Here is his wikipedia page: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hasan_M._Elahi
The feds probably won't harass him directly anymore, but he now has the joy to document how the automated security-theater system will wrong him for the next 50+ years.
Just like during the Iraq war people turned in their neighbors and people they didn't like in general for the bounties and many of them ended up in gitmo - but now the innocent ones can supposedly never be released because they most certainly have become embittered and dangerous. Oh yeah, remember Gitmo? Still there.
Federal law enforcement only cares about petty crimes when they can lead to stopping major crimes. If they think you have information they want, they'll hold the maximum penalty for anything you do over your head until they get it. But they have no reason to harass someone who isn't involved in major criminal or subversive activity.
Being on a watch list sucks and it's going to cause this guy inconvenience for life, for whatever he does. But federal agents tend to be intelligent and driven people. They aren't any more likely to waste time harassing a stranger than you are.
The fact is, we violate laws every day. In addition to actual violations, we do many more things that look suspicious and can be construed as potential violations. The government doesn't have to convict you in order to radically lower your quality of life. It merely has to investigate you.
For example, I knew a person that protested against the RNC convention in 2008. Though they were protesting peacefully, their group was broken up and arrested by the FBI. For the next two years, their case was bounced down from federal court to state courts, and then from state courts to county courts. Two and a half years later, the case was dismissed without any explanation or apology. However, while the case was ongoing, this person was unable to get a job, unable to get housing, unable to do anything that would require a background check or a credit check.
Was this person involved in major criminal or subversive activity? I don't see how she could have been, given that all charges were dropped. However, the actions taken against her can only be described as harassment.
You've polled every single federal and state employee, as well as various contractors?
In other words, being on a security watch list is like being diagnosed with cancer. You're never cured. The symptoms are just in remission and can resurface at any time.
The way it works is you will never be cleared, the security-theater machine has "eaten" you.
You can only give them more reasons to collect evidence on petty crimes, their original motivation for stalking you, even if your file was flagged accidentally, is long lost.
With half a million names on the "Terrorist Watch List", once they have ways to automate this (ala nationwide facial recognition and domestic drones) you will be stalked for the rest of your life by the government. You'll be 80 years old and they will have terabytes on you for absolutely no reason. But if you even accidentally commit a petty crime, they will happily share the info with local cops to hassle you more.