FBI Watch List Includes 400,000 People

Washington Post:

During a 12-month period ended in March this year, for example, the U.S. intelligence community suggested on a daily basis that 1,600 people qualified for the list because they presented a "reasonable suspicion," according to data...

Read the whole story: Washington Post

Comments

[DannyEV]

wow...sure makes ME feel safe.

[Clairvaux]

My question is who is going to watch the FBI?

They are a rogue organization that bends and breaks the law whenever it is convenient.

[jsgaetano]

Anyone with any sort of association to Operation Rescue should be on the terrorist watch list.

[Helzapoppin]

9-11 wasn't prevented because no one "connected the dots."

I know. . . let's get MORE dots!!!!!

The lack of any sense or logic is astounding.

[DannyEV]

and yet it's tragically typical of the culture of our country's so-called "intelligence community."

I wonder if they have any idea--any idea on earth--what @sses they make of themselves, day after day, year after year.

BTW--where was NORAD?

[OdinsEye]

Read the 9/11 commission time line.

[OdinsEye]

Actually the TSDB (terror watch list) is a way of connecting the dots. It takes information from over 12 different databases maintained by multiple agencies.

[nexxtep54]

Ah Phooey ! Still less than 1/3 of 1% of the population.

And if they want to worry so much about someone's time piece, I say let 'em.

[Poboy]

...then you must not have heard about that little thing called the Constitution, including the Bill of Rights.

[jsgaetano]

The Constitution and Bill of Rights doesn't allow conservatives to blow up Federal Buildings.

[nexxtep54]

Ya missed it, didn't ya?

[musselmanm]

I would bet I am on it! I support Rep Kucinich and Senator Sanders after seeing what our President, Senators and House calls health care reform and gives all monetary support to the corporations and little to American citizens. In addition I smoke my pain medication when it is possible. I buy it from the people that our last President, George Dimwit said I would, the folks in the dark back alleys in the dead of night.
What a radical I might be considered!

[toxicbrainpoison]

"1,600 people qualified for the list because they presented a "reasonable suspicion,"

what is "reasonable suspicion"? how do they determine that

[Ed Halpen]

They wore double knits. That is enough.

[MarkDykstra]

I am probably on the list. I know I am on the no fly list which makes me proud.

I wouldn't move back to the USA for a million bucks. Not even for a visit.

[theycallthewindmariah]

That's fine. Stay where you are.

[MarkDykstra]

Don't worry I will. I love living in a free modern country. My passport takes me to any country on earth. Try THAT with a USA passport. You have NO idea how screwed up the USA is.

[theycallthewindmariah]

Please read the article. It says there are duplicate names on the list and that only about 5% are American citizens or those here with permanant legal status. That would be @20,000. I have no trouble believing there are about that number of people out there who should be watched. Try going to a gun show sometime and you won't have a problem believing it either.

[doglove]

Agree it is a very small percentage when you consider our population and the newest terrorists are the domestic abortion doctor killing kind.

I hope everyone who even hints at gun violence (signs reading "armed and dangerous", etc) are on it and being closely watched.

[theycallthewindmariah]

Thanks, Doglove. I'm from Kentucky and am waiting...and waiting...for news on the investigation regarding the murder of the census worker in Clay Co. That was on HuffPo a month ago, but no one seems interested anymore.

[DannyEV]

I'd very much like to know just how many "gun show" types are on that list. I'd bet my next paycheck the answer is ZERO.

[bynddrvn5]

What is the government doing with all of these lists? They can't possibly follow this many people.

The government probably sells the list to marketing companies and spammers. I think this must be the case, the house I was born in burned down a year later. Every once in a while I will get some spam with that 30+ year old address that doesn't exist anymore - no one in the world could have that address listed other than the government.

[OdinsEye]

That address can probably be found by a simple LexisNexis search.

[doglove]

And how many thousands of dollars a month does a membership to Lexus Nexus cost?

[Ed Halpen]

The fact that there is so many on the FBI list makes it impossible to do the job. No government agency is big enough to watch that many people.
The FBI may say they have 400,000bon a list, good for them, it helps their budget. Think about what it would take to watch 400,000 people. At least 2 milliion non desk jockeys. So, when the FBI has 4 million employees we are in trouble.

[OdinsEye]

Watching these people does not mean active eyes-on surveilence. In fact, for most of them, all that happens is that when they have a run in with law enforcement or try to travel by commercial air, bus, or train, their name gets flagged.

[Ed Halpen]

Sir, I beg to differ, on a plane yes I do have to flip a passport. But by bus, faggedaboutit. .
Been there & bus don kare. Yeah, shouldn't do intentional mispellins. But havin traveled about the world a bit, ID ain't always needed. In the states who cares unless they think you are an illegal, and then who cares- La Mgra ain't there.

