Worst “no-fly list” delay: Two Months!
Yahya Wehelie, a 26-year-old man from Virginia, was stuck in Egypt for more than two months when his name popped-up on a no-fly list. He spent the two months of delay living in a ramshackle Cairo hotel and subsisting on fast food coupons provided to him by the US embassy. He is now allowed to return to the US.
Why the delay? FBI agents questioned him about his time in Yemen, Wehelie said. He had gone to Yemen two years ago at his parents’ request so he could learn Arabic and find some guidance in his life. Wehelie is of Somali descent, but many Somalis live in Yemen, where educational opportunities are cheaper than in other parts of the Middle East. Wehelie was studying information technology at the Lebanese International University.
Wehelie has no ill will toward the US or the FBI. “I’m not angry at all. I know who I am and I knew eventually I would go home,” he said. “They’re trying to find the bad people, so more power to them.”
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I don’t trust that these no fly lists even work. Every month it seems like someone who should not be flying makes it onto a plane..