And Authorities Are Not Required To Tell The Family Why

A six-year-old girl from northeast Ohio is apparently on the Department of Homeland Security no-fly list, and no one will tell her family why or how she got there.

What they do know is that when Alyssa Thomas showed up at the Cleveland airport with her family for a trip to Minneapolis, the ticket agent at the Continental desk told them she was on the list. While she was eventually allowed to fly, the family is being kept in the dark as to why their first grader is on a no-fly list.

Cleveland television station WJW-TV reports that Alyssa's family was told to contact DHS to "clear up the matter," which they did, but Alyssa reportedly recently received a letter form the U.S. government telling her nothing will be changed and she will stay on the list. While the FBI does acknowledge that the list exists, they say the are not allowed to discuss who is on the list, or why.

TSA says that Alyssa, who her family says has been flying since she was about 2 months old, never had a problem until the Secure Flight Program went into effect in June. Her dad says they traveled to Mexico in February, and there was no problem at that time.

The FBI says it will have to rely on the "common sense" of security agents in the case of the 6 year old on a no-fly list, and maintains that the list is "an important layer of security to prevent individuals with known or suspected ties to terrorism from flying." In the meantime, she can fly, but check-in is likely to take far longer than usual.

Meanwhile, the Thomas family plans another appeal to DHS.

FMI: www.dhs.gov, www.tsa.gov, www.fbi.gov