John, sorry to hear about your ordeal. The paranoia that has been fueled in the states makes it difficult for honest people like yourself to enter into the country. They should have also let you contact the UK embassy to get things cleared up.
The terrorist watch list is a joke anyway. Most of the people they have on there have no connections to terrorism or terrorist groups. What tends to happen is they put regular people like you and I on that list 'by accident' and make our lives hell at the airports.
Just goes to show you how flawed and screwed up TSA really is.
Hopefully you can get to any event in the states in the future.
