U.S. Terrorism Watch List Tops 1 Million

U.S. Terrorism Watch List Tops 1 Million

Monday, July 14, 2008 7:47 PM


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 travelers and called for changes, including tightening criteria for adding names, giving travelers 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 travelers 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.

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5 percent that are US Citizens---that's 20,000 people!!!!  Who the heck let them be citizens?

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What if there really are 400,000 potential terrorists living here?

Is this too hard to get your head around?

It don't take very many to do A LOT of damage.

Cat Stevens should never be allowed in this country. Wake up.

Greg are you being serious, I can't tell?

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Border security?  Hummm, I wonder if that means anything?

SP, About Cat Stevens - yes, with a caviat - I read about his changing his name and groups he supported quite a while ago. It may not violate free speech but people like him who hate the USA should live elsewhere.

I know he's on Israel's hot list (I think due to certain donations).  It's been controversial about him to say the least.

How we could have a possible 400,000 terrorist suspects and illegals and gang menbers etc the only possible result can be the Suicide of America is happening as we speak.  What has happened?  I miss America, my America.  I feel like I fought for naught.

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SP, apathy destroys societies and countries. It allows our enemies to do their diabolical deeds.

We are warned repeatedly in the Bible to stay didligent and be ready for battle. Battle can take many forms - battle for laws, battle for family values, defend from physical attack.

Apathy is the recipe for suicide.

Our job, since we know this, is to sound the alarm to everyone around us. We need to think hard and really make a difference.

 

Knowing the govenment, probably 2/3rds of the list should not exist! 

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Don't you love people who rail on the government for its failures.

Maybe it's because of the failures they face from bad decisions in their own lives.

It's just so much easier to blame the government than maturing our own behavior.

Its possible that WE are on this watchlist isn't it? After all, we are not very Politically Corrupt as they would like us to be. This could go for any of the other similar websites, too. Big Brother is watching us!

(Got to wonder how much we employers are paying for this service.) 

I don't rail on government for its failures.  (Well I try not to do so, anyway.)  Government is a target rich environment and its failures are, after all, expected.  F. Hayak coined the term the fatal conceit that explains why government cannot help but fail.  That doesn't mean they are alone.  So yes, we have to take responsibility and accept the consequences for our actions that lead to some kind of personal failure.  What disturbs many of us is the fact that government ever reached the position where they can have so much control over our lives in the first place.  Somebody once said that when GM sneezes, the country catches a cold or something like that.  And with the excessive growth of the federal government in the 20th century continuing on up to today, everything they do is magnified and results in significant consequences, usually unintended, for almost everybody.

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Mz said:

Its possible that WE are on this watchlist isn't it? After all, we are not very Politically Corrupt as they would like us to be. This could go for any of the other similar websites, too. Big Brother is watching us!

(Got to wonder how much we employers are paying for this service.) 

 

Mz... "I" am probably on 'the list'.  With the 'homegrown terrorist' bill - and dissenters... I would not doubt my name could be among those 1M.  Since my activism started... I've been audited by the IRS MULTIPLE times... for nothing... they found a child care credit error..etc..

I'd love to see a copy of that 'list'.

Speak out against the government (ie: exercise your rights that are protected- not granted- by the First Amendment), get put on a terror watch list:

http://rawstory.com/news/2008/CNN_rep...

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FeedFwd said: I don't rail on government for its failures.  (Well I try not to do so, anyway.)  Government is a target rich environment and its failures are, after all, expected.  F. Hayak coined the term the fatal conceit that explains why government cannot help but fail.  That doesn't mean they are alone.  So yes, we have to take responsibility and accept the consequences for our actions that lead to some kind of personal failure.  What disturbs many of us is the fact that government ever reached the position where they can have so much control over our lives in the first place.  Somebody once said that when GM sneezes, the country catches a cold or something like that.  And with the excessive growth of the federal government in the 20th century continuing on up to today, everything they do is magnified and results in significant consequences, usually unintended, for almost everybody.

 

It is no different than a parent who lets his or her child grow up like grass in a field unattended.

It gets out of control.

We let it get that way.

It's time to be mature adults and do what we should have done long ago - Stayed involved.

Voting is not the end of responsibility - it just begins it.

Nickjr:

Interesting that you have been audited by the IRS several times. So was I. Their claims that I reported wrong income resulted in a debt I am currently paying off and therefore, the so-called stimulus payment went toward this debt. I am on fixed income and really hoped to buy a new pair of sneakers but it was not to be. Their laws and instructions need more than one "Philadelphia" lawyer to interpret and the IRS prefers to interpret them their way - not as it was.

Really great to find out I owed this money after filing early two years previous, and being socked with interest and penalties from an organization that was not even legally established. Their Taxpayer Advocate Division is absolutely useless.

So, I guess I am on the list as a terrorist also as I apparently in their eyes was withholding and/or cheating them out of THEIR money! Billions of dollars given foolishly to Mexico, La Raza and the rest of the world so I guess my few thousands owed is critical to their situation! I have nothing to offer them so I and probably thousands of other Americans are made the scapegoats.

This thread is about US Terrorism Watch List Numbers.  Not about IRS audits or conspiracies, LaRaza and other topics that should be discussed on other threads.

theSuperPatriot - Moderator

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If it were up to me, every Muslim living in this country would be on the list, barred from flying -- except to permanently leave the country -- and for those who remain here, I'd confine them ghettos surrounded by barbed wire and machine gun posts.

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How many Muslims are there in this country?