U.S. Watch List Suggests Everyone's A Terrorist

by Jarrett Martineau | July 14, 2008 at 05:10 pm | 383 views | 12 comments | 29 recommendations

The U.S. terrorist watch list now has more than one million names on it, according the ACLU. Just don't look too hard at who's on it -- you might find a few dead folks, the odd Nobel Peace prize winner, and maybe even yourself. At this rate, everybody's a terrorist until proven otherwise! If in doubt, go ask The New Yorker about it.

A watch list of suspected and known terrorists, compiled by the US authorities, has ballooned and contains more than one million names, the American Civil Liberties Union said Monday.

The ACLU said it derived that figure from a Justice Department report on the FBI's Terrorist Screening Center, which consolidates terrorist watch list information.

The Center "had over 700,000 names in its database as of April 2007 and that the list was growing by an average of over 20,000 records per month," according to a report by the Justice Department Inspector General, the rights group said.

"By those numbers, the list now has over one million names on it," the ACLU said in a statement.

Among those on the watch list are deceased people, such as former Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein who was hanged in 2005, decorated war veterans, and US Senator Ted Kennedy, the ACLU said.

Nobel Peace Prize winner, former South African president Nelson Mandela, was also on the list until an act of Congress removed his name -- the only way, according to the ACLU, to get off the list.

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Rhonda J Mangus
Rhonda J Mangus
flagged this story as Good Stuff

at 17:19 on July 14th, 2008

Jarrett Martineau, I like this story. It's good stuff.

0
Scrivener

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AND THE RULE OF LAW, PLEASE CLICK ON THIS LINK:

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everchanging
  • news wrangler
everchanging
flagged this story as Good Stuff

at 17:39 on July 14th, 2008

Jarrett Martineau, I like this story. It's good stuff. 

You could be as patriotic as Benjamin Franklin and say one wrong word and find yourself on their lists, these days.

<:-)   <:-0   <:-]~  (being creative)

moonwolf
moonwolf
flagged this story as Good Stuff

at 18:50 on July 14th, 2008

At this point it looks like it would be an honour to be on it!  It suggest you might have morals, ethics and honour, and the courage to tell the truth.  Sign me up!

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BigT

You would be the only one to want to be on a list with Saddam Hussein.

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moonwolf

Him and a million Americans, many of which I would be honoured to stand with.

Mike Wood
Mike Wood
flagged this story as Good Stuff

at 19:28 on July 14th, 2008

Jarrett Martineau, I like this story. It's good stuff.

Somehow this doesn't surprise me.

 

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Barry Artiste

WTF?? Is that my house on there?

Barry Artiste
Barry Artiste
flagged this story as Good Stuff

at 19:33 on July 14th, 2008

Jarrett Martineau, I like this story. It's good stuff. That's it , I'm moving, and I am not tellin where~

0
BigT

Eh, there's a 0.014% chance you're on this list and, unlike what is said in this article, there are not 1 million names on it. From Reuters:

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.

So while I'm probably OK, if I were Barry I would definitely be hiding now since he would definitely be in our crosshairs.

Paschen
  • news wrangler
Paschen
flagged this story as Good Stuff

at 00:57 on July 15th, 2008

Jarrett Martineau, I like this story. It's good stuff.

Well, are we not all bad or was that good from the time of our birth! 

Barbara McPherson
Barbara McPherson
flagged this story as Good Stuff

at 08:55 on July 15th, 2008

Jarrett Martineau, I like this story. It's good stuff.  The democratic rule of law is so fragile that we all must work to retain it. 

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July 14, 2008 at 05:10 pm by Jarrett Martineau, 383 views, 12 comments

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