Feds Agree to Pay ACLU Over No-Fly List

[sabra]

http://www.tuscaloosanews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060124/APA/601241207

Feds Agree to Pay ACLU Over No-Fly List

By DAVID KRAVETS
Associated Press Writer


Two federal agencies agreed Tuesday to pay the American Civil Liberties Union $200,000 to settle a lawsuit brought to uncover information about the government's no-fly list, which bars suspected terrorists from airliners.

The government will compensate the ACLU for attorneys' fees, settling a lawsuit initiated by two San Francisco peace activists who were detained while checking in for a flight three years ago.

In October 2004, documents that the FBI and Transportation Security Administration provided in the lawsuit revealed the government has "two primary principles" but no "hard and fast" rules for deciding who gets put on the secret list.

The 301 pages of redacted documents, lodged in federal court in San Francisco in 2004, also said the secret list grew from 16 names the day of the Sept. 11 terror attacks to 594 by mid-December 2001. The list now is believed to carry thousands of names.

[Poll_Blind]

1. At first I was concerned about this but then I read...

...the third-to-last paragraph:

"The ACLU decided to seek compensation, allowed under the FOIA, after it obtained all the information it believed it could get from the government."

PB

[Trillo]

2. I wonder if the "requesting agency" and goverment follows

"two primary principles" as well as they appear to follow "constitutional principals."

No "hard and fast" rules is ripe for political abuse. Maybe that's why Kennedy got flagged.

[DoYouEverWonder]

3. Well that sucks

why settle for compensation for just 2 people. What happens to everyone else whose been screwed by this illegal list?

[snooper2]

4. It was compensation for the lawyers...

Not the two people, they just wanted to know why-the-fuck they where on the list...