ACLU Official Says It Is Not Realistic to Screen Air Passengers Against the Full Terrorist Watchlist
Get this:
Former FBI agent Mike German, now a terrorism expert with the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), said that using the Terrorist Screening Database (TSDB) of 400,000-plus names to screen airline passengers was not realistic, and added that it was “fundamentally ridiculous” to think the list was not flawed.
Oh, yeah! It’s particularly HIGHlarious for those us caught in its hilarity!
“One of the most disappointing things about the whole review of this situation was this idea that the terrorist watch-listing system is not, itself, broken, which is fundamentally ridiculous,” said German.
Ah yup! Big 10-4 there!
German said on Monday that the terrorist watchlist system has been broken “for years,” pointing out that names were added to the list incorrectly while others were kept on the list after investigators had cleared them of any involvement with terrorists.
Well, I guess I should be thankful that my portion of the list has only been broken for 11 days!
“There were people who were put on the list appropriately because they were under investigation, but when the investigation cleared them, they weren’t taken off the list,” said German. “There were people who were known terrorists, there were people who he [the IG] identified as known terrorists who were not on the list.”
Oh, don’t forget about the people who were put on the list inappropriately and whose paper work you “just can’t find!”
“The whole listing process is broken and needs a fundamental overhaul,” said German. “We’re creating a system of tremendous false positives. We’ve created a system that creates hundreds, and probably hundreds of thousands, of false positives every day.”
Hey, hey, over here. I’m false positive number 1!
Not the #1 of my acquaintances.
A colleague/business professional from Milwaukee is (was??) also on that list and spent several HOURS in a small room at Mitchell Int’l when he tried to board a flight to Kansas City four years ago.
Absolutely NOTHING in his background, of course, except pure Milwaukee stuff, right down to the noticeably German surname and appearance.
right down to the noticeably German surname and appearance.
There’s one known Al-Q training camp in Pahk-ee-stan full of German nationals, including some ethnic German converts. I’m thinking that’s how German surnames get on the list (well, before the DHS realized the main threat was people who wave signs at Congress and ex-military).