Following the terrorist attacks in France last week, the United States have just strengthened their security and monitoring systems, including those at US airports.
On 12th January, in a statement, the US Secretary of Homeland Security, Jeh Johnson, said, " the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) took steps to enhance the number of random searches of passengers and carry-on luggage boarding aircraft at US airports " and intends to "… continue its efforts to partner with the governments of France and other key counterterrorism allies to share information about terrorist threats."
The "No-Fly list", a blacklist of people banned from flying, therefore, should logically become longer. Persons registered on the list are suspected by the US authorities of involvement in terrorist activities.
Created in the aftermath of the Twin Towers attack, on September 11th 2001 in New York, this highly secret FBI managed list, today involves 47,000 names of people prohibited from flying to, or from, the United States. The perpetrators of the attack against Charlie Hebdo (a French satirical newspaper), Sharif and Said Kouachi for example, figured on the list, as was Mohamed Merah, the author of the 2012 killings in Toulouse, south western France. Only the US Senate has the authority to delete a name.
In practice, to be able to prevent persons on the "No-Fly list" from flying, the authorities verify the identity of all passengers. All airlines departing, passing through, or to the United States, are under obligation to transmit the full list of people on the passenger list before departure.
At present, only the United States and Canada have a record of risk passengers. Officially, Europe, for now, does not.
The "No-Fly list" is part of an anti-terrorist surveillance file in the United States, and could include as many as one million listed names.
