National Ledger - Who is on the Terror Watch List: One Million Names Now Included

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By Jo Anne Way Jul 16, 2008

Former Assistant Attorney General Jim Robinson is on the terror watch list and he is not the only one. The terrorist watch list was created after the attacks of 9/11 to alert airport personnel to potential threats to national security. Now, according to the American Civil Liberties Union, the list has grown to over one million names. Robinson and the ACLU want the list eliminated.

Who is on the Terror Watch List: One Million Names Now Included

The former assistant attorney general joined with the American Civil Liberties Union on Monday in calling for elimination of the list. Will that happen? Its not likely as the government calls its watch list one of the most effective tools in its fight against terrorism.

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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, according to IHT. Still the ACLU is putting forth an effort. According to Forbes, More than 30,000 airline passengers had asked the Homeland Security Department to clear their names from the list as of October 2006.

"The list is out of control," said Barry Steinhardt, director of the ACLU's Technology and Liberty Program on Government Data Mining. "There cannot possibly be one million terrorists threatening and poised to attack us. If there were, our cities would be in ruins...Perhaps tens of millions of Americans are caught up in a Kafkaesque web of suspicion."

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