According to an article on the Propublica site, the ACLU is reportiong that the watch list has now reached one million names. (via Patrick) This is the same watch list that Naomi Wolf so eloquently spoke about in the video I posted the other day.
The American Civil Liberties Union held a news conference this morning to commemorate what it says is the addition of the millionth name to the nation’s terrorist watch list. The number is a calculation based on a 2007 Justice Department inspector general report, which said the database had 700,000 records and was growing by an average of 20,000 a month.
Of course the FBI denies this. Chad Kolton, spokesman for the FBI’s Terrorist Screening Center, says the figure of one million is far in excess of the actual 400,000 he admits are listed. I wonder if he was able to say that with a straight face; to me it sounds like a sick joke. Mr. Kolton defends the program claiming that it has enabled law enforcement personell to exercise front-line preventative measures in the war on terror.
That large net ensnares many innocent travelers, leading to an erosion of civil liberties, the ACLU argues. People flagged by the watch list have reported having to go through extra screening or having to answer numerous questions to prove they are who they say they are. Others have been prevented from getting on planes.
Personally, I'm more concerned with the government's over-reaching policies than I am about another terrorist attack. Of course we need reasonable policies in place to protect people, but it seems to me that since 9/11, the federal government has gone too far.
What do you think?
To quote your words:
ReplyDeletePersonally, I'm more concerned with the government's over-reaching policies than I am about another terrorist attack. Of course we need reasonable policies in place to protect people, but it seems to me that since 9/11, the federal government has gone too far.
I'm very definitely on the list for multiple reasons(JDL,JFPO, GAO memberships, and editorials I've written, not for ever doing anything seditious or criminal), This has been verified by friends and family in law endorsement and the Pentagon as much as it can be verified. It's caused me to miss countless airplanes and sleep on airport floors whilst having to pay extra for missing my flight as they don't reimburse you for TSA delaying you to the point you miss planes even if you got to the airport 6 hours early...When I get stopped for possible traffic violations every last cop in the world asks to search my vehicle....which I refuse without a warrant. None has pressed the issue as far as getting a warrant yet. I get delayed on firearms transfers although they eventually go through, sometimes for a couple minutes, sometimes days, as if they throw darts at a delay schedule.
If one were to guess, how many people named Thomas Bostian Harris were born in Missoula, Montana on 05-28-1970? I'm guessing ONE.
It's not a case of mistaken identity. I've complained and written letters till my fingers have almost fallen off. Have had some success with BATFE and FBI, no success with TSA/Homeland Security, and there doesn't seem to be any legal recourse avenue with either of them worth the effort to bother. they just play continual games of "pass the buck". Once on the list, on the list you shall stay.
i think the FBI, in particular, has a long and consistent history of coming to abuse every single power it has ever been granted. expanding that part of government is known to be deleterious to our civil rights.
ReplyDeletehow many names are on that watch list, exactly, is meaningless and pointless unless we know what the list is used for, how names get put on it (what the criteria for inclusion are), and how names can be removed from it (what the procedure for eliminating false positives is). so long as those three are --- as they seem to be --- undefined and unclear, even to the people who are keeping them secret from us, the list is a white elephant at best.
but that's pretty much the essence of what's been done to national security since 9/11, isn't it? a lot of running around like headless chickens, a lot of throwing money at people who don't know what to do with it and usually end up merely enlarging their own petty empires and tin-pot powers with it, and no really clear thinking or planning by anybody who knows much about security. inconvenience the citizenry and reduce their rights without ever clearly explaining how those reductions help keep anybody safer. they don't.