Terrorism prevention?

History News Network has a post about a story that I find nearly unbelievable.

According to phillyburbs.com (a publication of the Philidelphia Inquirer), a woman recently discovered that someone had stolen her credit card and used it to purchase tickets on a flight to Philidelphia for the weekend that President Bush and Homeland Security director Thomas Ridge were to have a meeting there.  She also noted that the name of the person who'd charged the tickets to her card sounded Middle Eastern.  Yes, being concerned about the situation because the man's name sounds Middle Eastern smacks of racial profiling, but even I have to admit that were I in the same situation, I'd probably be a bit more concerned if it was a Middle Eastern-sounding name than one that wasn't, though I'd be worried either way.  It's not the best way to think, but it's also at least somewhat understandable. 

At any rate, the woman decided to try and alert someone to what could be a potentially dangerous situation. She tried to call the airline, the FBI office in Philidelphia, the Secret Service, the Philidelphia police terrorist tip line, the airport police, and the police for the local area where the airport is located.  Then she e-mailed the White House, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, the General Services Administration, all the Philadelphia TV stations.  In each case, except for two, she either was unable to reach anyone, was told it wasn't the kind of crime which that particular office handles or given other excuses as to why whomever she was speaking to couldn't help her any. The two responses she did get were from the Pennsylvania Homeland Security office, saying they couldn't do anything until Monday morning - an hour after the man's return flight was leaving Philidelphia, and from someone at the GSA who offered sympathy but couldn't help her since it wasn't a GSA problem.

"All my husband and I wanted was for this guy to be pulled from the flight and questioned," she said.

Given some of the examples we've heard about of people most wouldn't consider being a threat being checked at airports, delayed or prevented from getting on flights and other problems related to security issues, it doesn't sound like it shouldn't have been a difficult request to fulfill.