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US Terrorism Watch List Tops 1 Million
WASHINGTON - A U.S. watch list of terrorism suspects has passed 1 million records, corresponding to about 400,000 people, and a leading civil rights group said on Monday the number was far too high to be effective.
The Bush administration disagreed and called the list one of the most effective tools implemented after the September 11 hijacked plane attacks -- when a federal "no-fly" list contained just 16 people considered threats to aviation.
The American Civil Liberties Union publicized the 1 million milestone with a news conference and release.
It said the watch list was an impediment to millions of travellers and called for changes, including tightening criteria for adding names, giving travellers a right to challenge their inclusion and improving procedures for taking wrongly included names off the list.
"America's new million-record watch list is a perfect symbol for what's wrong with this administration's approach to security: it's unfair, out-of-control, a waste of resources (and) treats the rights of the innocent as an afterthought," ACLU technology director Barry Steinhardt said in a release.
President George W. Bush ordered in the current list in September 2003 as a way to wrap several growing terrorism watchlists into a single government database compiled and overseen by the FBI, through a Terrorist Screening Center.
Suspected terrorists or people believed to have links to terrorism are included on the list, which can be used by a wide range of government agencies in security screening. About 50,000 individuals are included on the Transportation Security Administration "no-fly" or "selectee" lists that subject them to travel bans, arrest or additional screening.
Critics have pointed to troubles that figures such as U.S. Sen. Edward Kennedy, 1960s civil rights leader Rep. John Lewis and singer Yusuf Islam (formerly Cat Stevens) have had with watch lists as evidence the consolidated database is poorly managed.
The Terrorism Screening Center, which maintains the list, has already put in place several steps to ensure the list is accurate and up-to-date, spokesman Chad Kolton said.
He cited a report last year by the Government Accountability Office that said there was general agreement within the federal government that the watch list had helped to combat terrorism.
"The list is very effective. In fact it's one of the most effective counterterrorism tools that our country has," he said.
About 400,000 individuals are included on the list, about 95 percent of whom are not U.S. citizens or residents, Kolton said. The watch list also includes separate entries with aliases, fake passports and fake birth dates, bringing the total number of records to more than 1 million, he said.
TSA spokesman Christopher White said the agency's "no-fly" watchlists to screen travellers were "scrubbed" last year to remove about half of the names, leaving them with somewhat fewer than 50,000.
He said Kennedy and Lewis were never on the list, and that problems they reported were due to their misidentification with names properly on it.
Editing by David Wiessler
72 Comments so far
Show AllBoy, if that near half-a-million terrorists and/or terrorist-related people decide to launch a Homeland offensive, we're in deep doo-doo.
Funny, the "anthrax killer" is not, apparently, on said lists(s)...
Reminds me of Nixon's enemies list. But this one's on steroids. Ultimate paranoia in the highest office in the land.
When the list was a hell of a lot shorter, they couldn't even track TWENTY suspects.
I know I feel a whole lot safer now...
These guy`s in the Reich will pander their arses off to the highest bidder,we all know exploration isn`t the answer,everyone knows that Big Oil has thousands of capped wells across the country so exploration is out of the question.They need to uncap and pump the Naval reserves in Alaska and elsewhere,but what really needs to happen is to get it in gear for non-food crops for ethanol.If a country like Brazil can do it from sugar cane America can do it from switch grass and other forms of cellulose materials for ethanol.Old man Johnny keeps calling Obama Dr.No when it comes to alternative energy and now Old man Johnny is pandering to Big Oil, so know he is keeping up with his flip flop philosophy while Obama is working and has ideas about altrenative fuels. See you in November Johnny, loser.......
Well, if there are what, 350 million people in America, your chances are one out of 35 you are on the list. Of course, if they include the world, it gets higher.
But, since the government does not have a clue how to identify Arabic, Chinese or even Korean names, we are all probably on a list. Why don't they just tell us who is NOT on the no fly list? Would that not be easier?
Probably every American who has been caught using drugs is on the list. If true, shouldn't Bush himself be on the list for his cocaine use?
Another way Osama has won!! He wanted us to destroy ourselves, and the Bush/Cheney mafia is using everything it can to help him!! My only question is, did Osama know they were this pliable, or did he just luck out????
Not only is the list a bunch of crap, it is also unconstitutional. There is no due process before someone is put on the list.
Yet one more reason not to fly !! I won't let myself be herded like cattle, and my person and civil rights violated anymore than I can help it!!!!
And we should just believe this list? You can't believe anything that comes out of this administration. And if there were this many, you'd think they would have let it be known in some manner by now. What are they waiting for?
This shows what can happen when those who established and ran the Gulag in the USSR take control of the US government.
Permit me to correct okiegal's math. He/she said if there are ". . .350 million people in America, your chances are one out of 35 you are on the list." The correct answer is one out of 350 of being on the list. That's still way too many.
Let's see if my math is correct. 500,000 and only 5% are American citizens or live in America. That's only 20,000 on the list who live here.
