[wvns] FBI Terror Watch List 'Out of Control'
FBI Terror Watch List 'Out of Control'
Justin Rood
June 13, 2007
http://blogs.abcnews.com/theblotter/2007/06/fbi_terror_watc.html
A terrorist watch list compiled by the FBI has apparently swelled to
include more than half a million names.
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.
A spokesman for the interagency National Counterterrorism Center
(NCTC), which maintains the government's list of all suspected
terrorists with links to international organizations, said they had
465,000 names covering 350,000 individuals. Many names are different
versions of the same identity -- "Usama bin Laden" and "Osama bin
Laden" for the al Qaeda chief, for example.
In addition to the NCTC list, the FBI keeps a list of U.S. persons who
are believed to be domestic terrorists -- abortion clinic bombers, for
example, or firebombing environmental extremists, who have no known
tie to an international terrorist group.
Combined, the NCTC and FBI compendia comprise the watch list used by
federal security screening personnel on the lookout for terrorists.
While the NCTC has made no secret of its terrorist tally, the FBI has
consistently declined to tell the public how many names are on its
list. Because the number is classified, an FBI spokesman told the
Blotter on ABCNews.com, he was unable to comment for this story.
"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."
U.S. lawmakers and their spouses have been detained because their
names were on the watch list.
Reporters who have reviewed versions of the list found it included the
names of former Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein, at the time he was
alive but in custody in Iraq; imprisoned al Qaeda plotter Zacarias
Moussaoui; and 14 of the 19 Sept. 11, 2001 hijackers, all of whom
perished in the attacks.
"There's a reason the FBI has a '10 Most Wanted' list, right? We need
to focus the government's efforts on the greatest threats. When the
watch list grows to this level, it's useless as an anti-terror tool,"
Sparapani said.
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