WASHINGTON -- The Federal Bureau of Investigation has incorrectly kept nearly 24,000 people on a terrorist watch list on the basis of outdated or sometimes irrelevant information, while missing people with genuine ties to terrorism who should have been on the list, according to a Justice Department report released Wednesday. The report said the mistakes posed a risk to national security, because of the failure to flag actual terrorism suspects, and an unnecessary nuisance for nonsuspects who may be questioned at traffic stops or kept from boarding airplanes. By the beginning of 2009, the report said, this consolidated government watch list comprised about 400,000 people, recorded as 1.1 million names and aliases, an exponential growth from the days before the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001.
So you say that you feel safe? That our government is doing a heckuva job? That the Reign of Error © made America safer than it ever has been? Well, yeah, I suppose you might be right...if you think having 24,000 innocent names on a terrorist watch list is a good thing. If you support the theory that having 24,000 people on a terrorist watch list means that SOMEONE on the list is bound to be a terrorist, you might want to consider removing your anterior from your posterior.
Why not just have every American on the terrorist watch list? If you're going to cast a wide net and overgeneralize, why not just go all the way? After all, putting everyone named "David Nelson" on the list immediately after 9.11 certainly worked well...unless you happened to be named David Nelson. Still, better to have too many names on the list than not enough, no? Besides, what if there really is a terrorist named David Nelson plotting our demise?
Don't get me wrong; I understand the need to ensure our security. I know there are people out there dedicated to our destruction. Having said that, I have to think that these folks are ROTFL over our government's ineptitude and silliness in trying to create a system that ensures our safety. What we actually have is a system designed to make us feel safer. Of course, there's no way to know what sorts of attacks may have been prevented by making the act of boarding an airplane an onerous and degrading process...but the government knows what it's doing. Right??
How does having 400,000 names on a terrorist watch list keep us safe? I'm not saying that there aren't 400,000 radical jihadists out there willing to attack America, but given that this list contained as many as 1.1 million names at one time, well...? I find it difficult to imagine that any sort of focus or foresight went into the creation of the list.
Over the past eight years, we've stood by sheep-like while our government has chipped away at our civil liberties in the name of fighting terrorism. We've allowed ourselves to be scared into believing that our government should be given free reign if it means keeping us safe from the terrorist bogeyman. Anyone who's tried to board a plane since 9.11 knows exactly what I'm talking about.
Benjamin Franklin was right: those who would trade liberty for security deserve neither.