Soooo, if there are only 20,000 who are possible terrorists livng in the United States, it's obvious we don't have a lot to worry about. What could just 20,000 terrorists possibley do? ___ Phhttt. Thank goodness Bush is on top of this serious problem.
I do wonder how many of those 20,000 are over the age of 90, or are legally blind, or are living in rest homes waiting for their insurance to expire, so they can be put to rest and open another bed. We knew a 97 year old lady who was on the no-fly list. The most terror we ever saw her commit was she often suffered with rather strong gas attacks. She passed away one night, a week after her good paying insurance expired.
a political enemy hitlist...........
as one who called for cheney's impeachement (in an editorial) in 2002, i'm included. my home has been illegally searched and my computer monitored.
i have 7 years post high school education. no police record of importance (2 misdemeanors). but i spoke out against cheney (who is building a resort home in my community) in 2002.
the police no longer protect me. my vehicle has been broken in to 8 times in 8 months.......no investigations. my tires have been slashed, no investigation (but that same day my front door was pounded open - off the latch - and i was awakened in the late evening hours with bright flashlights shown in my just opened eyes because a manhole cover had been removed at my intersection. the other 3 corner dwellers were never approached)
fuck cheney
Fuck Cheney? ___ You did it now bud!!! You must be one of the 20,000.
I wish to cenfess here on Common Dreams. I am really Osama Bin-Laden. Several modifications to my appearance, from height to gender have kept 'them' fooled all these years! HA HA HA.
But let there be no doubt-I am pretty likely to write a radical post now and then!
Unleash The Dog's of War!
I suspect you are not telling the truth ~LISA~. I canot picture Osama bin Laden having a sex change operation. He wouldn't be able to parrallel park his car anymore.
just to add to the previous post of mine..........
the ceo of haliburton also has a home here and our local police chief took a 1 year sabbatical to train troops in afghanistan (torture techniques?) for a substantial fee - hundreds of thousands.
the good ole boys
fuck cheney
This list should only have about 600 names: all the top occupants of the current White House, Congress and the CIA.
Wouldn't it be better if there were 1 million citizens watching George Bush, instead of the other way around?
Only a little commons sense explains to you that terrorists don't grow in a vacuum. They're cultivated by capitalists, imperialists, militarists, zionists! Any anti-terror program merely masks the real problem. Did someone on TV/radio discourage you from embracing the truth? Who did?
cat stevens is still on the list?
Send in Nick Danger!
"How Can You Be In Two Places At Once When You're Not Anywhere At All" (Firesign)
Feeling safer, especially because Nelson Mandela and Evo Morales are on the list. Geeeeeeeeeeeeeze.
http://www.aclu.org/privacy/spying/watchlistcounter.html
Ever wonder how many registered Republicans actually are on no-fly? and of those that are so listed (if any!!) how much easier it might be for 'removal'?
I wonder. I wonder if there's not certain telling statistical anomolies; (if we had a functional watchdog fourth estate, someone could likely find enough 'oddities' to force rigorous 'bi-partisan' civilian oversight; or would they dare contend that 'registered Republicans' are essentially more 'patriotic' so fewer (if any!!) would appear on said list.
What a wonderful tool to 'refine' & wield against political enemies, in any event. Do you really wanna organize that protest? Damn, you might be late for your sister's wedding the following month. Remember a couple of years ago they floated the idea of slipping in (edgewise, Oh please let us) "bad credit" as a flag for no-fly? The federal government would then become an iron-fisted collection agency for corporate america. Wanna fly? Bad debtors need not apply!
It stinks to hell & high heaven, and how we allowed these cheesy turd zombies to so undermine our civil liberties will remain an abject disgrace until the can is open & the worms are put on their plate. Bon Appetit indeed.
The really scary people on the list are people like Naomi Klein--I saw her on a tv interview talking about how she is always taken aside whenever she checks in for a flight and is given the full inspection treatment. A real terrorist possibility; she has at least one young child. Yup. I can see her doing something crazy. Like writing another book.
My friends and I have been afraid, we are not so high profile, but I bet we are on a list of potential domestic terrorists--after all we belong to "anti-government" groups like the ACLU, the Sierra Club, Move-On; and we QUESTION why there are prison facilities being built all over the country by KBR, we believe in the Bill of Rights, we contribute to wild-eyed people like Russ Feingold, Barbara Boxer, Robert Wexler. Oh, yeah, and we write letters to the editor.
Be very afraid.
But keep shopping.
There's 30,000 liberal Quakers in the US. We'll hear it next First Day. "I bet thee made the list." "I don't bet!" And so forth.
"In fact it's one of the most effective counterterrorism tools that our country has"
So if the list is the most effective tool... that says a lot about the other tools doesn't it?
Ummmm, Quakers (generally speaking) don't bet ;*)
But I wanna know if the millionth terror suspect got any fabulous prizes!
In East Germany it is a rough figure that 70% of the people were reporting on their neighbors, friends and relatives to get some kind of favor large or small from some part of the government.
