Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

Skip to comments.

One million names on US terror watch list, says rights group
Herald Sun ^ | 15 July 2008

Posted on 07/14/2008 5:05:32 PM PDT by Aussie Dasher

A WATCH list of suspected and known terrorists, compiled by the US authorities, has ballooned and contains more than one million names, the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) said today.

The ACLU said it derived the figure from a Justice Department report on the FBI's Terrorist Screening Centre, which consolidates terrorist watch list information.

The centre "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", according to a report by the Justice Department Inspector-General, the rights group said.

"By those numbers, the list now has over one million names on it," the ACLU said.

Among those on the watchlist are deceased people, such as former Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein who was hanged in 2005, decorated war veterans, and US senator Ted Kennedy, the ACLU said.

Nobel Peace Prize winner and former South African president Nelson Mandela was also on the list until an act of Congress removed his name - the only way, according to the ACLU, to get off the list.

"The watchlist is a perfect symbol for what's wrong with the administration's approach to terrorism: it's unfair, out of control, incompetently administered, a waste of resources, and is a very real impediment in the lives of billions of travelers," the director of the ACLU Technology and Liberty Program, Barry Steinhardt, told reporters in Washington.

(Excerpt) Read more at news.com.au ...


TOPICS: Front Page News; Government; Politics/Elections; War on Terror
KEYWORDS: aclu; airlinesecurity; bobbarr; enemycombatant; globaljihad; islam; jihadinamerica; mohammedanism; sideshowbob; terrorism; watchlist; wot
Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first 1-2021-30 next last
The ACLU: there they go again...
1 posted on 07/14/2008 5:05:33 PM PDT by Aussie Dasher
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | View Replies]

To: Aussie Dasher

Well, what would one expect?

It wouldn’t sound nearly so dramitcally dire if they said “about 1/3 of 1% of the population.”


2 posted on 07/14/2008 5:14:20 PM PDT by ApplegateRanch (The Great Obamanation of Desolation, attempting to sit in the Oval Office, where he ought not..)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Aussie Dasher

Hey, I can’t stand the ACLU.

But 1 million Americans on the watch list is a scary thought. I doubt they’re all a bunch of Muslim extremists especially considering the government keeps flooding the US with thousands of Muslims.

My guess would be lots of people on Freerepublic and similar places are on that list.


3 posted on 07/14/2008 5:14:22 PM PDT by Transformers
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Aussie Dasher
"a very real impediment in the lives of billions of travelers"

WOW, billions of travelers are affected by the watch list? Whatever else one thinks about this issue, it is obvious that the ACLU continues in its proud tradition of psychotic dishonesty, exaggeration, and distortion. All leftist propaganda, all the time!
4 posted on 07/14/2008 5:15:21 PM PDT by Enchante (BILL AYERS: "Now THESE are the Obamas I knew! Thank you, New Yorker, for showing my real friends!")
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: ApplegateRanch
It wouldn’t sound nearly so dramatically dire if they said “about 1/3 of 1% of the population.”

Or one in ten muslims...

5 posted on 07/14/2008 5:16:39 PM PDT by null and void (All those years of people voting for the lesser of the two evils? The bill comes due this election.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 2 | View Replies]

To: Transformers

Considering that there are 1.2 billion Muslims in the world, and untold millions of dedicated leftists some of whom may be violent and/or terrorists, it may be that 1 million is a modest list. But we have to know a lot more about how names are added, retained, and/or removed from the list to really judge. I sure do know that nothing that spews from the ACLU can be trusted....


6 posted on 07/14/2008 5:17:57 PM PDT by Enchante (BILL AYERS: "Now THESE are the Obamas I knew! Thank you, New Yorker, for showing my real friends!")
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 3 | View Replies]

To: Aussie Dasher

How many ACLU members are on it?


7 posted on 07/14/2008 5:18:38 PM PDT by airborne (God gives us countless opportunities! It's up to us to use them wisely!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Aussie Dasher

They say Ted Kennedy’s on it, it’s a start.


8 posted on 07/14/2008 5:20:44 PM PDT by JMJJR (Now you KNOW why we're called the stupid party !)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Aussie Dasher
So what. Add the names of their lawyers, too.

Real torture:

Blowtorches, enucleated eyes, electricity and drills are used.
[Al-Qaeda Torture Manual Found & Released by DoD (***Warning Graphic***)]

9 posted on 07/14/2008 5:21:17 PM PDT by Diogenesis (Igitur qui desiderat pacem, praeparet bellum)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Transformers
Probably a couple of Freepers here and there might get added by accident, but for the most part these guys are all leftwingtards or neo-fascists (and there's not a lot of difference between the two).

Teddy Kennedy was rightly placed on the list. He fled the scene of an accident where someone was killed. Definitely not anyone we can trust.

