One Utah

The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) has found out that more that 900,000 people are currently listed as suspected terrorists on the US government’s “do not fly” list, and that number will grow to beyond 1 million by summer.

“Homeland Security’s handling of the watch lists is typical of this administration’s blundering approach to the war on terror,” said ACLU Senior Legislative Counsel Tim Sparapani. “Create sprawling new systems for sifting through the population, throw an indiscriminately broad range of names into the mix, fairly or not, and treat the rights of innocent people as an afterthought.”

The ACLU has launched a new Web site to track the growth of the watch list. They also have a list of the unusual suspects:

• Robert Johnson - 60 Minutes interviewed 12 men named Robert Johnson, all of whom reported being pulled aside and interrogated, sometimes for hours, nearly every time they go to the airport. Everybody named Gary Smith, John Williams and David Nelson are on the list, too.
• U.S. Senator Edward Kennedy (D-MA)- After repeated delays at airport security, the senator had trouble getting removed from the airline watch list despite calls to Homeland Security and eventually a personal conversation with the Secretary of DHS. Representatives Don Young (R-AK) and Loretta Sanchez (D-CA) were also on the list.
• John William Anderson, age 6; problems flying. Among those caught up by the no-fly list are many infants and small children.
• Apparently 14 of the 19 9/11 hijackers are still on the terrorist watch list, even though they are dead.

This entry was posted Wednesday, February 27th, 2008 at 4:26 pm and is filed under 9/11, Civil liberties Infringement, Terrorism, The Constitution, This Blog. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.