In fact, the ruling highlights that this is all do to one FBI agent totally fucking things up back in 2004 — and not even realizing he had done so until his deposition a few months ago. Alsup makes clear (and it seems everyone agrees) that the FBI agent, Kevin Michael Kelley didn‘t screw up maliciously, but he simply misunderstood the directions in filling out the form: (…)

And from that one screwup, basically a bureaucratic mess appears to have followed, and even if she was removed from that list (as is suggested elsewhere), once her name got into a series of connected databases, she effectively became toxic, and no one would allow her back into the US. So even though everyone now admits that she posed no threat to national security, when she applied for a visa to come back to the US, not only was it rejected, but the reason for the rejection was given as the code for „terrorist activities“ (8 USC 1182 (a)(3)(B) — and to make matters even more insane, someone at the State Department helpfully scribbled „terrorist“ on the form that was sent to her denying her entry.