US terror list harasses innocents, leaves out terrorists: Civil rights group
22
July 2008
WASHINGTON:
A Roman Catholic nun had to learn to bite her tongue because of it. The wife of
Alaska senator Ted Stevens has had problems getting on airplanes because of it.
Even retired pilot Robert Campbell, who flew for the US navy during Vietnam
war, is affected by it.
"It"
is the US government's terrorist watch list, which the American Civil Liberties
Union (ACLU) says has swollen into a catalogue of a million names in the
aftermath of the September 11, 2001 attacks on the US.
The
ACLU said it derived that figure from a justice department report on the FBI's
Terrorist Screening Centre, which consolidates terrorist watch list
information.
The
Centre "had over 700,000 names in its database as of April 2007 and the
list was growing by 20,000 records per month," says a report by the
justice department.
But
Leonard Boyle, director of the Centre, said there are not one million names on
the list. Boyle also denied that thousands of Americans are detained and
inconvenienced daily as their names are on the list.
Roman
Catholic nun, Sister Glenn Anne McPhee was on the list - apparently because an
Afghan man used McPhee as an alias.
A
flight from London with Cat Stevens on board - the singer who converted to
Islam and changed his name to Yusuf Islam - was diverted and forced to land in
Maine when US officials became aware that Islam, or Stevens, was on board.
The
singer, who has no terrorist record under either name, was denied entry to the
US. His namesake, Cat (short for Catherine) Stevens, the wife of a US senator,
has had problems flying because her name is Cat Stevens, the ACLU says.
Then
there's Robert Campbell, who was a pilot for 22 years and also flew for the US
navy. It's unclear why Campbell's name is on the list.
Getting
your name removed from the list is extremely difficult. Nelson Mandela needed a
Congressional order to get his name removed.
The
real irony of the list is that many known terrorists are not on it.
Source:
The Times of India, New Delhi
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