How Did You Get On That Terro​r List?​ (warning, offensive language)

[Mrs. Sharon B. Hodge]

How Did You Get On That Terro​r List?




August 20, 2008 - Terrorist Watch List Complete Joke


August 14, 2008 - Bush Critic landed on the terror watch list


August 21, 2008 - Pilot Suspended For Being on Terrorist Watch List


August 06, 2008 - Klobuchar proposes changes to TSA 'terror watch list'


July 08, 2008 - Boy George is denied a visa into US - HE IS A TERRORIST


**************************************************************
Terror watchlist "upgrade" is "imploding," legislator says
**************************************************************

ARS Tech News
By Julian Sanchez
August 25, 2008

http://arstechnica. com/news. ars/post/20080825-terror-watchlist-up...

The database used to produce the government's terror watch lists is "crippled by technical flaws," according to the chairman of a House technology oversight subcommittee—and the system designed to replace it may be even worse

In a letter to the inspector general at the Office of the Director of National Intelligence last week, Rep.
Brad Miller (D-NC) complained that the National Counterterrorism Center's "Railhead" initiative, designed to upgrade the government's master database of suspected terrorists, "if actually deployed will leave our country more vulnerable than the existing yet flawed system in operation today"

Miller, who chairs the Investigations and Oversight Subcommittee of the House Science and Technology Committee, cited "severe technical troubles, poor contractor management, and weak government oversight," which he said had brought the Railhead program to the "verge of collapse"

The NCTC's Terrorist Identities Datamart Environment, established pursuant to the recommendations of the 9/11 Commission, is the government's centralized master database of people with suspected terror links.
Containing some half a million names, it is used to create more specific watchlists used by other government agencies, such as the Transportation Security Administration's much-derided "no-fly" list

The current TIDE system has its own set of "serious, long-standing technical problems." It requires users to perform "cumbersome and complex" SQL searches rather than delivering straightforward text matches.
And its data is scattered across 463 different, poorly-indexed tables

But the Railhead "upgrade," Miller's letter charges, only compounds the problems. According to his subcommittee's analysis, the new-and-improved system boasts fewer features, hobbles information sharing between agencies, fails to match slight variations in aliases contained on the watchlist, and is stymied by basic Boolean search operators.
Miller also alleged that some of the $500 million spent on Railhead already had been improperly used to renovate a facility owned by contractor Boeing

The NCTC fired back Friday in a statement, calling Miller's description "inconsistent with the facts" and complaining that his subcommittee "has had no interaction with the NCTC or the Intelligence Community on the Railhead Program"


**********************************************************************************
The are going to close down travelling from US pretty soon by the way the economy is crashing - you better find out if you are one of those MILLION of DHS terrorists who will not be able to escape the FEMA roundup when a false flag catastrophe occurs

GET YOUR PASSPORTS ISSUED BEFORE IT IS TOO LATE, FORGET ABOUT CANADA THEY ARE EXPELLING US REFUGEES - STAYING BEHIND? GET YOUR GUNS
**********************************************************************************


OVER 1 MILLION ON US TERROR WATCH LIST!

ACLU: One million on US terrorist watch list Jul 14, 2008

************************************************
Court: Passengers can challenge no-fly list
************************************************

San Francisco Chronicle
Bob Egelko, Chronicle Staff Writer
Tuesday, August 19, 2008

http://www. sfgate. com/cgi-bin/article. cgi?f=/c/a/2008/08/19/BA22...

Critics of the government's secret no-fly list scored a potentially important victory Monday when a federal appeals court ruled that would-be passengers can ask a judge and jury to decide whether their inclusion on the list violates their rights

In a 2-1 ruling, the Ninth U.
S Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco reinstated a suit by a former Stanford University student who was detained and handcuffed in 2005 as she was about to board a plane to her native Malaysia

The ruling is apparently the first to allow a challenge to the no-fly list to proceed in a federal trial court, said the plaintiff's lawyer, Marwa Elzankaly

The decision would allow individuals to demand information from the government, present evidence on why they should not have been on the list, and take the case to a jury, Elzankaly said

The ruling means that "someone who finds it's likely that their name has been placed on a government watch list will get their day in court," Elzankaly said

The Transportation Security Administration, which maintains the no-fly list, had no comment on the case, said Nico Melendez, an agency spokesman in Los Angeles

A federal judge in San Francisco had dismissed the suit, citing a law that requires all challenges to TSA orders to be filed directly in an appeals court, with no right to present evidence or convene a jury But the appeals court majority, led by Chief Judge Alex Kozinski, said the no-fly list, though maintained by the TSA, is actually compiled by a branch of the FBI, which can be sued in a trial court like most other federal agencies

The TSA, part of the Homeland Security Department, has lists of hundreds of thousands of names of passengers who allegedly pose a risk of terrorism or air piracy, information the agency shares with airlines.
Those on the no-fly list are prevented from boarding Passengers on a separate "selectee" list undergo additional searches

Such listings date from 1990 but have been expanded substantially since 2001, although the government has not disclosed their full scope or criteria.
Civil liberties groups have argued that the lists are far too broad, are riddled with errors and lack meaningful safeguards The TSA has established an ombudsman's office to review passengers' claims that they were mistakenly listed

Monday's ruling involves Rahinah Ibrahim, a Stanford doctoral student in architecture who was stopped at a United Airlines counter in San Francisco in January 2005 when an employee spotted her name on the no-fly list, the court said.
A phone call to police was relayed to the TSA, which told officers to detain Ibrahim and stop her from flying She was handcuffed in front of her 14-year-old daughter, held in custody for two hours and then released by orders of the FBI

Ibrahim returned the next day, went through additional searches and was allowed to fly The mother of four, with no criminal record or connections to terrorism, has remained in Malaysia, where she completed her Stanford doctorate and teaches at a university, Elzankaly said

Her lawsuit challenged her alleged inclusion on the no-fly list - an allegation the government has not confirmed, her lawyer said - and claimed violations of constitutional restrictions on searches and discrimination

The ruling in Ibrahim vs Homeland Security is available at links. sfgate. com/ZDXO


E-mail Bob Egelko at [e-mail]