Are You on the Terror List? 509,000 People Are

[babylonsister]

http://www.pensitoreview.com/2007/06/13/are-you-on-the-terror-list-509000-people-are/

Are You on the Terror List? 509,000 People Are
Posted by Trish | Jun. 13, 2007, 10:17 am

The FBI watch list of suspected terrorists is so long, it would be easier to tell you who they’re not monitoring than who they are.

Privacy and civil liberties advocates say the list is growing uncontrollably, threatening its usefulness in the war on terror.

The bureau says the number of names on its terrorist watch list is classified.

A portion of the FBI’s unclassified 2008 budget request posted to the Department of Justice Web site, however, refers to “the entire watch list of 509,000 names,” which is utilized by its Foreign Terrorist Tracking Task Force…

“It grows seemingly without control or limitation,” said ACLU senior legislative counsel Tim Sparapani of the terrorism watch list. Sparapani called the 509,000 figure “stunning.”

“If we have 509,000 names on that list, the watch list is virtually useless,” he told ABC News. “You’ll be capturing innocent individuals with no connection to crime or terror.”

“Useless” is probably accurate.

snip//

Is it any wonder Americans don’t want to hand over their civil liberties in exchange for the “security” offered by our government?

[MNDemNY]

1. I try and try and try, but I never get on any lists.

[puebloknot]

16. Well, try harder! Try posting at DemocraticUnderground.com! nt

[Robbien]

2. As a pacifist tree hugger

Yep I am. Or at least I am on the watch list for flying purposes.

[TommyO]

8. I guarantee that every DU poster will be pulled aside for a special search.

I never was, until I joined DU, now every flight I take means I get to be wanded and have my lugged gone through.

[babylonsister]

9. I fly quite a bit and am never checked any more than anyone else,

so I don't know why that's happening to you.

[TommyO]

10. Maybe I'm just lucky

:scared:

[XOKCowboy]

24. Same here...

I fly over 50K per year with many international flights (just back from Beijing) and rarely ever get anything more than a backpack swab now and again.

I can't figure it out but I'm sure not complaining. I've got a flight tomorrow afternoon. If I get "special treatment" at security, boy the Twilight Zone music will cue up in my mind! :)

[Greyskye]

11. you guarantee?

I took a number of flights a couple months ago. No issues, no special searches.

I guess they just don't like you. :shrug:

[unpossibles]

12. I've gotten pulled aside every flight until last year

since before I joined. Last year's vacation was the first time it did not happen since 2002.

[knitter4democracy]

25. I haven't yet.

Then again, I'm flying this summer, so we'll see if I've gotten on the list since the last time I flew.

[ClayZ]

23. I am a pacificst tree hugger too,

but I do not want to fly anyhow... Bwahahahhahha

[EFerrari]

3. Security? What security? Like NOLA had "security"?

What a bunch of you know what.

[MNDemNY]

4. You think I could...

make that list if I said Bush is a poo-poo- face?

[HCE SuiGeneris]

17. agent mike's beeper just went off...

;-)

[MNDemNY]

21. cool

[indepat]

5. Wonder how many of the 509,000 politics' are not right and how many are right?

Wonder if political affiliation of the outspoken on the list is not right?

[Faux pas]

6. Is that all? I thought there were more libs than that here in the

old US of A. :sarcasm:

Makes you really wonder what all that wire tapping was about.

[demnan]

7. No

I know someone who checked for me ;)

[onecent]

13. I flew from KC to Reagan airport over Memorial day and was patted

down at the airport by a female. I'm 62 yrs old, gray hair, overweight,...but I get pulled aside usually on every flight.

That's the first time I had a pat down. She made some excuse about "we have to pull random"....I've been pulled random SO MANY TIMES.
Cuz I look like a terrorist....lol

[many a good man]

27. Ick! Don't EVER call it Reagan

It's Washington National Airport.

[Dyedinthewoolliberal]

14. All I know is

every time I fly, I find one of those little "we were in your luggage for your safety" notes from the TSA when I unpack :)

[truedelphi]

15. I hear there are never problems getting on

If you just carry a sign that reads: "I am very ill with antibiotic resistant TB!"

[Critters2]

26. LOL!! I'm flying next week, for the first time since before 9/11

I'll try your tip!

