Terrorist watch list hits 1 million

[sabra]

Source: USA Today

WASHINGTON — The government's terrorist watch list has hit 1 million entries, up 32% since 2007.

Federal data show the rise comes despite the removal of 33,000 entries last year by the FBI's Terrorist Screening Center in an effort to purge the list of outdated information and remove people cleared in investigations.

It's unclear how many individuals those 33,000 records represent — the center often uses multiple entries, or "identities," for a person to reflect variances in name spellings or other identifying information. The remaining million entries represent about 400,000 individuals, according to the center.

The new figures were provided by the screening center and the Office of the Director of National Intelligence in response to requests from USA TODAY.

"We're continually trying to improve the quality of the information," says Timothy Edgar, a civil liberties officer at the intelligence director's office. "It's always going to be a work in progress."

Read more: http://www.usatoday.com/news/washington/2009-03-10-watchlist_N.htm

[Ian David]

1. I've tried to get on that list by intentionally purchasing controversial reading material...

... and using a credit card.

I even subscribed to 2600 Magazine.

I need to go to Barnes & Noble and purchase Rules for Radicals, The Koran, and The Year's Best Lesbian Erotica, all at the same time.

Maybe that'll do it.

[conspirator]

Try starting an anarchist site. Advertise that you are recruiting for a militia. That will do it nt

[Ian David]

5. I don't want to give them a LEGITIMATE reason to put me on the list.

Just to see how far I have to push the envelope of legitimate activity to be illegitimately put on the list.

Apparently, buying porn, 2600 magazine, that British espionage magazine, writing letters to the editor, and stuff hasn't put me on the list.

[Ghost Dog]

11. Try going a little more radically (sensibly) ecological?

[slackmaster]

6. Have your name legally changed to Edward M. Kennedy

That will get you all kinds of trouble at airports.

[Ian David]

10. Good idea! n/t

[dogfacedboy]

2. Does this list include domestic terrorists

like third-rate actor Chuck Norris, who is calling for armed revolution in the US?

[AnneD]

3. Shades of McCarthy ....

and a communist behind every couch and in every closet.

The GOP can piss their pants in fear but they can't scare this cantankerous DEM.

[truth2power]

4. Does it occur to any of these blockheads

that if everyone's on the list then, effectively, no one is on the list, so to speak?

I can honestly say that since day-one of this Theatre of the Absurd we find ourselves in I haven't had one moment of fear that terrists were going to get me. That being due, I suppose, to my belief that all the real terrorists are residing in DC.

I may have to reconsider, however. That these guys (FBI Terrorist Screening Center) are responsible for my safety does give me pause. :evilgrin:

[Downwinder]

8. Wish I could say that.

Every time I go out the door I look for terrorists in uniforms with a light bar car.

[truth2power]

12. Well, yes, there is that. I don't trust the police anymore...

When I was very young my mother always told me that if I were to get lost I should try to find a police officer, who would certainly help me.

But these days the cops will taze people on a whim, that is if they don't just shoot you dead. I no longer have faith in the police. Too much brutality out there. :(

[muriel_volestrangler]

13. But it's not everyone - it's "anyone who isn't like us", to them

1 million is still just 1 in 200 adults (or 1 in 300 Americans? I wouldn't put it past Homeland Security to monitor children they know are 10 years old as 'terrorists').

The problem is that they've put people on the list specifically for non-terrorist activities (eg peace protests) that the DHS just doesn't like. It's a 'non-conformist' list, but, by calling it a 'terrorist watch' list, they stop most people complaining about it.

[Posteritatis]

14. It's not 1 in 200 or 1 in 300

The list isn't just Americans. "Only" five percent of the names on the list are Americans, in fact, which is incidentally a similar percentage as Americans are of the world population.

[muriel_volestrangler]

16. Ah, sorry - I should have read the full article

Still interesting to see that with 50,000 Americans on the list, they received 51,000 complaints about being on it - and 50,000 or so were just about name matches. Either there's a lot of non-Americans complaining , or there's matching a name means almost nothing, whatever their criteria for putting someone on the list.

[benEzra]

15. I think they want people on the list for other reasons.

If you're on the list, you can be strip-searched at airports. Gonzales et al tried hard to revoke the right to own a gun if you were placed on the list.

I suspect the powers-that-be feel that the more people they have on the blacklist, the more second-class citizens they have without those annoying first, second, fourth, and fifth amendment rights that get in their way.

[cliffordu]

7. Ok, look - I understand the multiple alias listings....

What about the multiple personality thingy...Did I - uh, WE - each get our own entry???

[Kutjara]

9. I'm surprised it's not 300,000,000.

After all, every one of us is a potential enemy of the state. We must be watched, WATCHED I say, at all times. It's for our own good, dontcha know? To protect the children. Or something.