Amir Mohammed Meshal, 24, is an American from Tinton Falls, New Jersey. According to US officials, he was captured three months ago in Africa while escaping from war-torn Somalia. At the time, Meshal was believed to be an Al-Qaeda loyalist fighting with local Islamic militia. He was detained in Kenya and then in Ethiopia where he was questioned by US officials including the FBI. Recently the State Department cleared Meshal of terrorism charges and conceded that he was free to go home. 

"We hope to see him reunited with his family very soon," deputy State Department spokesman Tom Casey told the Associated Press. But that's not what happened. There was no immediate family reunion because Meshal was on the Department of Homeland Security's no-fly list.

Getting on the no-fly list is one thing. It's easy if your name is Richard Johnson or if you are one of the dead 9/11 hijackers, or if you are Evo Morales, the President Bolivia. But getting off the no-fly list is an entirely different story — even if you are a medium-profile, former detainee mysteriously hanging out during a civil war in one of the most dangerous hot beds of Islamic fundamentalism in the world: Somalia.

The President promised the American people that in creating The Department of Homeland Security the "Wall of Bureaucracy" would come down. Instead, those walls are surely getting higher as is evident in this confusing article from The Associated Press:

However, [Meshal's] return to his family in the state of New Jersey, has hit a snag because his name appears on a watch list of potentially dangerous passengers circulated to international airlines by the FBI and Department of Homeland Security, the officials said.

Because his name is on that list, airlines are declining to allow him to fly, one official said. The officials declined to speak on the record because they are not supposed to disclose information about the list.

FBI spokesman Richard Kolko said Meshal's return to the U.S. is a State Department issue and referred questions there. He and State Department officials declined to comment on whether Meshal is on a watch list.

The FBI has confirmed that its agents questioned Meshal in Kenya before he was deported to Somalia and then transferred to Ethiopia. They determined he had not violated any U.S. law and is not wanted by any U.S. law enforcement agency.

The Washington Post reported Friday that the FBI had not informed the State Department about Meshal's name appearing on the watch list or the reasons for it.

The real question is, when was Meshal put on the no-fly list and why? Before he was captured, when he was in prison, or after he was released? These questions will not be answered by Homeland Security because anything having to do with the no-fly list is classified. 

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