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Many Americans Wrongly on Terror List

By LARA JAKES JORDAN,
AP
Posted: 2008-07-14 22:57:41
Filed Under: Nation News
WASHINGTON (July 14) - The Justice Department's former top criminal prosecutor says the government's terror watch list likely has caused thousands of innocent Americans to be questioned, searched or otherwise hassled.

Former Assistant Attorney General Jim Robinson would know: he's one of them.

Robinson joined another mistaken-identity American and the American Civil Liberties Union on Monday to urge fixing the list that's supposed to identify suspected terrorists.

Hundreds of Thousands on List

Passengers at airport security in SeattleTed S. Warren, AP

Five years after the government authorized a watch list of suspected terrorists, the roster has grown from 16 people to nearly 400,000. The American Civil Liberties Union is crying foul, saying most names on it are mistakenly added, causing a big headache to airport travelers.

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"It's a pain in the neck, and significantly interferes with my travel arrangements," said Robinson, the head of the Justice Department's criminal division during the Clinton administration. He believes his name matches that of someone who was put on the list in early 2005, and is routinely delayed while flying — despite having his own government top-secret security clearances renewed last year.

"I suppose if I were convinced that America is a safer place because I get hassled at the airport, I might put up with it," Robinson said. "But I doubt it."

He added: "I expect my story is similar to hundreds of thousands of people who are on this list who find themselves inconvenienced."

The government calls its watch list one of the most effective tools in its fight against terrorism. It was created after the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks to consolidate 12 existing lists and make sure no terrorists slipped through the cracks — whether when entering the country or if otherwise stopped for questioning. Last year, congressional investigators found "general agreement that the watch list has helped to combat terrorism."

Other audits of the watch list over the last several years, however, have concluded that it has mistakenly flagged innocent people whose names are similar to those on it. More than 30,000 airline passengers had asked the Homeland Security Department to clear their names from the list as of October 2006. Additionally, as many as 20 suspected terrorists were left off the list as of last year due to a technology glitch.

Chad Kolton, a spokesman for the FBI's Terrorist Screening Center that maintains the list, said the government is working to fix the gaps.

"We strive to have the watch list contain all appropriately suspected terrorists who represent a threat to the U.S., but only appropriately suspected terrorists," Kolton said.

The ACLU predicted the watch list would include 1 million names as early as Monday. The civil liberties group reached that number by citing the 700,000 records on the watch list as of last September and adding 20,000 names each month, as forecast by the Justice Department's inspector general.

Kolton disputed that number, however, saying that only about 400,000 individuals are on the list — with the rest being records of aliases or other identifiers for those same people. Kolton said that 95 percent of the people on the list are not Americans or legal U.S. residents — and most aren't even in the country.

The Government Accountability Office, the investigations arm of Congress, similarly concluded last year that the total number of records on the watch list "does not represent the total number of individuals," saying it contains multiple records for the same person.

For some Americans whose names match those on the list, being delayed or detained for extra screening isn't just a hassle — it's frightening.

Chicago-area computer consultant Akif Rahman, who was born in Springfield, Ill., said he has been detained at least seven times after traveling abroad. During one such incident in May, he said, he was held for five hours, shackled to a chair and kicked by a Customs Service agent after being stopped at a U.S. checkpoint on the Canadian border.

"I was fearful for my own safety and that of my family," said Rahman, who is suing the government to have his identity cleared from the watch list. "I simply could not believe that I, a born U.S. citizen, was going though this experience simply re-entering my own country."

Copyright 2008 The Associated Press. The information contained in the AP news report may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or otherwise distributed without the prior written authority of The Associated Press. All active hyperlinks have been inserted by AOL.
2008-07-14 16:33:45
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708 comments

maciage111 08:34:14 PM Jul 15 2008

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Bascially, any one with a Middle Eastern sounding name is a "terrorist", according to the US government. The biggest government sanctioned case of racism I've ever seen...

grg8h 06:49:24 PM Jul 15 2008

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And yet many Americans, especially Congress, trust George W. Bush to tap their phone calls and invade their privacy! Just more proof that the government can't be trusted to do their job without violating personal freedoms and the United States Constitution. The government is suspicious of everyone. It sounds like guilt. In a marriage, the one who accuses the other of cheating is usually the guilty one. It works the same with our government.

fostrpinto 05:41:42 PM Jul 15 2008

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GVE EVERYONE A GUN. THEN THE MUSLIMS CAN'T DO ANYTHING ON AN AIRPLANE CAUSE THEY WOULD GET SHOT BY GOOD AMERICANS. WHO NEEDS THE COPS.

wingskfb67 03:25:03 PM Jul 15 2008

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This man Rahman, I wonder what he did to get shackled to a chair? Even if your name appears on the list, this is not standard procedure.

linnell5 02:40:52 PM Jul 15 2008

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My sister-in-law should be on that list.

jnzcram 02:16:52 PM Jul 15 2008

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Rumor has it that Obama and his wife Michelle were on the list.

wdcarterjr 01:24:44 PM Jul 15 2008

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stop everyone from flying. if they want to visit grandma they can look at a picture and text message..............only after the message is approved by the government.

washoe 01:02:10 PM Jul 15 2008

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The same flawed intelligence that allowed the attacks on the twin towers in 2001 and stated positively that there were Weapons of Mass Destruction in Iraq is still driving the US Intelligence agencies where quantity is more important than quality. In the forefront of this frenzy of bad intelligence is the TSA and their cast of thousands. Very few of which are adequately trained for the job they are supposed to do. And the American people are put on these so called "terrorist list" based on "maybes", "what ifs" and "could be". The US Intelligence Community needs to realize that sometimes less is more if it is of good quality. They are still not working cohesively for the benefit of the country but still playing their old "one upsmanship" games of decades gone by. I would rather have an intelligence analyst spend one week developing one good, sound piece of intelligence than 100 pieces of half baked flawed information just to make a quantity quota.

to479 12:13:20 PM Jul 15 2008

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Simple solution , Make everyone fly naked ! ! !

neuticles 11:32:14 AM Jul 15 2008

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Terrorists dont need to destroy this countryas the Republican's are doing it for them.

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