Terror Watch List Swells to More Than 755,000

rdavison writes "According to a USA Today story, the terror watch list has swollen to 755,000 with 200,000 people per year being added since 2004. Adding about 548 people daily every day of the year does not seem to lend itself to a manual process with careful deliberation given or double checking being done for each person added. It seems to suggests that data is being mined from somewhere to automatically add names to the list."

Comments

Let's resolve to keep our freedom.

[Ckwop]

As the Glasgow "terrorists" so brilliantly displayed, anybody can be a terrorist. All it takes is a car, a bunch of primitive explosive, flammable material and the motivation to endanger human life.

In my view, after September 11th the United States should have responded by doing one thing: Passing regulations that ensure that the cockpits of passenger aircraft are unable to be accessed from the passenger carrying part of the plane.

That's a proportionate response to the threat.

In reality, the terrorist threat is a several orders of a magnitude less than being killed by heart-disease. It's my view that in any problem solving situation, you should seek to solve the worst problem first and the smallest problem last.

The problem from where I'm sitting is that billions are being spent on a tiny fraction of deaths that occur in our countries. Where are the billions of dollars of funding to research heart-disease treatment, improving car safety, cancer treatments or the plethora of other much more likely ways you'll meet your sticky end?

What makes this irrational reaction so much worse is that we're selling our rights down the river for a false sense of security. If somebody passes me in the street and decides they want to kill me, there is nothing the long-arm of the state can do to stop them. I will likely die and the fact the person who killed me will spend a considerable time in prison is of little solace.

There are enough nut cases in the world to ensure that the chances of being killed in such a fashion are always going to be none zero. We all choose to walk about the street with our heads held high because we're not going to let that threat intimidate us. So why are we being intimidated by nutters who want to kill not just one person but quite a few of us?

It reminds me of the story of an elderly women in Warrington interviewed just after the IRA bomb detonated there, killing a young boy. The reporter asked why she was still shopping despite a bomb going off and she defiantly replied: "The Germans didn't stop me shopping so the Irish certainly won't."

Defiance is not giving away your freedom. Defiance is refusing to give away your freedom even if you life is at risk. We only need to look at those brave monks in Burma a few weeks ago to see what real defiance looks like. We've lost our back-bone and passed all sorts of onerous laws because we're afraid. We're pathetic and afraid.

When are we going to stand up and say - "To hell with stupid incompetent security. I want my freedom and I want it now."

Simon

Re:Let's resolve to keep our freedom.

[Khomar]

If this trend of losing liberties concerns you, I suggest you research Ron Paul and his positions. He is the only Republican candidate who is committed to reducing the government regulations and protecting personal liberties. The others all seem intent on continuing down the same path G.W. Bush has been, and the leading Democrats do not look much better.

Re:Let's resolve to keep our freedom.

[An Onerous Coward]

After that big Blackwater shooting back in mid-September, I remember reading an analysis of the tactics they used to protect the convoys under their care. It basically said that if you multiplied the number of civilians who were shot at or run off the road by each convoy by the number of convoys that travel through Baghdad every day, by the number of friends and family who heard the tale, and you had the number of hearts and minds lost by Blackwater.

Of course, Blackwater is paid for successful trips, and not fined for any feelings hurt along the way. So they use "any means necessary," even if those means are making it harder to fight the broader war. Our actual soldiers are generally much more PR-savvy, but it's hard for civvies to tell the difference between the groups. It was a pretty good argument for putting Blackwater under military command, if nothing else.

Re:Let's resolve to keep our freedom.

[Jon Abbott]

As the current nutjob officeholder has shown, people will say anything to get elected. Once they get into office, all bets are off. I think Ron Paul is the most consistent and honest person running. Through almost 20 years in Congress,

He has never voted to raise taxes.
He has never voted for an unbalanced budget.
He has never voted for a federal restriction on gun ownership.
He has never voted to raise congressional pay.
He has never taken a government-paid junket (trip).
He has never voted to increase the power of the executive branch.

He voted against the Patriot Act.
He voted against regulating the Internet.
He voted against the Iraq war.

USA

[ilovegeorgebush]

God bless America....No, seriously...

I threw the figures from the article into OO Calc quickly. It seems the rise is quite linear, and the total additions per year increasing somewhat from May 2005. Anything significant happen during May 2005 and 2007? :)

Re:While there's still time

[bhima]

I got disgusted with America years ago and left. I think you discount Canada & Europe too quickly and I think I would look closely at the UK and Australia before moving there because they both appear to have social problems that the US has.

I *really* like living in a smallish city in Europe. My family is subjected to fewer of the myriad of minor prejudices that exist (compared to Atlanta). The traffic is lighter and the drivers more disciplined. Despite living in city which is supposedly 96% catholic I am not subjected to any sort of wackiness that is so popular from the religious right in the US these days. There is *no* telemarketing. I worked out a contract where I have 6 weeks paid and 12 weeks unpaid holiday. It's easy to be Green. It's easy to bicycle. It's easy to buy primarily local food stuffs. It's possible to have a mostly positive political conversation with people with significantly disparate views and no one is accused of hating Europe or Austria. No one cares what you do in the privacy of your own bedroom or wants to make a law about it. The government isn't spying on me. Public works are properly funded so we don't have bridges collapsing nor have we completely run out of water. The beer is better.

I could go on for hours...

One more thing.... The ISP with the really, really fast fiber doesn't do intrusive traffic shaping... Yet.

Bottom line there are a lot of really, really cool places in the world to live. Sure not all of them are primarily English speaking and there is no perfect place but you shouldn't let that slow you down.

Re:wasting time

[superpulpsicle]

While you joke about it. This is how every totalitarian government starts. They label some group that needs to be eliminated, and courage citizens to help wipe them off the face of the earth. Usually after awhile that group becomes more famous, more well known and more powerful. Before you know it everyone is on the list and the groups becomes blurred. And you eventually don't know what side you are on.

Re:I know.

[Sique]

I like to use the comparition with the deaths by choking on a fishbone.
The numbers for Germany are:

700 deads/yr by fishbone choking.
3-4 deads/yr by terrorism.

Basicly eating non filleted fish is about 200 times as dangerous as terrorism.