Crimesider
Crimesider
January 14, 2010 10:50 AM

8-Year-Old Boy Scout Mikey Hicks On Terror Watch List While Underwear Bomber Skates Through

By
Carlin DeGuerin Miller
Topics
Daily Blotter
(CBS)
(AP/CBS)
CLIFTON, N.J. (CBS/AP) Meet Mikey Hicks, public enemy number one, according to a Homeland Security Department watch list.

Photo: Mikey Hicks, 8.

He's also an 8-year-old cub scout who attends parochial school in Clifton, N.J., and has been receiving the third degree from airport security since he was 2-years-old.

"A terrorist can blow his underwear up and they don't catch him. But my 8-year-old can't walk through security without being frisked," his mother, Najlah Hicks, told in reference to the Nigerian man who allegedly tried to blow up a Detroit bound airplane with explosives in his underwear on Christmas Day.

That's because Mikey Hicks shares a name with someone who appears to be among some 13,500 on the large "selectee" list, which sets off a high level of security screening. The list apparently does not specify age or gender.

Photo: Alleged "underwear bomber" Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab.

Najla Hicks, a photojournalist who was once cleared to fly with Vice President Al Gore, said the family was amused by the mistake at first but that quickly wore off and seven years later they are still trying to clear it up.

"I understand the need for security," she added, "But this is ridiculous. It's quite clear that he is 8 years old, and while he may have terroristic tendencies at home, he does not have those on a plane."

More at the New York Times


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