Terrorist watch list had 860,000 names last October

[Peter]

860,000 Name Long Terror Watch List Scrutinizes Americans Most
By Ryan Singel EmailOctober 24, 2007 | 8:27:47 PMCategories: Sunshine and Secrecy, Watchlists 

The nation's centralized watch list has grown to include 755,000 names suspected of having terrorist ties, resulting in nearly 20,000 positive matches of persons against the list in 2006, according to a new report from Congress's investigative reporting arm. Since the list is now used in nearly all routine police stops and for domestic airline travel, Americans made up the bulk of those matches.

The Government Accountablity Office's report was presented in a hearing to the Senate's Homeland Security Committee Wednesday, causing senators to express concern about the size and effectiveness of the list. watchlistgraphGAO

The GAO report (full pdf, html summary) included a few new details about the list's size and operation but much of this was reported by Wired months ago.

The Terrorist Screening Center runs the list, which is created from nominations from a wide array of government agencies via the National Counter Terrorism Center. The watch list entries are used to check persons seeking visas, travellers entering or leaving the country, domestic airline passengers and persons stopped by state, local or federal law enforcement. Most of the positive matches on the list came from police routinely checking persons, such as speeding motorists, against the list, according to the Government Accountablity Office's report (.pdf). The TSA is responsible for resolving mismatches, which can happen when an innocent person's name is similar or the same as different, watch listed person. The number of individuals on the list may be significantly less than three quarters of a million, since the name count include aliases.

Since list entries are coded with varying suspected threat levels, simply being on the watch list doesn't mean one will be arrested. In fact, being on the watchlist isn't even enough to ensure that a person is denied a visa or entry into the country, according to the report.

The GAO, at the request of the feds, removed information about how often the list has been used to arrest suspected terrorists or keep them out of the county. It also doesn't report the number of times people were falsely matched to the list.

But the report says the feds say it is effective.

    Our analysis of data on the outcomes of encounters revealed that agencies took a range of actions, such as arresting individuals, denying others entry into the United States, and most commonly, releasing the individuals following questioning and information gathering.

    TSC data show that agencies reported arresting many subjects of watch list records for various reasons, such as the individual having an outstanding arrest warrant or the individual’s behavior or actions during the encounter. TSC data also indicated that some of the arrests were based on terrorism grounds.

Individuals who believe they are on the list erroneously or because of a confusion over their name can apply for help through the DHS Advise system, but it is not set up to allow people to contest the information that got them on the list.

Homeland Security officials defended the list's size and said they were working to make sure that watch listed individuals did not get past airline checks, according to the Voice of America.

    Homeland Security Assistant Secretary of Policy, Paul Rosenzweig: "We have made great strides," he said. "More work needs to be done, but the improvement is quite noticeable."
    The chairman of the Senate committee, Senator Joe Lieberman of Connecticut, expressed concern about the growth of the terrorist watch list, which the GAO report says has grown from 158,000 in June 2004 to 860,000 today.

    "With the list likely to go over one million names in the near future, we need to know that there are clear standards for placing names on it and of course taking them off it," he said.

    But Leonard Boyle, director of the Terrorist Screening Center, says the list is actually much smaller than described by the GAO because some people may be on the list more than once if their names are listed under multiple spellings.[...]

    Boyle says federal agencies have agreed to a set of procedures to allow people who believe they were wrongly added to the watch list a timely, fair and accurate review of their cases.

Other adjectives that apply to the DHS review process include one-sided, secretive, administrative, and non-reviewable.

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[Parts]

Bet I've met some of them too

Maybe I'm one depends on what Callaway said in the dossier she sent to the NSA about me

[Tesla]

Can I find out if I am in the TSDB?

The TSC cannot reveal whether a particular person is in the TSDB. The TSDB remains an effective tool in the government’s counterterrorism efforts because its contents are not disclosed. If TSC revealed who was in the TSDB, terrorist organizations would be able to circumvent the purpose of the terrorist watchlist by determining in advance which of their members are likely to be questioned or detained.

Typical.

[Callaway]

Bet I've met some of them too

Maybe I'm one depends on what Callaway said in the dossier she sent to the NSA about me

* Callaway makes notes in that secret dossier.

 

I actually have a friend who is on the list.  His name, which is a very typically American name, matches an alias that some terrorist has used, so he is always very closely scrutinized at airports.

Can I find out if I am in the TSDB?

The TSC cannot reveal whether a particular person is in the TSDB. The TSDB remains an effective tool in the government’s counterterrorism efforts because its contents are not disclosed. If TSC revealed who was in the TSDB, terrorist organizations would be able to circumvent the purpose of the terrorist watchlist by determining in advance which of their members are likely to be questioned or detained.

Typical.

Sure you can.  Just try to fly somewhere and you will know very quickly whether or not you are on the list.

[IlluSionS667]

Considering anyone hostile to the political system can be called a terrorist these days, it's no wonder the list keeps growing.

[Alex179]

My dad got checked at every airport I have ever went to with him.    His name must be the same as some terrorist in the IRA lol.   Would not surprise me as his name is very common in Ireland since our family is so fucking huge.

[ProfessorFarnsworth]

Kind of dilutes the purpose of being a watch list for anti-terrorism efforts, especially if there's too many persons of interest to watch out for. Sounds ridiculous to me.

If it's grows too much, I'd suspect it being a 'big brother' dissident civilian watch list in nature instead. Considering how blurred the term terrorist is becoming these days, pretty soon (if not alright in some cases) that just being 'unpatriotic' or holding a different opinion from status quo, could become falsely synonymous with 'being a terrorist' in people's minds. It seems to be heading in that direction, where freedoms are secretly being destroyed by the guise of 'protecting' the people from a 'stealthy' threat.

I believe that nothing should ever mean sacrifice the vital freedoms like speech, expression, protest, religion, etc you have for government 'protection and security' measures, otherwise you're led into the inevitable police state over time. Problem is most of the time, it happens so slowly, people become psychologically conditioned to think they're still free, when in reality, they have lost aspects of their true freedom already. Usually it's like a brick wall, the freedoms get eroded away until the truth reveals itself, and then suddenly you think to yourself, "What happened?" and realize the reality when it's too late. How does that related to this subject? Well, a watch list of this gross size, is usually the potential beginning of such degradation of freedoms, if it starts to be abused for multiple purposes.

[Parts]

Not on a watch list but I do have a very common name and get pages of false hits on my credit report every time I get a copy so just think how many people must get stopped unnecessarily just because they have Muhammad in their name