Edward M. ‘Ted’ Kennedy, senior senator from Massachusetts, has revealed that he was stopped and questioned at airports on the east coast of the US five times in March because his name appeared on the government’s secret ‘‘no-fly’’ list, containing names of suspected terrorists.Kennedy revealed on Thursday at a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing that it took him and his staff more than three weeks to get his name removed from the ‘‘terror’’ list.A senior administration official said that the error that led to the scrutiny of Senator Kennedy should not have happened but was caused by the fact that the name ‘‘T. Kennedy’’ had been used as an alias by someone on the list of terrorist suspects. While he worked to clear himself, Senator Kennedy had to wait in terminals at Boston’s Logan International Airport, Reagan National Airport in Washington, and at least one other airport, his staff said.When the senator checked in at the counter in Boston, airline employees told him they could not issue him a boarding pass because he appeared on the list. Kennedy was delayed until a supervisor could be summoned to identify him and give approval for him to board the plane.The no-fly list was established by security, intelligence and law enforcement agencies after the 9/11 attacks. The government does not make public the names or the total number of people on the list. According to FBI documents obtained by the American Civil Liberties Union, more than 350 Americans have been delayed or denied boarding since the list’s inception. The list has not led to any arrests, the officials said.
