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Flagged passport?

I saw a film where a FBI database said someones passport was flagged. What does this mean?

7 Answers

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  • 1 decade ago
    Favorite Answer

    For whatever reason, if they use their passport, they can be held and questioned. Those reasons can be as simple as having a similar sounding name to a known person of interest to actually being a person of interest since they were involved in something or even just chatted in passing with someone who was involved with something...about six months ago now, they had the name "John Stevens" (or similar, simple name, I can't remember the exact name) flagged because one such person with this name had done something terrible and every person in the world with that name--innnocent or not--were held up at airports because they had the same name...it happens...it also happens that if you are driving through a strange town and don't know a soul and happen to stop at a gas station for gas and the owner of said station happens to be involved with criminal activities, you could get flagged, especially if you were overly friendly or chatty with said owner...and it's not the post-9/11 world--this was happening long before then.....

  • 1 decade ago

    Basically, it meens that when that passport is being used to get out of the country, or even into the country, a notice will pop up on the system alerting the authorities that that person should be detained, and questioned before they can proceed.

  • Anonymous
    1 decade ago

    It could mean many things....for some reason the passport holder has been caught bringing in some sort of minor contraband, or has said something to the Passport Control Officer, argued with them - or it could be the holder is suspected of some sort of illegal activity... There are LOTS or reasons....

  • Anonymous
    1 decade ago

    In the 1980s, it meant the US caught you involved in peaceful anti-nuclear protests while overseas. The CIA took photos of people outside of US military bases in England, and any US citizens who were identified would have their passports revoked.

    Today, it means you have any part of your name (even just a personal or middle name) similar to an alleged "terrorist". The US government's 'thinking' seems to be, "Just because only one out of dozens of people named 'John Smith' is an alleged terrorist, why shouldn't we suspect all the others?"

    You can also be arrested for belonging to a political party other than the democrats or republicans, though soon, it will be only one party that has a right to travel freely.

    http://www.counterpunch.org/oden5.html

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  • 1 decade ago

    It means that persons name and ID is on file and they have it noted that this person is a suspect of something and that they want to question them.

  • Anonymous
    1 decade ago

    it means that persons name and ID is on file and they have it noted that this person is a suspect of something

  • Anonymous
    1 decade ago

    it means the person is ****** if they try to use it.

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