U.S. has names of 400,000 terrorism suspects
Published: 15 July, 2008, 14:21
Edited: 14 January, 2010, 10:04
A U.S. now has the names of around 400,000 terrorism suspects. A civil rights group says the list has become too bulky to be an effective counter-terrorism tool, while the Bush administration disagreed and said exactly the opposite, reports Reuters news a
The ever-increasing database recently reached a one million milestone. Those together describe some 400,000 individuals that the U.S. suspect of being terrorists or having links with terrorist organisations.
The American Civil Liberties Union says the list is an impediment for millions of travellers.
“America's new million-record watch list is a perfect symbol for what's wrong with this administration's approach to security: it's unfair, out-of-control, a waste of resources (and) treats the rights of the innocent as an afterthought,” ACLU technology director Barry Steinhardt said in a release.
The group wants stricter criteria for adding names on the list, giving people the right to challenge their inclusion and better procedures for erasing the names of those wrongly accused.
Spokesman for the Terrorism Screening Center, Chad Kolton, brushed aside criticism and called the watch list “one of the most effective counterterrorism tools that our country has”. He cited a Government Accountability Office report that said the federal government had a general agreement that the list had helped to combat terrorism.
The terrorist watchlist was created in 2003 combining several similar lists into a single database to be used by all federal agencies. It’s maintained by FBI’s Terrorist Screening Center. 95% of the listed individuals are of non-U.S. residents.
Some 50,000 of the people included are also on the Transportation Security Administration ‘no-fly’ list making them subject to travel ban, arrest or additional screening.
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2 comments
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How many of the accussed were given a fair trial, according to their Constitutional rights? Why are requests of trancripts of trial of Saddam Hussein refused? Are Clinton, Bush, Sr & Jr, Dick Cheney included on the list of terrorist, because they ordered a "pre-emptive attack on Iraq, based on evidence of slant drilling under the Kuwait border into Iraq , and lying about hidden weapons. 911 is prefabricated, faked "massive, super-hypnotic, superfaked scheme," to drive U .S. people to blinding anger so they would fall for a genocidal war against Iraq and Afghanisatan. Type in the search box: "Slant Drilling," for proof. Husein was actually lynched so he could not blow his whistle on Bush & Company, who are guilty of a terrible, bloody war! Joe Spenner
I know, it's terrible how they lock all the money up in a bank as well on the pre-emptive thought that I might try and take it. Purely because I associate with convicted bank robbers, and did a small stint for carrying an illegal firearm. All arguments aside though. I personally think that having your name removed from a database of potential terrorists should be quite difficult. However, I also think that the list should only be updated if there are several factors to point out that you are more than just lets say the milkman. I also think that publishing what keeps you off the list would be a stupid thing to do as it would only be guidelines on "how not to get put on the watch list if you want to blow up an airline". Theres already far too much public disclosure on security things and not enough on day to day things. How many people staple blueprints of their house entry points and alarm systems, highlighting their weak spots to their front door, with a little note underneath saying PS: Away for a week. The only reason i am commenting on this one is because the UK is just as bad. Publicising stupid schemes that sendother countries citizens away with thousands of pounds whilst we leave homeless people with quite literally nothing. Democracy is great in some cases and horrendously difficult to repair where it fails so drastically. If we treated politicians as potential criminals from the start then we might have a chance to get going somewhere. After all, if they're clever enough to get people to vote for them they've usually just got good at lying through their back teeth. Everyone is entitled to their opinion and i wish to step on no toes, merely to highlight that there are assumptions everywhere we look. It's just that with most we are so used to them we don't notice anymore.