We are on the way to this because of the phone and internet spying, which of course is one of a secret number of lists with a secret number of people on each list and the existence of such lists is another secret.
Of course none of these lists would be used for illegal or political reasons nor would the US ever torture.
Is this list immune to disclosure under FOIA?
Damn I am getting off this site, guilt by association. Really I was just surfing looking for recipes.
Imagine if on Bush's last day, at precisely the moment he gets on th plane or helicopter or whatever heap he is going to use to get off, everybody shouted
fuck off Bush!
it would be a cry heard round the world.
In the book 1984 words and phrases had multiple meanings. I think maybe a terrorist list may be a list of the people who have George terrified.
And how many slam dunk convictions have there been? Not many, if any that I can remember. The govt. offered plea bargains instead, so torture wouldn't be exposed.
And it came to pass that nearly all citizens were put on the terrorist watch list. A sense of camaraderie spread amongst those on the list, each looked upon the other as friend and compatriot. Those who were not on the list became suspect and were banished from the realm, whereupon peace reigned for a thousand years.
Ha! I KNEW if we kept at it long enough, we'd finally begin narrowing down just who these terrorist bastards are!
Peggy Noonan tried to tell us about this right after 9/11, when she noticed a couple of dark-skinned Arabic-looking guys with a videocamera standing in front of a tall building and she suddenly felt all ooky.
She was in Manhattan at the time-- so what are the odds that these creeps could find their way to a TALL BUILDING?
And now it turns out that there were 999,998 more behind them! Damn.
Nobody expects the American Stasi
I don't know... You all look suspicious to me.
The Damage is done, if they say we have 1 million people on terrorist watch lists,
We have 50 million stasi mobile police on foot, conducting warrent less survielllance using comminuty watch, IAFF,phone companys,cable companys,law enforcement, infra guard , viglante groups, church groups,secret clubs and organizations mobilezed for 24/7 guard dog security.
Is it so hard to believe that 400 billion dollars over 5 years could build a nation wide spy network run by the righteous right wing lunitc fringe, and good old boy netowrks.NSA,CIA,FBI. DHS.
Who the hell is protecting the Constitution?
Read SPIES FOR HIRE by Tim Shorrock. The iceburg to illegal wire taps is the Stasi Police.
No Immunity for the Telecomm companys. They are the HOW it was done.
They can tell us the WHO requested the taps and the WHY?
Then we can sue the hell out of them.
BornFreeMen
Perhaps some truly ingenious progressive with computer savvy can hack into the records and either destroy them, scramble their codes, or replace names with names of CORRUPT senators, representatives, lobbyists, and the Bush team, itself. Is there a cyber Luke Skywalker in the house, or on this site, or within shouting distance?
Good one Siouxrose,
1 million Goofy names, 100 Senators, 435 congresmen, the bush bunch, 43000 lobbyists,
And the 50 million stasi police, every spy company and organiztion that 400 billion dollars bought over the last 5 years.
That leaves 200 million patrioits to kick some ass and save the constitution.
We can do it!!!!!!!!!!
BornFreeMen
If a hacker is out there and going to hack into this system please add every member of corporate America, all the Chinese and just for fun all the names like Jack Knauf, Ophelia Hiney, and of course Rosanne Rosanadana and Emily Latella.
The only way to fight this is to have everybody instantly on any list that they don't have to notify the target and defend in court with evidence.
Fuck Cheney
I'll be quite upset if my real name isn't on that list. Not that I'm going to blow up any airliners, it's just the principle of the thing. I would much rather be officially counted as against gw bush, than for the sob.
"He said Kennedy and Lewis were never on the list, and that problems they reported were due to their misidentification with names properly on it."
A little disingenuous that statement. "Your" name may not be on the list but according to the TSA, "terrorists" are in the habit of using the false names of others, namely yours. So it really comes to the same thing.
Theoretically you can fly but while the confusion of names is being sorted out, with all due haste of course, you will have missed your flight. The next day, the agents will be different people and with all due haste....
It's a weapon of mass control.
ezeflyer, I suspect you of being suspicious.
How do you get to know whether or not you are on the list?
Do you have to waste an airplane ticket to find out?
If you have been posting on Common Dreams, and you dont know
if you are on the list, then it may be safer to enter and exit the country
via mexico.
Honky July 14th, 2008 8:13 pm: "Damn I am getting off this site, guilt by association. Really I was just surfing looking for recipes."
And just what kind of recipes were you looking for, eh? Astrolite, I suspicion. On the list you go.
"I could while away the hours, conferrin' with the flowers,
Standin' in the rain, with the thoughts I would be thinkin',
I could be another Lincoln...If I only had a brain"
Warloards-Regroup! This song is getting old!
By the way, make sure that I'm on the Blue List!
I bet no real terrorists like Posada, Bosch and the Nova brothers are on this list. All Cuban Exiles and folks who were helped by the Miami based terrorist organization the Cuban American Foundation.