Today's Article
Our 'Terrorist Watch
Lists' seem created
to watch everyone
except the terrorists.
Lists' seem created
to watch everyone
except the terrorists.
The American Spark
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Homeland Security Forced To Revise Terrorist Watch Lists
By Cliff Montgomery
Angry congressional lawmakers have given the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) a hard six-month deadline to
revamp its process for clearing individuals who have been wrongly put on government terrorist watch lists.
The fiscal 2007 Homeland Security appropriations bill--signed into law in the first week of October--requires the department
to "establish revised procedures for expeditiously clearing individuals whose names have been mistakenly placed on a
terrorist database list or who have names identical or similar to individuals on a terrorist database list."
The bill further ordered the department to finish these changes within six months.
Frustration and anger has grown in Congress during the last year, with the discovery that the administration's "watch lists"
are in fact riddled with inaccuracies. It is a particular problem in the area of aviation, where innocent U.S.
citizens--including sometimes even lawmakers themselves--have been detained because their names appeared on one of
the lists.
"If we're going to have a watch list that works, we should fine-tune it," Rep. Zoe Lofgren, (D-CA)., said during a June
hearing.
Senate Commerce Committee Chairman Ted Stevens, R-Alaska, said in February that his wife, Catherine, was
questioned at airport checkpoints because her name matched that of a folk singer formerly known as Cat Stevens. Civil
rights pioneer Rep. John Lewis, (D-GA), and even well-known lawmaker Sen. Edward Kennedy, (D-MA), also have said
they were wrongly placed on a watch list and stopped numerous times.
Last January DHS Secretary Michael Chertoff and Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice announced that the
government would "accelerate efforts to establish a government-wide traveler screening redress process to resolve
questions if travelers are incorrectly selected for additional screening."
Of course, the best way to solve matters would be to ensure that only those actually suspected of terrorist activities are put
on those lists. One cannot help but think that the inclusion of fellow lawmakers like Ted Kennedy and John Lewis--both
fierce combatants of this White House--has more to do with childish politics than a serious concern over terrorist activity.
Besides, if you're going to use a name on a terrorist list which may clearly be confused with someone else--like, say, 'Cat
Stevens'--then that list should well describe which 'Cat Stevens' you're looking for in the first place. A random series of
rather average names can only create confusion, not security.
The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) has flatly called for the government to end its current aviation watch lists. The
demand came in response to a CBS "60 Minutes" report disclosing that the lists include many common names along with
people who are dead, in prison, or are international dignitaries, such as the president of Bolivia.
If you think the ACLU goes too far in calling for a complete end to the current watch lists, consider this: the "60 Minutes"
report also discovered that these administration watch lists, said to protect us from those big bad terrorists, do not include
the names of all terror suspects.
Why? Agencies say they are afraid to share some names with anyone outside the administration.
In other words, you'll be protected from sharing a plane with Ted Kennedy or the wife of Ted Stevens, but you may end up
sharing it with al-Qaeda's number three man. Don't you feel safer already?
Neither do Republicans, or Democrats, or the ACLU, or anyone else with half a brain.
"Until Homeland Security can figure out a way to create a genuine, narrow, targeted list of real terrorists rather than
harming innocent people, Congress needs to shut this monstrosity down," said Tim Sparapani, ACLU legislative counsel.
Homeland Security's Transportation Security Administration (TSA) operates three aviation watch lists: one with names of
individuals who are not allowed to fly; one with names who need secondary screening; and one with names who have
been cleared through a redress process.
The FBI's Terrorist Screening Center is responsible for managing and consolidating all administration watch lists.
The FBI and TSA both issued statements in early October eagerly defending the 'terrorist-free' watch lists as valuable
counterterrorism tools; though to be fair, the statements added that the agencies were clarifying current redress
procedures. A TSA spokeswoman told Government Executive magazine that about 35,000 people have sought redress
for wrongly being placed on an aviation watch list.
But both the FBI and TSA declined to reveal names or how many people are on any of the lists, saying that the information
is secret. Giving out names of those proven to have no terrorist ties of any kind, or stating how many people are on these
rather useless lists, cannot be done under the current regime. That would come far too close to giving real power back to
the American people.