[truedelphi]

33. Just be careful - very very careful because of the SHELF

I had to fly a lot during the summer of 2002.

I had a device that helps electronically zap out pain - it looked way too much like the sort of thing that would detonate a bomb - weird little transister radio sized device.

Naturally I worried about clearing it through security. They have me open my purse and carry-on, they have me open my computer.

Then they sort of piled everything back into my arms in a way that I am simply staggering from the bulk/weight of everything.

Not a thing has been mentioned about the device. So I am guessing I am home free at the same moment I spy a huge-box like shelf - a shelf that I imagine exists so that travellers can put their things back together and what not. The first thing I did was adjust my laptop and zip up its attache case.

I was calmly sorting through my stuff on the shelf - when WHAM! There are whistles and bells and security agents, and I can't figure it out... Did they finally realize how much my med device ressembles a detonator??

No - I simply had not noticed a huge sign that read: "DO NOT PLACE ITEMS ON THIS SHELF!"

After reading me the riot act, the ten assembled agents let me go - with a severe warning to NEVER EVER stop and put things on that shelf.

To this day I have no idea why they would have that shelf there if they weren't thinking that a befrazzled traveller would use it the way I did.

And no, not one word was said about the detonator look-alike!

[havocmom]

35. Thanks for the tip. My jam smuggling evilDUer daughter would really be in trouble

if she set her evil jar of jam on the shelf.

[Critters2]

36. Wow. I won't put anything on any shelves in the airport.

Good to know! :hi:

And yeah, it is weird they didn't notice your device.

[originalpckelly]

18. WOW! al-Qaeda's doing a bang up job with 509,000 members in America.

I wonder why they haven't attacked yet, I mean that's larger than the number of soldiers in Iraq, so they'd probably be able to raise a ton of hell.

Or you know, I just thought, maybe there aren't 509,000 members of al-Qaeda in America, and the FBI is just spying on normal everyday people?

Oh that can't be possible!

[Cleita]

19. I don't know, but I will be flying in August for the first time since

1977, so I guess I'll find out since my last name is Sheehan, I could be associated with Cindy. I also applied for a passport that I haven't received yet. Dum de dum dum.

[StarryNite]

20. They are way behind on issuing passports.

[grace0418]

22. I guess I'll find out when I fly to Italy in October. I wasn't the last time I flew but

you never know if some freeper could find out your real name and make up some shit to report you just because you're a damn librul.

[Critters2]

28. I haven't flown in over a decade. But next week, I'm flying

to Connecticut for my church's national shebang. The more I read, the more nervous I am that I may be "randomed". And little nervous that I may be unable to fly. Has anyone had that happen to them? I donate to all kinds of lefty causes and groups, and am active in quite a few. So, yeah, a little nervous.

[XOKCowboy]

29. The REAL Terrorists are intentionally kept off of the list....

That was basically what 60 Minutes reported last Sunday night. The CIA/FBI/NSA/ETC don't want any old baggage checker anywhere in the world to tip off the "real" terrorists.

I also found it somewhat amusing at all of the Robert Johnson's of the world are on the No Fly List because a 62 yr old black man who used that alias was convicted of plotting to bomb a Hindu temple and a movie theatre in Toronto 12 yrs ago.

[Critters2]

32. I know three Robert Johnsons, and yes, it sucks to be them

when they're flying.

[L. Coyote]

30. I hope I'm terrorizing the criminal and felonious Rs. Guilt makes its own terror.

[chknltl]

31. 509,000??? There can not possibly be that many members of

the free republic! Here is a suggestion: Switch to active members only. That should shorten the list to about 7 or 8. Here is further help: After school and on weekends they can be found at home looking at porn on their parents' computers.
:patriot:

[Jamastiene]

34. Probably. This administration has been the most paranoid bunch

I have ever seen. Either they aren't doing their jobs to fight the "war on terrorism" or that list is basically a list of Bush's strongest opponents on the left. Somebody should give him that medication he needs now. He's becoming way too alarmingly paranoid at this point. Not that he hasn't always been too paranoid.

:hi: Agent Mike and how are you today?

[L. Coyote]

37. With another $4.4 BILLION to secure the borders, that $8,800 for each one

and where do all the bucks STOP that are spent to spy on us? And, how will our children and grandchildren pay for it?

[WinkyDink]

38. "Useless" for whom? Depends on when the detentions begin.