The government's terrorist watch list has swelled to more than 755,000 names, according to a new government report that has raised worries about the list's effectiveness.

The size of the list, typically used to check people entering the country through land border crossings, airports and sea ports, has been growing by 200,000 names a year since 2004. Some lawmakers, security experts and civil rights advocates warn that it will become useless if it includes too many people.

"It undermines the authority of the list," says Lisa Graves of the Center for National Security Studies. "There's just no rational, reasonable estimate that there's anywhere close to that many suspected terrorists."

The exact number of people on the list, compiled after 9/11 to help government agents keep terrorists out of the country, is unclear, according to the report by the Government Accountability Office (GAO). Some people may be on the list more than once because they are listed under multiple spellings.

Senate Homeland Security Committee Chairman Joe Lieberman, D-Conn., who plans a hearing on the report today, says "serious hurdles remain if (the list) is to be as effective as we need it to be. Some of the concerns stem from its rapid growth, which could call into question the quality of the list itself."
FIND MORE STORIES IN: United States | Transportation Security Administration | Homeland Security Department | American Civil Liberties Union | Government Accountability Office | Terrorist Screening Center | Tim Sparapani | Center for National Security Studies | Lisa Graves

About 53,000 people on the list were questioned since 2004, according to the GAO, which says the Homeland Security Department doesn't keep records on how many were denied entry or allowed into the country after questioning. Most were apparently released and allowed to enter, the GAO says.

Leonard Boyle, director of the FBI's Terrorist Screening Center, which maintains the list, says in testimony to be given today that 269 foreigners were denied entry in fiscal 2006.

The GAO report also says:

•The Transportation Security Administration (TSA) could not specify how many people on its no-fly list, which is a small subset of the watch list, might have slipped through screening and been allowed on domestic flights.

•TSA data show "a number of individuals" on the no-fly list passed undetected through screening and boarded international flights bound for the United States. Several planes have been diverted once officials realized that people named on the watch lists were on board.

•Homeland Security has not done enough to use the list more broadly in the private sector, where workers applying for jobs in sensitive places such as chemical factories could do harm.

Boyle also urges that the list be used by for screening at businesses where workers could "carry out attacks on our critical infrastructure that could harm large numbers of persons or cause immense economic damage."

But the sheer size of the watch list raised the most alarms.

"They are quickly galloping towards the million mark — a mark of real distinction because the list is already cumbersome and is approaching absolutely useless," said Tim Sparapani of the American Civil Liberties Union.

Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, says "creating and maintaining a comprehensive terrorist watch list is an enormous endeavor fraught with technical and tactical challenges."

The report, she says, "underscores the need to make the watch lists more accurate, to improve screening procedures at airports and the ports of entry, and to provide individuals with the ability to seek redress if they believe they have been wrongfully targeted."

They missed me.

i feel the same, i have work so hard to. this is depressing.

After I join Ireland's sovereignty movement, I'm sure they'll tack me on there too. What's the worst they can do? Take away my non-existent social security... **** 'em.

Interesting........

if you read the patriot act

http://www.google.com/search?q=patriot+act+2001&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8&aq=t&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&client=firefox-a

the third one is a download of the act in full findlaw.com

but lots of info there

but baack to what i was saying

if you read the definition of terrorist

almost anyone could be considered a terrorist

just check it out

and you shall see

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anyone involved in the passing of the patriot act should be tried for treason and then given the max penalty when convicted

the above statement makes me a possible terrorist

so beware i guess



free speech yea right

The way I look at it is simple. If the government is watching me, at least someone is.

The freedom of speech has gone we all will pay for what we say in the long run and I agree with adj4u the patriot act is a bunch of bs and should have never come into act. This is just another way for them to take some freedom for the false sense of security.

Joe Lieberman is a Zionist and for him to be a chairman of a very important committee is very scary..... .

I guess I didn't ask, did it mention my name specifically?

i really I'm surprised I'm not on the list. i travel a lot. plus have had a few arguments with homeland security. or as i call them . USA KGB.

Really, I must be older than you. I call Homeland Security one of two things: the SS, or Gestapho

since i was really born in Ukraine. or old soviet block. i call must KGB. so just where you come from.