1 Million Terrorists? Really?

Ludicrous Terrorist Watch List Now Contains Over 1 Million Names
Children, airline pilots and respected professional deemed terrorist threats
Steve Watson - Infowars.net - Wednesday, March 11, 2009

Newly released figures show that one million names now make up the government’s terrorist watch list, a dramatic rise of around 32% in the last two years.

Federal data show the rise comes despite the removal of 33,000 entries last year by the FBI’s Terrorist Screening Center in an effort to purge the list of outdated information and remove people cleared in investigations, reports USA Today.

The statistics were provided by the screening center and the Office of the Director of National Intelligence.

In May 2005, less than four years ago, the number of names on the list was 288,000. Since that time it has almost quadrupled, hitting 755,000 in May 2007 and 1 million as of March 2009.

Those flagged on the watch list, established pursuant to the recommendations of the 9/11 Commission, can be blocked from flying, stopped at borders or subjected to other scrutiny.

Civil liberties advocates and critics have charged that the list is far too expansive to be in any way effective.

Reports have confirmed that the watch list contains the names of thousands of innocent Americans, including children, lawyers and even a retired Air National Guard brigadier, now a commercial pilot for a major airline.

We have previously highlighted the fact that a miniscule amount, less than 0.01% of Homeland Security cases are terrorism related.

Other government watch lists, such as the so called “No Fly List” and the CAPPS II system, used by airlines and derived from the master terror list, have also come under heavy criticism for subverting the First and Fourth Amendments.

In some cases credit reports have been used in calculating the risk score, while the list has also been used to target political activists opposing the death penalty and the Iraq war.


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