home

Watch Out For the Watch List

By TChris, Section War on Terror
Posted on Sat Oct 07, 2006 at 09:14:07 AM EST
Tags: (all tags)
Share This: Digg! StumbleUpon del.icio.us reddit reddit

by TChris

Do you deserve to be hassled every time you try to board a plane, just because your name is John Williams? If you share a name with someone Homeland Security has added to its terrorist watch list, you probably dread going to an airport or encountering a customs agent or police officer.

Thousands of people [including more than 30,000 airline passengers] have been mistakenly linked to names on terrorist watch lists when they crossed the border, boarded commercial airliners or were stopped for traffic violations, a government report said Friday. ... The list also contains such generic names as Gary Smith, John Williams and Robert Johnson. When "60 Minutes" spoke with 12 people named Robert Johnson, it reported, all said that they are detained almost every time they fly.

Saddam Hussein is among the 44,000 names on the list because Homeland Security apparently is unaware that he's in custody. Bizarrely, names of some terrorists have been deliberately omitted from the list.

Fourteen of the September 11 hijackers - yes, the ones who died - are on there, but the 11 people arrested in Britain over plots to blow up airliners aren't, despite the fact that the authorities were apparently aware of them. Why is that?

Here's where the sheer insanity hits home. Because if the list manages to get into the wrong hands, those wrong hands could use it for Very Bad Things. So America has a no-fly list that is really just for hassling people who aren't dangerous enough, because if it actually listed public threats, it would be too sensitive. As somebody over at Metafilter says: "It's a fantastic Catch 22 - if the no-fly list works, we can't put real terrorists on it."

Is this really homeland security? Or is it just another expensive, ineffective sop to work on public fear? Just ask Robert Johnson the next time you see him. Or Gary Smith. Or John Williams. Or ...

< Sailor Admits He Didn't Stop Murder of Iraqi | Newsweek's New Poll >

  • The Online Magazine with Liberal coverage of crime-related political and injustice news

  • Contribute To TalkLeft


    • Display: Sort:
    Watch Out For the Watch List | 9 comments (9 topical)
    Re: Watch Out For the Watch List (none / 0) (#1)
    by Zeno on Sat Oct 07, 2006 at 09:53:51 AM EST
    Goddamn lists. I share a name with a convicted sex criminal who lives about 20 miles away. Sure glad I'm not trying to land a job or rent an apartment when "my" name would score a hit on the public website that tracks the offenders.

    Re: Watch Out For the Watch List (none / 0) (#4)
    by kipling on Sun Oct 08, 2006 at 01:05:16 AM EST
    This is a "mistake". Yeah, right. Because of "incompetence". Yeah, right. It is pertinent, but probably a waste of time, to recall the words of ex-Soviet dissident Vladimir Bukovsky who wrote recently in the Washington Post: torture, which includes CID, has historically been an instrument of oppression -- not an instrument of investigation or of intelligence gathering.

    Re: Watch Out For the Watch List (none / 0) (#5)
    by jimakaPPJ on Sun Oct 08, 2006 at 07:11:20 AM EST
    From the post:
    When "60 Minutes" spoke with 12 people....all said that they are detained almost every time they fly.
    I wonder how many they spoke to, and how many said they had no problem??

    Re: Watch Out For the Watch List (none / 0) (#2)
    by scarshapedstar on Sun Oct 08, 2006 at 12:07:06 PM EST
    Ah, yes, I should have known. Bob Johnson and John Williams. Funny, I thought Bob was a lawyer and John was a pediatrician. Who knew that jihadists lurk even in small-town Louisiana? Thank God George Bush is keepin' us safe.

    Re: Watch Out For the Watch List (none / 0) (#3)
    by cpinva on Sun Oct 08, 2006 at 12:07:06 PM EST
    lists such as this are the ultimate sop to the "fear" stoked by the present administration. they don't really accomplish much, in terms of actual increases in security, but they make great sound bites. there are many such lists, none particularly effective at their stated purpose, but nearly all leading the pack in meeting the terms of the law of unintended consequences.

    Re: Watch Out For the Watch List (none / 0) (#6)
    by Talkleft Visitor on Sun Oct 08, 2006 at 12:07:06 PM EST
    I wonder how many they spoke to...?
    Erm, 12, Jim, like it says in the part of the post you quoted. You would think with all the finger-printing and eye-scanning that goes on in airports now that there would be no reason to detain someone for any length of time whatsoever simply because they shared the same name as a terrorist. Otherwise what is the point of all these extra methods of identification?

    Re: Watch Out For the Watch List (none / 0) (#8)
    by cpinva on Sun Oct 08, 2006 at 08:08:08 PM EST
    Dark Avenger, you assume, mistakenly, that jim actually has a point to make. i think he just likes the sound of his own typing. :)

    Re: Watch Out For the Watch List (none / 0) (#9)
    by jimakaPPJ on Mon Oct 09, 2006 at 05:36:59 AM EST
    Dark Avenger - Since you are not capable of associating the partial quote from the whole text, I now provide it complete..... Sorry, I keep forgetting that you have special needs.. Aw to heck with it. If you can't figure it out, I see no reason to try and educate you. cpinva - Actually I live only to read your pearls of wisdom.

    Re: Watch Out For the Watch List (none / 0) (#11)
    by kdog on Mon Oct 09, 2006 at 08:21:26 AM EST
    Stalin and Castro had lists of people who could not travel freely too...what great company! No place for such lists in a free society...bottom line.

    Watch Out For the Watch List | 9 comments (9 topical)