Notorious Felon and Terrorist Has No Trouble Flying, Thank You Very Much [Updated]

I don't much like DHS, and I really don't like TSA, but I'm cool with DHSOIG because it seems to be genuinely trying to get TSA to shape up, even if TSA just ignores it.

That's the DHS Office of the Inspector General, which has released report after report pointing out TSA mistakes and buffoonery, my favorite of which is now OIG-15-45, "Allegation of Granting Expedited Screening Through TSA Pre[Check] Improperly [Redacted]," even if it is redacted. This is a remarkable document.

Here's what happened (sorry if this is hard to read-the document appears to be "secured" against cutting and pasting):

Just to be clear, although the identity of Sufficiently Notorious Convicted Felon (hereinafter, "Felon") has been redacted, the federal government believes this about him/her: "The traveler is a former member of a domestic terrorist group. While a member, the traveler was involved in numerous felonious criminal activities that led to arrest and conviction. After serving a multiple-year sentence, the traveler was released from prison."

These criminal activities included "murder and offenses that involve explosives." We know that because TSA concluded that Felon was not actually a member of TSA Pre[Check]. Or, at least, TSA did not find a record of this person applying to be a member. Nor was Felon just in the Pre[Check] lane because they weren't busy or something like that; Felon's boarding pass actually had Pre[Check] marking on it, including an encrypted barcode. It appears, although most of the relevant stuff is redacted, that Felon was somehow cleared through the Secure Flight program, which allows such people to print their own boarding passes.

Exactly how this happened is, of course, redacted, but may have to do with the various "no-fly lists." I infer that from the fact that OIG made a recommendation that had to do with these lists (the recommendation itself is redacted), and TSA told it to get lost. Had the relevant intelligence/law-enforcement communities felt this person was a risk, TSA responded, they'd have put him/her on a list (so this person clearly was not on such a list). So it's the list-makers' fault, according to TSA.

But wait. Whoever this Sufficiently Notorious Convicted Felon might be, he or she is or has been sufficiently well known that the TSA agent at the checkpoint recognized the person "based on media coverage." (It's not the Unabomber, I assume. Any guesses?) The agent alerted a supervisor to this fact, and even bumped it up an additional level. According to the report, the supervisor "then directed the TSO to take no further action and allow the traveler through ...." The system works! Or not?

The explanation here may be the "domestic terrorist" classification, because as we've discussed before, the word "terrorist" is applied very liberally (so to speak) these days. Maybe the supervisor also recognized the person and thought he or she was wrongfully accused? The reference to a conviction for murder makes me hesitate here, but I don't know what the explanation might be otherwise.

I am of course trying to find out, because I am having trouble guessing, who Notorious Convicted Felon might be, let alone what it takes to be "sufficiently" notorious. Surely someone knows or has guessed? Please advise if so.

Update: Seems like there are several possible candidates here.

• Some former members of the Weather Underground are eligible. They carried out bombings but it's not clear that anyone was killed. "The President's friend Bill Ayers" was a good guess and he has been in the news fairly recently, but the charges against him were dropped because the evidence involved illegal wiretaps, so he wasn't convicted of anything.

• His wife Bernardine Dorhn was convicted of something, I think weapons charges, but got probation. So she never served jail time.

• Several former members were convicted of murder after an armored-car robbery in 1981 in which three guards were killed. Most of them are either dead or still in prison, but Kathy Boudin was released on parole in 2003. I'm not sure whether she was convicted of explosives charges, though. And would a TSA agent recognize her?

• Patty Hearst is pretty famous and might have been recognizable, but unlike the mystery traveler she wasn't convicted of murder or charges related to explosives.

• Another SLA member, Sara Jane Olson, is a better possibility. She was in hiding for many years but pleaded guilty to murder and explosives charges, and was released on parole in 2009. Would a TSA agent recognize her? Well, according to Wikipedia, her daughter was a contestant on American Idol in 2011, so maybe that explains it. My best guess so far.