And we know only the Iraqis are ready for a liberty like that.
By Cliff Montgomery
Angry congressional lawmakers have given the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) a hard six-month deadline to
revamp its process for clearing individuals who have been wrongly put on government terrorist watch lists.
The fiscal 2007 Homeland Security appropriations bill--signed into law in the first week of October--requires the department
to "establish revised procedures for expeditiously clearing individuals whose names have been mistakenly placed on a
terrorist database list or who have names identical or similar to individuals on a terrorist database list."
The bill further ordered the department to finish these changes within six months.
Frustration and anger has grown in Congress during the last year, with the discovery that the administration's "watch lists"
are in fact riddled with inaccuracies. It is a particular problem in the area of aviation, where innocent U.S.
citizens--including sometimes even lawmakers themselves--have been detained because their names appeared on one of
the lists.
"If we're going to have a watch list that works, we should fine-tune it," Rep. Zoe Lofgren, (D-CA)., said during a June
hearing.
Senate Commerce Committee Chairman Ted Stevens, R-Alaska, said in February that his wife, Catherine, was
questioned at airport checkpoints because her name matched that of a folk singer formerly known as Cat Stevens. Civil
rights pioneer Rep. John Lewis, (D-GA), and even well-known lawmaker Sen. Edward Kennedy, (D-MA), also have said
they were wrongly placed on a watch list and stopped numerous times.
Last January DHS Secretary Michael Chertoff and Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice announced that the
government would "accelerate efforts to establish a government-wide traveler screening redress process to resolve
questions if travelers are incorrectly selected for additional screening."
Of course, the best way to solve matters would be to ensure that only those actually suspected of terrorist activities are put
on those lists. One cannot help but think that the inclusion of fellow lawmakers like Ted Kennedy and John Lewis--both
fierce combatants of this White House--has more to do with childish politics than a serious concern over terrorist activity.
Besides, if you're going to use a name on a terrorist list which may clearly be confused with someone else--like, say, 'Cat
Stevens'--then that list should well describe which 'Cat Stevens' you're looking for in the first place. A random series of
rather average names can only create confusion, not security.
The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) has flatly called for the government to end its current aviation watch lists. The
demand came in response to a CBS "60 Minutes" report disclosing that the lists include many common names along with
people who are dead, in prison, or are international dignitaries, such as the president of Bolivia.
If you think the ACLU goes too far in calling for a complete end to the current watch lists, consider this: the "60 Minutes"
report also discovered that these administration watch lists, said to protect us from those big bad terrorists, do not include
the names of all terror suspects.
Why? Agencies say they are afraid to share some names with anyone outside the administration.
In other words, you'll be protected from sharing a plane with Ted Kennedy or the wife of Ted Stevens, but you may end up
sharing it with al-Qaeda's number three man. Don't you feel safer already?
Neither do Republicans, or Democrats, or the ACLU, or anyone else with half a brain.
"Until Homeland Security can figure out a way to create a genuine, narrow, targeted list of real terrorists rather than
harming innocent people, Congress needs to shut this monstrosity down," said Tim Sparapani, ACLU legislative counsel.
Homeland Security's Transportation Security Administration (TSA) operates three aviation watch lists: one with names of
individuals who are not allowed to fly; one with names who need secondary screening; and one with names who have
been cleared through a redress process.
The FBI's Terrorist Screening Center is responsible for managing and consolidating all administration watch lists.
The FBI and TSA both issued statements in early October eagerly defending the 'terrorist-free' watch lists as valuable
counterterrorism tools; though to be fair, the statements added that the agencies were clarifying current redress
procedures. A TSA spokeswoman told Government Executive magazine that about 35,000 people have sought redress
for wrongly being placed on an aviation watch list.
But both the FBI and TSA declined to reveal names or how many people are on any of the lists, saying that the information
is secret. Giving out names of those proven to have no terrorist ties of any kind, or stating how many people are on these
rather useless lists, cannot be done under the current regime. That would come far too close to giving real power back to
the American people.
And we know only the Iraqis are ready for a liberty like that.