<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="2">Originally posted by Pudding Guy:
In our case, they ultimately determined that none of us was, in fact, on The List. Someone at National apparently made a mistake or thought all four of our names were close enough to those on the FBI’s list. We were cleared and made our flight without delay (though I’m thinking a few other passengers might have been nervous boarding with us after being rounded up by the police).</font>
All joking aside, it sounds like this was a perfect example of how security SHOULD be done. They flagged the name (for whatever reason), investigated, determined that you were not a threat, and then let you go on with your travels. I know it probably is frightening or at least inconvenient, but you don't seem to think that they were improper or unprofessional in their handling of your group.
This is much more heartening than the stories where it seems that once someone is flagged, everyone goes into CYA mode, and finds it impossible to admit that there was no threat in the first place. It seems that the security folks involved in this incident should be called up by the FAA to implement the new training for personnel on how not to be complete idiots in security handling.
Glad you made your trip on time!