Watch Out For the Watch List
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 ...
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