
  
  · Prof. Murphy’s speech actually came to the attention of the “no-fly” list makers, prompting his name to be added.
  
  · The exchange between the airline clerk and Prof. Murphy truly happened as quoted.
  
  · Airline clerks have it on good authority that participants in "peace" marches and those making speeches critical of President Bush are often placed on the “no-fly” list solely for these reasons.
  
  · The ”no-fly” list is not only loaded with these names for scrutiny at check-in, but “we ban a lot of people from flying because of that”.
  
  · Well known critics of President Bush and “peace” activists aren’t on the list or banned from flying because that would be too obvious. This form of harassment is reserved by the Bush administration for little known critics and “peace” marchers, with the prior exception of Sen. Kennedy.
  
  · Prof. Murphy isn’t jumping to predisposed conclusions and has no political agenda for publicizing this story.

We assume Prof. Murphy made his flight from Albuquerque, New Mexico to New Jersey without any further inconvenience. We hope he has a speedy trip back home, if he hasn’t already gone.