Here's a list you don't want to get on

Posted 29/09/2011

In all probability, it’s not likely you’ll make this list but there’s a good reason to stay off it: once you name appears, it may be very difficult to get off it.

US government terrorist watch list documents show that is the case, says the New York Times in a look at the inner workings of the TSA’s most famous list.

Agents are routinely instructed to remove someone’s name if the investigation is completed with no charges, or if charges are dropped, but the FBI may still keep a name on the dreaded list as a national security risk.

“In the United States, you are supposed to be assumed innocent,” says a counsel at the Electronic Privacy Information Center. “But on the watch list, you may be assumed guilty, even after the court dismisses your case.”

The story explains the criteria for making the list for the first time, says the Times.

In the past, some have complained the list is haphazard.

But FBI officials say the list has a very detailed process for adding people names.

The list shows the government is balancing civil liberties with a careful process for getting people off the list, according to Timothy J. Healy, the director of the F.B.I.’s Terrorist Screening Center

 “There has been a lot of criticism about the watch list,” claiming that it is “haphazard,” he told the Times. “But what this illustrates is that there is a very detailed process that the F.B.I. follows in terms of nominations of watch-listed people.”

Still, some of the procedures drew criticism from civil liberties advocates, including the Electronic Privacy Information Center, which made the original request and provided the documents to The New York Times, the newspaper says.

The F.B.I.’s Terrorist Screening Center shares their data with other federal agencies for screening aircraft passengers, people who are crossing the border and people who apply for visas. The data is also used by local police officers to check names during traffic stops.

How many names are there?

About 420,000, with 8,000 of them Americans. About 16,000 people are not allowed to fly, a number that includes roughly 500 Americans.

“Suspects are not informed they are on the list or given a chance to challenge the allegations that put them there,” Newser says, adding:

“An ACLU counsel calls it a secret determination, that you have no input into, that you are a terrorist."

By David Wilkening

 

Originally published 29 Sep 2011 at: http://rss.feedsportal.com/c/398/f/5923/s/18ecc491/l/0L0Stravelmole0N0Cstories0C11495770Bphp0Dmpnlog0F1/story01.htm