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PatriotOne
02-28-2008, 03:00 PM
ACLU calls out US over 'absurd bloating' of terror watch list

Nick Juliano
Raw Story
Thursday, February 28, 2008

http://rawstory.com/news/2008/ACLU_calls_out_US_over_absurd_0227.html

More that 900,000 people are currently listed as suspected terrorists on the US government's "do not fly" list, and that number will grow to beyond 1 million by summer, says the American Civil Liberties Union.

"If there were a million terrorists in this country, our cities would be in ruins," Barry Steinhardt, director of the ACLU's Technology and Liberty Program, stated in a press release from the group. "The absurd bloating of the terrorist watch lists is yet another example of how incompetence by our security apparatus threatens our rights without offering any real security."

The ACLU has launched a new Web site to track the growth of the watch list, which it says includes thousands of innocent Americans, including prominent politicians and authors as well as people with common names.

The group says its count is "extrapolated from a September 2007 report by the Inspector General of the Department of Justice, which reported that the Terrorist Screening 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." As of Wednesday afternoon, the ACLU said there were about 917,500 names on the list.

Having such an unwieldy list does little to protect against terrorism, the ACLU argues, and it violates the constitutional rights of innocent people on the list who are hassled by airport security.

"Homeland Security's handling of the watch lists is typical of this administration's blundering approach to the war on terror," said ACLU Senior Legislative Counsel Tim Sparapani. "Create sprawling new systems for sifting through the population, throw an indiscriminately broad range of names into the mix, fairly or not, and treat the rights of innocent people as an afterthought."

Ex Post Facto
02-28-2008, 04:14 PM
Hmm...900,000 thats about as many votes as Ron Paul has received thus far.

IcyPeaceMaker
02-28-2008, 04:23 PM
I found a disabled link to the names on the watch list, I wish someone would find an active link.

orafi
02-28-2008, 06:48 PM
I wonder if I'm on the list:confused::confused::confused:

Probably in the top ten :cool:

Mini-Me
02-28-2008, 08:02 PM
Hmm...900,000 thats about as many votes as Ron Paul has received thus far.

I don't doubt it.
I seriously would not be surprised if the feds convinced our ISP's to hand over the identities of everyone who posts on these forums...if so, it's a shame that my neighbors with unsecured wireless are now on the list along with me, since my roaming wireless adapter sometimes accidentally picks the wrong network.

MarcS
02-29-2008, 10:48 AM
One of my best friends spent 6 hours detained at JFK because his almost generic Muslim name popped up. Forget that he is born in the Midwest (natural born citizen) to Indian parents (not Arab) and the officers detaining him had no doubts he was not the person on the list and he had several people vouching for him, it took 6 hours of detainment for the bureaucratic mess in Washington to get their shit togeather set him free.

pinkmandy
02-29-2008, 10:53 AM
I'd love to see some rogue hacker get that list and publish it.

Ex Post Facto
02-29-2008, 04:30 PM
One of my best friends spent 6 hours detained at JFK because his almost generic Muslim name popped up. Forget that he is born in the Midwest (natural born citizen) to Indian parents (not Arab) and the officers detaining him had no doubts he was not the person on the list and he had several people vouching for him, it took 6 hours of detainment for the bureaucratic mess in Washington to get their shit togeather set him free.

I'm just curious. If you are held as a do not fly passenger, can you just walk out and refuse to fly? Or, do they literally detain you?

IcyPeaceMaker
02-29-2008, 04:59 PM
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=8797525979024486145&q=michael+ruppert+truth+and+lies+911&total=38&start=0&num=10&so=0&type=search&plindex=2

freesoul
03-01-2008, 06:55 AM
Are you people aware that you get matched to the list by name only, no other info like DOB, etc...... they're casting a wide net :(

Cinnaboo
03-01-2008, 12:46 PM
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