GRAND FORKS, N.D. (AP) -- There's a new wrinkle to flying commercially for Dwight Thompson, who discovered recently that his name is on a security watch list.
''I'm on the what?'' Thompson recalled thinking when he was stopped at the ticket counter in Chicago's O'Hare International Airport.
After a detailed indentification check, the chief financial officer for Altru Health System continued on his trip. But he'll face more of the same unless he gets clearance from the government.
Thompson, 50, said he's trying to do just that, but what he'd really like is to get off the watch list altogether.
The list that Thompson has landed on is called a ''selectee list,'' which is a step below being on a no-fly list. Being on the no-fly list means you are not allowed on any airline in the United States. Being on a selectee list, by contrast, just means additional screening at check-in.
Getting one's name removed from the list is a lengthy process, said Andrea McCauley, a spokeswoman for the Transportation Security Administration.
At O'Hare, an automated ticketing kiosk directed Thompson to a ticketing agent where he learned he was on the watch list. He filled out some forms and showed some additional identity in a process that took 15 to 30 minutes.
Thompson said it was amusing at first but then worrisome.
''You just wonder the consequences of your name showing up like that and how it's going to impact anything you do.''
What happens now if he goes to Canada, he asked, or makes another flight, which he'll be doing in a couple of weeks.
Names on the lists aren't put there by the TSA, said McCauley, but come from information gathered by intelligence and law enforcement agencies in the United States and around the world.
It takes a while to get off the watch list because the TSA has to check with all the agencies to make sure it isn't removing a legitimate terror suspect, she said.
