Unheard No More!: Terrorist Watch List Reaches 1 Million

July 16, 2008

The ACLU (American Civil Liberties Union) reports that the US federal terrorist watch list has reached over 1 million people with an estimated 20,000 new names being added a month. The FBI Terrorist Screening Center runs the list that was created in response to the 9-11 attacks. The list is to alert airport security to potential terror threats. It is amazing that the US government has created a list with 1 million potential terrorists! How can there be 1 million terrorists and no terror attacks? A list of that length cannot be useful or accurate. The ACLU has called the list ineffective and bloated.

"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, treats the rights of the innocent as an afterthought, and is a very real impediment in the lives of millions of travelers in this country," said Barry Steinhardt, director of the ACLU Technology and Liberty Program. "It must be fixed without delay."

"Putting a million names on a watch list is a guarantee that the list will do more harm than good by interfering with the travel of innocent people and wasting huge amounts of our limited security resources on bureaucratic wheel-spinning," said Steinhardt. "I doubt this thing would even be effective at catching a real terrorist."

There are claims that people who are activists, authors, journalists, and scholars have found their names added to the list. One such person is Drew Griffin, CNN investigative reporter who found his name on the list in May after reporting on CNN that air marshalls are only on 1 percent of the estimated 28,000 daily flights, and other stories critical of TSA.

Some of the other notable people who have been placed on the list include Nobel Peace Prize winner and former president of South Africa, Nelson Mandela, Senator Edward Kennedy (D-Massachusetts), Rep. Don Young (R-Alaska), Rep. John Lewis (D-Georgia), and Evo Morales, President of Bolivia. The list includes infants, deceased people (including Saddam Hussein), and those unfortunate enough to share common names such as Gary Smith and John Williams.

Activists have said Muslims are singled out. Singer and peace activist, Yusuf Islam, formerly known as Cat Stevens, is also on the watch list. CNN reported that he was "shocked and amused" in 2004 when a plane he was on from London to Washington, DC was diverted to Maine and he was questioned and refused entry to the US.

It is not easy to get your name removed from the list once it is on. It is said that Nelson Mandela's name was removed by an Act of Congress. In February, TSA instituted an appeal system for citizens wishing to have their name removed from the list. USA Today reported that 15,0000 people sent requests:

The complaints have created such a backlog that members of Congress are calling for a speedier appeal system that would help innocent people clear their names so they won't fall under future suspicion. Among those who have been flagged at checkpoints: toddlers and senior citizens with the same names as suspected terrorists on the watch list.

"To leave individuals in this purgatory is un-American," says Rep. Yvette Clarke, D-N.Y., who says she'll introduce legislation to try to streamline the process.

The Homeland Security Department says it gets about 2,000 requests a month from people who want to have their names cleared. That number is so high that the department has been unable to meet its goal of resolving cases in 30 days, says Christopher White, spokesman for the Transportation Security Administration, which handles the appeals. He says the TSA takes about 44 days to process a complaint.

CBS News reports that a former US Assistant Attorney General, Jim Robinson has joined the ACLU in calling for reform of the list which contains his name:

"It's a pain in the neck, and significantly interferes with my travel arrangements," said Robinson, the head of the Justice Department's criminal division during the Clinton administration. He believes his name matches that of someone who was put on the list in early 2005, and is routinely delayed while flying — despite having his own government top-secret security clearances renewed last year.

"I suppose if I were convinced that America is a safer place because I get hassled at the airport, I might put up with it," Robinson said. "But I doubt it."

He added: "I expect my story is similar to hundreds of thousands of people who are on this list who find themselves inconvenienced."

The TSC claims that there are about 450,000 names on the watch list, and it is effective. A GAO study prepared for Congress concluded:

Use of the watch list has helped federal, state, and local screening and law enforcement officials obtain information to make better-informed decisions when they encounter an individual on the list as to the threat posed and the appropriate response or action to take, if any.
Information collected from watch list encounters is shared with agents conducting counterterrorism investigations and with the intelligence community for use in analyzing threats. Such coordinated collection of information for use in investigations and threat analyses is one of the stated policy objectives for the watch list.

Here is a video from CNN: