Post by Moses on Dec 29, 2005 17:56:40 GMT -5
Vermont Guardian
For The Independent Mind
Airline watch-list hits 80,000 names
STOCKHOLM — A watch-list of possible terror suspects distributed by the U.S. government to airlines for pre-flight checks is now 80,000 names long, a Swedish newspaper reports, citing European air industry sources. The classified list, which included just 16 names before the 9/11 attacks, had grown to 1,000 by the end of 2001, and to 40,000 a year later, Svenska Dagbladet reported.
Airlines must check each passenger flying to a U.S. destination against the list, and contact the Department of Homeland Security if there is a match. The list contains a strict "no fly" section, which requires airline staff to contact police, and a "selectee" section, which requires passengers to undergo further security checks.
According to the Washington Times, nearly 30,000 airline passengers have asked the Homeland Security Department to remove their names from terrorist watch-lists in the past year; all but about 60 were successful, Transportation Security Administration (TSA) officials said. None of the passengers listed was ever prevented from flying, but some “selectees” had to undergo special questioning and sometimes strip searches.
"That number reflects the number of passengers that TSA has been able to provide relief to, whose names were the same or similar to those who actually appear on the no-flight or selectee list," said Yolanda Clark, chief TS spokeswoman.
Marcia Hofmann, director of the Electronic Privacy Information Center's open-government project, said the number of passengers asking to be delisted is "greater than anybody anticipated," and shows "the watch-list process doesn't work the way it is supposed to."
Protesters get FBI terrorism treatment
COLORADO SPRINGS — Documents obtained under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) confirm what many activists and civil libertarians have been claiming for several years — that the FBI’s Joint Terrorism Task Forces (JTTF) collect information on nonviolent protest activities and consider them part of domestic terrorism investigations.
The documents, discovered due to a request by the American Civil Liberties Union Foundation of Colorado, show that the names and license plate numbers of about 30 people who protested in Colorado Springs during 2003 and 2003 were put into FBI domestic terrorism files.
"These documents confirm that the names and license plate numbers of several dozen peaceful protesters who committed no crime are now in a JTTF file marked ‘counterterrorism,' " ACLU legal director Mark Silverstein told the Knight Ridder News Service. "This kind of surveillance of First Amendment activities has serious consequences. Law-abiding Americans may be reluctant to speak out when doing so means that their names will wind up in an FBI file."
"We do not open cases or monitor cases just based purely on protests," responded FBI Special Agent Monique Kelso, according to thestate.com. "It's our job to protect American civil rights. We don't surveil cases just to do that. We have credible information."
The documents cover the June 2002 protest of the North American Wholesale Lumber Association convention and an anti-war protest in February 2003, the ACLU said. Activists protested outside a lumber association event, accusing conferees of destroying endangered forests and needlessly logging on public land. A few activists were arrested after sneaking onto the roof of the conference site to unfurl a banner.
The 2003 rally was part of an International Day of Peace to oppose possible U.S. military action against Iraq. Protesters gathered at Palmer Park and outside Peterson Air Force Base. About three dozen protesters were arrested at each event for failing to disperse.
posted December 16, 2005
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