Why are there so many names on the U.S. government’s terrorist list?

The American Civil Liberties Union has some frightening info about who’s on the U.S. Government terror watch list, as well as a snazzy counter.

In September 2007, the Inspector General of the Justice Department reported that the Terrorist Screening Center (the FBI-administered organization that consolidates terrorist watch list information in the United States) 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.1

At that rate, our list will have a million names on it by July. If there were really that many terrorists running around, we’d all be dead.

There.
I posted about it.
I made the counter go up one, if I wasn’t on it before.
You made it go up just reading what I wrote about it.

The terror watch list looks like it’s a fine balance between being highly politicized and incompetently maintained.
Some of my favorite low points of this page include:

Robert Johnson - 60 Minutes interviewed 12 men named Robert Johnson, all of whom reported being pulled aside and interrogated, sometimes for hours, nearly every time they go to the airport.

James Moore, author of a book critical of the Bush Administration, Bush’s Brain ; problems flying.

Catherine (”Cat”) Stevens, wife of Senator Ted Stevens (R, Alaska). Problems flying.

Yusuf Islam, a singer and pop star formerly known as Cat Stevens. Author of song “Peace Train.” His flight from London was diverted and forced to land in Maine once the government realized he was aboard, and he was barred from entering United States.

John William Anderson, age 6; problems flying.
Among those caught up by the no-fly list are many infants and small children.

An amazing amount lawmakers from the Democratic Party are also under suspicion of plotting to hijacking airplanes, apparently. They’re on the list.

Check it out.

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One Comment

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When our son was 4, we spent an hour first negotiating with the ticket agent, then a TSA flunky, then the TSA flunky’s boss (over the phone) - all about whether it was reasonable to assume that the “L.T.” on the no-fly list was not the same “L.T.” they saw before them. That he was barely past toddlerhood, and I had a copy of his birth certificate with me, meant nothing, at least until we were about to miss our flight.

They still insisted on wanding him and patting him down, though. They sent out a call for a “BABY PATDOWN - BABY PATDOWN AT SECURITY NEEDED” over the PDX PA system (which was hilarious in itself), and a special female TSA agent came out of nowhere and did the deed. Afterwards, L. asked, “Why did that lady have to lint-roll me?”

We had no trouble on the way home, so we don’t know if they made a notation about L. in the TSA computer system, or if the folks at PDX were just officious morons.

[reply to this]
bushtool reply on March 14, 2008:
This is all part of the fear tactics that work so well in keeping the people of our country believing they are being protected rather than brainwashed and enslaved.

Many, many years ago when the then current airport security scare-fad was to not allow any liquids on board, the security agent took a big bottle of astringent out of my spouse’s carry on, smelled it and asked what it was.

We explained that it was a treatment for your skin. My spouse poured some out and smeared it on her face. “On no, you can’t bring that on board. Please either throw it out or check it at the ticket counter.”

We didn’t have a box handy and the ticket agent said that she would not let us check the bottle “as is”.

By now I was irate at this asinine nuisance. So I grabbed the bottle (and it was a big bottle, probably a quart or more of liquid) and walked back through the same security checkpoint with the same security personnel holding the bottle out in front of me for all to see and glaring at the security people with a look of “I dare you to stop me”.

They just looked at me and turned away and we sailed through the second time with no problem at all.

Moral of the story = If you look like you will tolerate their hassling, then hassled you will be. But if you stand up for yourself because you know you have done nothing wrong, they will leave you alone.

WARNING: Now this was pre-911 but after plane hijackings became frequent in the late 70’s. The moral of story above most probably no longer applies because we no longer have much of any civil liberties with which to defend ourselves when falsely accused or harassed. Doing something like what I did may get you a prison sentence of indeterminable length with your right to counsel ignored and your loved ones not knowing anything about your whereabouts.

[reply to this]

1. Above written by slim on March 14th, 2008 at 9:15 am (replies, if any, are attributed separately above).