[DannyEV]

impossible to do WHAT job? chase down the FBI's hallucinations?

[OdinsEye]

There are really multiple "watch lists", the most commonly discussed lists being the TSDB and the "No-Fly" list. In this case, the list the article appears to be talking about is the TSDB. The TSDB takes input from over a dozen other lists. Simply being found in the TSDB does not bar someone from doing things, it simply means that the FBI is going keep closer tabs on that person.

[Blasphemy]

Now that's original. The FBI needs more agents to keep a closer tab on a person who may have done nothing wrong at all. Maybe had a bad hair day. I want all my tax money back.

[OdinsEye]

You really should take some time to learn what the list is, what it takes to get on it, and what being on the list means.

[Ed Halpen]

Do you really think that there is an organization in the US large enough to do that job.

[OdinsEye]

It is a joint effort by local, state, and federal agencies, not just the FBI.

[sposton]

I wonder how many of outspoken people here on HuffPost and elsewhere on the Net are on the list. 400,000 is awful lot of potential subversives and terrorists. When the government of the people by the people cannot trust its own people I wonder whom are they really protecting, and whom they are protecting us from!

The Cold War has absolutely ruined this country. We have become like our enemy more than we are willing to admit.

[OdinsEye]

Simply being outspoken will not land anyone on the list.

[sposton]

Maybe you can tell us what will. Perhaps organizing into effective political organizations that might threaten the present kleptocratic order? ;-)

[henryberry]

In most cases. But as I've found in Connecticut, reporting crimes committed by Fairfield County State's Attorneys' preferred criminals will. In my case, the preferred criminals were lawyers at a local corporate law firm who stole close to $6,000.00 of medical films of mine meant for an operation on my neck. The first measure the state's attorneys did when I filed a criminal complaint was to get an illegal wiretap on my phone.

In a Michael Jackson alleged sexual abuse case (he was acquitted), the woman making the case was seen as unsavory, and not a type prosecutors would ordinarily like to work with. The explanation for their pursuit of the charges was that prosecutors cannot chose who is a victim. In Connecticut, however, as my case demonstrates, prosecutors can chose who they would like to be a victim. I call this their program of incrimination. I have learned all about it, and have been exposing it; although some specifics remain unknown.

I have a graduate degree in philosophy and am not easily tricked. So I was able to avoid the entrapment attempts ensuing from the illegal wiretap. And I have not been deterred by threats which came later. But there's many who do not have my dexterity (so far) in avoiding such a vicious scheme. Most citizens would be helpless against this program of incrimination.

[theycallthewindmariah]

The article says that less than 5% of that number are American citizens or legal permanent residents. That would be @20,000. I have no trouble believing there are that many potentially dangerous individuals out there that do need watching because they dislike something about our society. When the murderer of the census worker in Kentucky is found, I hope that number is reduced by at least one.

There are over 800 registered sex offenders in Washington DC alone. Those are people who have been caught and convicted. We have a large population and thus a large number of people who are capable of violence, whether it be personal or political.

We should be proud we have pretty much of an open society. Those 380,000 who are here visiting, legal or not, and who are on the list are benificiaries of what we have to offer. We could have shut our doors to them.

[henryberry]

You're right - but a problem is there's no way to distinguish or verify when it is that government officials misuse or fabricate (as they have in my case) materials. State's attorneys in CT have refused to show me documents relating to an illegal wiretap although ordered to do so by a judge and at my request in relation to a CT statute providing for this. The obvious reasons are that not only do the criminal law-enforcement officials want to keep secret their identity, but they do not want me or others to become aware of how they engage in such illegalities and the network which helps them in this.

Many law-enforcement officials-­-particula­rly prosecutor­s--believe­, yes believe in their bones that some injustices including an occasional wrongful execution are required for the social benefit and utility of the legal system. They believe this knowing that they are never going to be ones affected by the injustice. And a significant proportion of prosecutors and other law-enforcement officials use this rationale to deliberately distort or falsify evidence, statements, and other critical matters in cases they handle. This is an intolerable situation, and it could be easily remedied if law-enforcement authorities were not assured practically everything they do wold be permanently held in secret.

[theycallthewindmariah]

Try reading the article.

[frappe]

This kind of power can be so easily abused against one's political enemies. There has to be strong oversight protocols, with redundant checks and balances, to keep these people on the straight and narrow. There are too many aspects of the Patriot Act that are unpatriotic in terms of what our country has traditionally represented. There's a delicate balance between freedom and one's desire for national security. When national security interests start treading roughshod over our individual freedoms, alarm bells should be going off.

[doctordoubt]

And now it includes everyone who logged into this thread.

[theycallthewindmariah]

That's ridiculous.

[DannyEV]

not a bit.