Let’s see.  9/11 happened 4.5 years ago.  The federal government wants us to feel safer when flying because they have a watch list against which they check airline passengers, a system intended to apply additional security to or stop altogether those who may represent a risk to airline passengers.  This Kafkaesque database created by our government officials appears to be eating its own.  Here are some examples of the people the system is stopping at the airport:

* A State Department diplomat who protested that “I fly 100,00 miles a year and am tired of getting hassled at Dulles airport — and airports worldwide — because my name apparently closely resembles that of a terrorist suspect.”

* A person with an Energy Department security clearance.

* An 82-year-old veteran who says he’s never even had a traffic ticket.

* A technical director at a science and technology company who has been working with the Pentagon on chemical and biological weapons defense.

* A U.S. Navy officer who has been enlisted since 1984.

* A high-ranking government employee with a better-than-top-secret clearance who is also a U.S. Army Reserve major.

* A federal employee traveling on government business who says the watch list matching “has resulted in ridiculous delays at the airports, despite my travel order, federal ID and even my federal passport.”

* A high-level civil servant at the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation.

* An active-duty Army officer who had served four combat tours (including one in Afghanistan) and who holds a top-secret clearance.

* A retired U.S. Army officer and antiterrorism/force-protection officer with expertise on weapons of mass destruction who was snared when he was put back on active-duty status while flying on a ticket paid for by the Army.

* A former Pentagon employee and current security-cleared U.S. Postal Service contractor.

Also held up was a Continental Airlines flight-crew member traveling as a passenger, who complained to TSA, “If I am safe enough to work on a plane then I should be fine to be a passenger sleeping.”

Feel safer now?