What's in a name? A Litchfield man has found out the hard way.
Robert F. Johnson is proud of his community service, having served as a town selectman and volunteer firefighter. He is also happy to be a grandfather.
But to the federal government, he is a potential terrorist.
Johnson, 62, has been detained and searched at airports during vacation trips to the Caribbean because his name is one of 44,000 that were placed on a watch list by the Department of Homeland Security after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. The scrutiny has caused him to miss flights twice.
"From what I have been told, it is all because there is one Robert F. Johnson who is a Black Panther and another who is a convicted arms dealer," Johnson told the Sunday Republican of Waterbury in a story published Sunday. "One of the two was born in the same month and year as me. Because of that, I guess it raises a red flag when I show up at the airport."
In a story that was to be aired Sunday night on CBS's "60 Minutes," Johnson and about a dozen other Robert Johnsons were to tell stories about being strip-searched at airports, detained by armed guards and missing flights.
The report, according to CBS's Web site, says the watch list includes names of people not likely to cause terror, including the president of Bolivia, and common names shared by thousands of innocent airline passengers. The list also includes dead people, but does not contain some of the most dangerous terrorists or suspected terrorists, according to the report.
Producers of "60 Minutes" called Litchfield's Robert Johnson in June to ask him to appear on the show with several other people of the same name, all of whom are frequently stopped at airports.
Johnson, a frequent flyer, said he had his worst airport experience in Miami in 2004, when he was traveling with his wife, Janice, on vacation to a time-share condominium they own in St. Maarten.
During a check of his carry-on baggage, Johnson said he was led to a room with armed guards and strip-searched.
"I felt like I was in jail," Johnson said. "They took my passport and told me to sit down. Here I am a grandfather, a former town official and a volunteer firefighter and I'm being treated like a criminal. Not a soul would tell me why I was being detained. Of course at the time I had no idea I was on the government's list."
He was released after two hours, but missed his flight. He said he went through a similar experience last year in Miami on the way to St. Maarten, and he has since decided to no longer take connecting flights to and from Miami.
"It is very disturbing to know I'll be detained every time I travel just because I have a name that someone randomly put on a list," Johnson said. "I'm upset and I feel violated, but there's nothing I can do about it. My name sends up a red flag and they have to detain me."
A government report released Friday said thousands of people have been mistakenly linked to names on terror watch lists when they crossed the border, boarded commercial airliners or were stopped for traffic violations.
Federal authorities said people named Robert Johnson will always raise suspicion at airports.
"Well, Robert Johnson will never get off the list," Donna Bucella, an FBI official, said in a preview of the "60 Minutes" report on CBS's Web site. "They're going to be inconvenienced every time, because they do have the name of a person who's a known or suspected terrorist."
For the latest news, stay tuned to NBC 30 Connecticut News and NBC30.com
Copyright 2006 by NBC30.com. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
