Thread: FBI has one MILLION people on 'watch and stop' terror list

FBI has one MILLION people on 'watch and stop' terror list

By Paul Thompson
Last updated at 4:52 PM on 11th March 2009

The FBI have revealed they have a million people on their 'watch and stop' list for terror suspects.

People on the list are stopped from flying into America or subjected to intense questioning at border crossings before being allowed entry into the country.

The list has been compiled by the FBI's terrorist screening centre in Washington.

It was started after the 9/11 terror attacks and has been subject to much criticism after children with the same names as terror suspects found themselves marked down as potential threats to security.


Watch and stop: The FBI has over one million people on their terror list (file photo)

About 95 per cent on those on the list are non-US citizens, but the FBI have not revealed how many are from the UK.

But with the most recent terror threats to the U.S. originating in Britain the American government recently imposed new restrictions on visitors.
Travellers flying to the U.S. from the UK now have to complete an advance notice of flying and supply their passport details in advance.

Visitors also have to tell US authorities where they will be staying and for what length of time.

The form can only be completed online and must be filed at least two weeks prior to travel.

The information is analysed by the Department of Homeland security and if a match is found with the FBI list visitors are either stopped from flying or forced to go through extra security at check-in.

As many as 40,000 people a year are added to the list. U.S. officials admit many of those in the FBI data bank have multiple aliases.

Former South African president and Nobel prize winner Nelson Mandela was on the list due to his classification as a terror suspect in the 1960s.

He was removed after former secretary of state Condoleezza Rice described the situation as 'embarrassing'.

In the last two years more than 50,000 people have filed 'redress' claims against having their names wrongly included on the list.

The FBI screening centre has also removed over 33,000 people from the list in an attempt to purge the list of outdated names.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/worldne ... -list.html

Terrorist watch list hits 1 million

Posted 1d 17h ago | Comments 437

RAISING FLAGS

Entries on the government's terrorist watch list:

May 2005: 288,000

May 2007: 755,000

March 2009: 1 million

Source: Justice Department; Government Accountablity Office

By Peter Eisler, USA TODAY
WASHINGTON — The government's terrorist watch list has hit 1 million entries, up 32% since 2007.

Federal data show the rise comes despite the removal of 33,000 entries last year by the FBI's Terrorist Screening Center in an effort to purge the list of outdated information and remove people cleared in investigations.

It's unclear how many individuals those 33,000 records represent — the center often uses multiple entries, or "identities," for a person to reflect variances in name spellings or other identifying information. The remaining million entries represent about 400,000 individuals, according to the center.

The new figures were provided by the screening center and the Office of the Director of National Intelligence in response to requests from USA TODAY.

"We're continually trying to improve the quality of the information," says Timothy Edgar, a civil liberties officer at the intelligence director's office. "It's always going to be a work in progress."

People put on the watch list by intelligence and law enforcement agencies can be blocked from flying, stopped at borders or subjected to other scrutiny. About 95% of the people on the list are foreigners, the FBI says, but it's a source of frequent complaints from U.S. travelers.

In the past two years, 51,000 people have filed "redress" requests claiming they were wrongly included on the watch list, according to the Department of Homeland Security. In the vast majority of cases reviewed so far, it has turned out that the petitioners were not actually on the list, with most having been misidentified at airports because their names resembled others on it.

There have been 830 redress requests since 2005 where the person was, in fact, confirmed to be on the watch list, and further review by the screening center led to the removal of 150, or 18% of them.

Without specific rules for who goes on the list, it's too bloated to be effective, says Tim Sparapani, a lawyer with the American Civil Liberties Union.

A 2007 audit by the Government Accountability Office said more needed to be done to ensure the list's accuracy, but still found that it has "enhanced the U.S. government's counterterrorism efforts."

http://usatoday.com/news/washington/200 ... list_N.htm