are you trying to connect to an WEP or WPA or to an open access point?
To simplify the issue going on I have turned off security. It is running open.
do the following
1. open the terminal, log in as root
2. try to connect to the access point
3. run this command when it fail and post its output here: tail -n 20 /var/log/syslog
here are the results
[root@laptop dwmoar]# tail -n 20 /var/log/syslog
May 30 13:27:01 laptop snmpd[2698]: Received TERM or STOP signal... shutting down...
May 30 13:27:03 laptop acpid: exiting
May 30 13:27:03 laptop ifplugd(eth0)[2220]: Exiting.
May 30 13:27:04 laptop ifplugd(wlan0)[31425]: Executing '/etc/ifplugd/ifplugd.action wlan0 down'.
May 30 13:27:04 laptop klogd: wlan0: deauthenticating from 00:18:84:10:03:aa by local choice (reason=3)
May 30 13:27:04 laptop klogd: cfg80211: Calling CRDA to update world regulatory domain
May 30 13:27:04 laptop klogd: cfg80211: Calling CRDA for country: US
May 30 13:27:04 laptop klogd: cfg80211: Regulatory domain changed to country: US
May 30 13:27:04 laptop klogd: (start_freq - end_freq @ bandwidth), (max_antenna_gain, max_eirp)
May 30 13:27:04 laptop klogd: (2402000 KHz - 2472000 KHz @ 40000 KHz), (300 mBi, 2700 mBm)
May 30 13:27:04 laptop klogd: (5170000 KHz - 5250000 KHz @ 40000 KHz), (300 mBi, 1700 mBm)
May 30 13:27:04 laptop klogd: (5250000 KHz - 5330000 KHz @ 40000 KHz), (300 mBi, 2000 mBm)
May 30 13:27:04 laptop klogd: (5490000 KHz - 5600000 KHz @ 40000 KHz), (300 mBi, 2000 mBm)
May 30 13:27:04 laptop klogd: (5650000 KHz - 5710000 KHz @ 40000 KHz), (300 mBi, 2000 mBm)
May 30 13:27:04 laptop klogd: (5735000 KHz - 5835000 KHz @ 40000 KHz), (300 mBi, 3000 mBm)
May 30 13:27:04 laptop ifplugd(wlan0)[31425]: Program executed successfully.
May 30 13:27:04 laptop ifplugd(wlan0)[31425]: Exiting.
May 30 13:27:05 laptop klogd: Kernel logging (proc) stopped.
May 30 13:27:05 laptop klogd: Kernel log daemon terminating.
May 30 13:27:06 laptop exiting on signal 15
[root@laptop dwmoar]#