STEVE INSKEEP, host:
A Virginia teenager is back at home after being held in Kuwait for more than a month. Gulet Mohammed and his lawyers claim his return was delayed because he was on the American no-fly list. The U.S. government refuses to say whether he or anybody else is on that list, or is not on that list, for that matter.
The no-fly list has grown in recent years. We do know that. And so have the numbers of people complaining. NPR's Jamie Tarabay reports on how large the list actually is.
JAMIE TARABAY: Gulet Mohammed still doesn't have confirmation he's on the no-fly list. But the fact the Kuwaitis tried to force him onto a flight to the U.S. and failed made the case for his lawyer, Gadeir Abbas.
Mr. GADEIR ABBAS (Attorney): At that point it was clear that it was the United States and not the Kuwaitis that were mainly responsible for his continued detention. It really simplified our legal argument.
TARABAY: A district court judge agreed and ordered Mohammed home. His lawyers are now suing the government and waiting to find out if he's on the list. Timothy Healy is director of the FBI's Terrorist Screening Center, which maintains the list.
Mr. TIMOTHY HEALY (Director, Terrorist Screening Center): We don't confirm or deny whether you're on the watch list. And candidly, people just assume they are, and 99.4 percent of the time they're wrong.
TARABAY: Healy says there has to be credible intelligence for authorities to put someone on the list: the passenger is considered a threat to the plane, could be traveling somewhere to commit a terrorist act, or went to a terrorist camp.
The 99.4 percent of people he says are wrong to believe they're on the list are people who go through second screenings but continue on to their flights. The actual number of people on the no-fly list isn't as high as you might think.
Mr. HEALY: About ten thousand. And then the U.S. citizens on the no-fly list is even much smaller, between 500 and 1,000.
TARABAY: And since people aren't told they're on the list, most don't find out till they're at the airport. Ben Wizner is an attorney for the American Civil Liberties Union. He thinks traveling to Yemen, as Gulet Mohammed did, is a red flag that could get you on the list.
Mr. BOB WIZNER (American Civil Liberties Union): And I think that if the class of people on the no-fly list is going to be defined that broadly, it really underscores the need for a fair process to sort out who belongs on it and who doesn't.
TARABAY: The ACLU has sued on behalf of 17 people who found themselves on the list - all American citizens, some with family in the Middle East. One is a dog trainer in Chicago. Others are former members of the U.S. military.
Mr. WIZNER: The lawsuit doesn't challenge the government's right to have a list like this. The lawsuit says at a minimum you have to give that person some ability to object.
TARABAY: Right now the main way people can object is to go to the Department of Homeland Security website and file a complaint. Timothy Healy, from the Terrorist Screening Center, says the challenge is trying to balance civil liberties with security. He says the list is necessary and points to one example to show that it works.
Mr. HEALY: Faisal Shahzad.
TARABAY: Shahzad was a suspect in the botched car bomb attempt in the middle of New York's Times Square last May. He was able to purchase a ticket and board a plane to Dubai. Law enforcement agents pulled him off the plane just before it took off.
Mr. HEALY: The benefit of being able to stop him from traveling on a plane was the no-fly list.
TARABAY: But Shahzad was able to still able to board his flight. Douglas Laird, former Secret Service and now aviation consultant, says the system isn't perfect and would-be terrorists can get around it.
Mr. DOUGLAS LAIRD (Aviation Consultant): If the person is a professional, it's too easy to change an identity. So for that reason I wouldn't put an awful lot of faith in the system.
TARABAY: Those in favor of the list describe it as a useful tool in the arsenal of national security. But they also say it shouldn't be the only one.
Jamie Tarabay, NPR News, Washington.