Terrorist watch list ineffective, prone to misuse, say privacy advocates RAW STORY

Published: Saturday August 25, 2007





Print This Email This Questions have arisen over the United States government's use of its terrorist screening database, reports the Washington Post today. While the database "flagged" people as suspected terrorists about 20,000 times in 2006, few were arrested or barred from entering the country as a result of being on the list. Gathering data from an increasing number of resources, including airline data, government agencies use the database in situations such as a traffic stop or a border crossing. While the government has proven secretive on the individuals in the database and the data it has amassed, there are plans to share the data with "private sector groups." Data amassed is kept for 99 years. From a civil liberties standpoint, privacy advocates are alarmed by the massive amounts of data being collected on the thousands of people being added to this list when relatively few arrests are being made as a result. "This really confirms the long-standing fear that this list is inaccurate and ultimately ineffective as an anti-terrorism tool," says David Sobel of the Electronic Frontier Foundation, also citing the high possibility of "false positives." Rick Kopel, deputy director of the Terrorist Screening Center, on the other hand, calls the list "one of the best things the government has been able to accomplish since 9/11." Jayson P. Ahern, deputy commissioner for U.S. Customs and Border Protection, says that the database needs to be handled as it is to focus on "potentially dangerous individuals" who "fly beneath the radar." TSC spokesperson Michelle Petrovich says that one must be a "known or suspected terrorist" to be added to the 235,000-record database, which includes financing terrorist activities, belonging to a terrorist organization, or otherwise provides support to a terrorist or terrorist organization. While people are not told when they are under suspicion, it's not always difficult to venture a guess. American citizen and Ohio resident Abe Dabdoub has been detained 21 times at the Canadian border, having been handcuffed the first four times. "For national security reasons," Dabdoub says, he is not told by officers why he is being detained. American citizens on the list are questioned and released if no arrest warrants are found. Says FBI spokesperson Paul Bresson, "A lot of times it's not to our advantage to make an arrest. We don't want the subject to know what we know." Possible misuse of the database is alleged not only in an ACLU lawsuit on behalf of ten Muslims who say they were added without cause, but by Colorado activist Francisco "Kiko" Martinez, who has been detained twice during traffic stops. Martinez won a $106,500 settlement from authorities that, while not an official admission, Martinez says proves that he shouldn't have been on the list to begin with, and was only added due to his political activities. The entire article can be read here.



