People This is a posting you might want to keep your eyes on very and carefully. There is a terrorist watch list being compiled in North America, initially Canada and the Americans were compiling a separate list, but today we even do not know who is compiling what. The problem we have with this list is the speed at which it is growing. It is a good idea to check with authorities before you head to those air ports for you will go to the air port and be denied to fly for you are on the list when you even do not know. On the information we have today, if things do not change and very fast, flying is going to be very complex due to the laws that are changing on a daily basis, for example, we now understand that the Americans want to get a list of every passenger on a Canadian flight as long as that flight is going to use an America space, now when you look at Canadian flights some of them fly from a Canadian city to a Canadian city but use an American space for some time on their flight plan, the question then becomes will the Americans refuse a Canadian to fly from one city to another because he is listed by the Americans? Better yet, the Americans have a right to deny entry to any one with a criminal record as small as it may be, will they refuse a flight to use their air space if some one with a criminal record is on board? Then one can start to wonder, if the Americans refuse Mayh Arah to go to United States will they allow him on a flight from let us say Toronto to Havana when it is going to use an American space? But most importantly, what is based on to decide that so and so is on a terrorist watch?
And as long as these questions keep on getting the answers we keep on getting,
clean up your boat for flying is starting to become a very scarily thing.
EM
Toronto
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Terror watch list swells to more than 755,000
|
SCREENING FOR TERRORISM
The number of terror watch-list records [1] more than
quadrupled over roughly a three-year period:
June 2004 158,374
May 2005 287,982
June 2006 515,906
May 2007 754,960
[1]: One record reflects one name but not necessarily
one person.
Source: Julie Snider, USA TODAY; Government
Accountability Office
By Mimi Hall, USA TODAY
WASHINGTON - 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."
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."
The Mulindwas Communication Group
"With Yoweri Museveni, Uganda is in anarchy"
Groupe de communication Mulindwas
"avec Yoweri Museveni, l'Ouganda est dans l'anarchie"
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