The Police State - On The Terrorist Watch List

The nation's terrorist watch list has hit one million names, according to a tally maintained by the American Civil Liberties Union based upon the government's own reported numbers for the size of the list.

"Members of Congress, nuns, war heroes and other 'suspicious characters,' with names like Robert Johnson and Gary Smith, have become trapped in the Kafkaesque clutches of this list, with little hope of escape," said Caroline Fredrickson, director of the ACLU Washington Legislative Office. "Congress needs to fix it, the Terrorist Screening Center needs to fix it, or the next president needs to fix it, but it has to be done soon."

Fredrickson and Barry Steinhardt, director of the ACLU's Technology and Liberty Program, spoke today along with two victims of the watch list: Jim Robinson, former assistant attorney general for the Criminal Division who flies frequently and is often delayed for hours despite possessing a governmental security clearance and Akif Rahman, an American citizen who has been detained and interrogated extensively at the U.S.-Canada border when traveling for business.

"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, treats the rights of the innocent as an afterthought, and is a very real impediment in the lives of millions of travelers in this country," said Barry Steinhardt, director of the ACLU Technology and Liberty Program. "It must be fixed without delay."

"Putting a million names on a watch list is a guarantee that the list will do more harm than good by interfering with the travel of innocent people and wasting huge amounts of our limited security resources on bureaucratic wheel-spinning," said Steinhardt. "I doubt this thing would even be effective at catching a real terrorist."

Source:
http://www.aclu.org/privacy/35968prs20080714.html

Category:

News & Politics

Tags:

• the police state
• terrorist watch list
• civil liberties
• president bush
• president obama
• corrupt government
• whistleblower
• government
• corruption
• lies
• truth

[dreamcore]

Yeah, I was on the list in this fashion through the 2000s. It was loads of fun.

[nerblebun]

@unoitaliano Be careful of telling the truth my friend. Telling the truth could get you on the Watch List. God bless...

[unoitaliano]

Keeping them ? honest?? It's Kinda funny that at the end of these two minute snippets they have the SHEEP accepting the dishonest,. distorted, opressive propoganda, & behavior that their masters conduct....Baaaa!! if your reading this and you know what I mean...God bless you, and God bless America...

[firuinthehouse]

OK don't you guys have that Social Security number thingy? HOW does that list only have names? In my country we have this personal number called CNP (Numeric Personal Code) and the first digits of it identify your gender and birth date.

At the very least a simple number like that could avoid all these problems, IF that list contained more than the names.

In any case, great example of institutional stupidity :)

[CrazyItalian992]

THAT KID LOOKS FUCKIN SHADY

[Rakastaja1]

The US Government now a days seems to have to same bumbling stupidity of 3rd world dictatorships. Say bye bye to Freedom. Homeland Security = Police State.

[franz909]

Wake Up sheep , this isn't no "glitch" and they know exactly what they doing and by the FACT they refused to take people off the damn list , proves it .

This STASI style surveillance / "security " is BY DESIGN . They have the power , they are using it and nobody is stopping them . The FASCIST PIGS !

[MrThetruthsucks]

The terror watch list is a joke

[mmcclain88]

obviously the fact of the matter is, the government is to incompetent to do their jobs right. if you're to stupid to realize that, maybe on this planet, someone might actually have the same name as somebody else, then you shouldn't be running this country. i bet more then half the people in charge of this terror watch list, would lose on the first question of the game show " are you smarter than a 5th grader". you see less mistakes by mcdonalds employees, and they serve a billion people. 

[Pher0cious]

it's official... United States has the worlds DUMBEST SECURITY EVER!!!