Oh, yes, and the other thing that gets you on the list is to threaten to kill the President or the top Constitutional officers (VP, Speaker, and so on). The ACLU would like the list trimmed up a bit so that all the folks who want to kill "W" but not kill Pelosi, are dropped.

Their outrage is always selective.

10 posted on 07/14/2008 5:21:43 PM PDT by muawiyah (We need a "Gastank For America" to win back Congress)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 3 | View Replies]

To: Transformers
"1 million Americans on the watch list is a scary thought"

Reading comprehension, please.... it does not say 'Americans' it says 'names' -- if there are large numbers of foreign/Arab/Muslim names and perhaps several spelling variants of each name (big issue with transliterated Arabic names) then there's no telling what % of that list may be people who definitely do belong there, many of whom may not be Americans (I don't claim to know). As I said, there's no information in the article that really allows us to make judgments about whether the list is being well-maintained or not, well-constructed or not, but I'll never trust the ACLU's judgment on such matters.
11 posted on 07/14/2008 5:22:16 PM PDT by Enchante (BILL AYERS: "Now THESE are the Obamas I knew! Thank you, New Yorker, for showing my real friends!")
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 3 | View Replies]

To: Aussie Dasher

Given there are 1,000,000,000 muslims, and given that even most moonbats acknowledge 10% are radical muslims, that means there are at least 100,000,000 people who need to be on that list. They only have 1% of that - they need to get to work!


12 posted on 07/14/2008 5:24:13 PM PDT by piytar
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Aussie Dasher

1 million names out of a total world population of 6+ Billion, not counting Islamic specific terrorism...that list seems more inept rather then overzealous IMO


13 posted on 07/14/2008 5:27:13 PM PDT by WritableSpace
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Enchante

Maybe I’m too skeptical. But it sure seems like the g-men are more interested in Christian cults and Mormon polygamists than they are in going after Muslims who pose a threat. After all, why do they keep importing more people who would need to be watched?

Plus remember, in the new religion of DIVERSITY, to watch Muslim extremists isn’t PC.


14 posted on 07/14/2008 5:27:43 PM PDT by Transformers
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 11 | View Replies]

To: Transformers

You may be right — given the kind of PC blowhards who occupy so many posts in the federal bureaucracies, there is a good chance that this list is being expanded in inappropriate ways. I would certainly support strong oversight in appropriate ways but I would never trust the ACLU to have any useful input.


15 posted on 07/14/2008 5:30:16 PM PDT by Enchante (BILL AYERS: "Now THESE are the Obamas I knew! Thank you, New Yorker, for showing my real friends!")
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 14 | View Replies]

To: Enchante

Even more general then Islamic terrorism, this list is non specific to the events of the war against Islamic terrorists. Another look at the article would show that it doesn’t even mention specific kinds of terrorists, considering that there are plenty of other kinds of terrorists then just the nasty Islamic brand, I’m surprised this list is so small...


16 posted on 07/14/2008 5:34:10 PM PDT by WritableSpace
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 11 | View Replies]

To: Aussie Dasher

The ACLU is only whining because all their members are on the list.


17 posted on 07/14/2008 5:35:20 PM PDT by 2CAVTrooper (Democrats: Supporting America's enemies since 1824)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Aussie Dasher

Ted Kennedy would most likely be on the list for helping NORAID raise money to arm the Irish Republican Army.

He’s not just some innocent American that somehow popped up on a terrorist watchlist.


18 posted on 07/14/2008 5:35:45 PM PDT by Snickering Hound
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Aussie Dasher

1,000,000!?!?!?...and that’s only the Amish!


19 posted on 07/14/2008 5:38:04 PM PDT by Roccus (I love my country...the government is another story.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Enchante

yeah i suspect there are a whole bunch of non-muslim, US citizens on this list.

I really don’t like Ted Kennedy, and find it hysterical that he is on the list still, BUT the fact a sitting senator with his background (I know...) is on the list at all says something is wrong.

A friend of a family member (anglo-american, etc.,) took a trip to the mountains of persia/some bordering country slightly before the shaw was overthrown. This is a guy who had been doing and continued to do outdoors, very remote travel all over the world. HE got on the list - I remember one story where he was doing consulting for law enforcement in one locality, and then saw one of the senior people he had been training when he got his ‘no-fly’ interview - ~+25 years later.

My point is that secret government lists of US citizens (there are US citizens on this list) not even demonstrably suspected of any wrongdoing which effectively stick for LIFE should scare the heck out of all but the ‘security at any cost’ crowd.


20 posted on 07/14/2008 5:45:19 PM PDT by WoofDog123
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 15 | View Replies]


Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first 1-2021-30 next last

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.

Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson