Let's call a spade a spade here: the Terror Watch List is racial profiling at is worst. But it isn't even just Arabs and those from the Middle East that are getting the brunt of it. According t
o Government testimony, the list has swelled in the past ~7 years to contain more than 880,000 names, and is growing by 20,000 names per month. Certainly every name is not unique to a specific individual, as evidenced by the fact that the Redress system created by the government in February has nearly 72,000 names on it, all of innocent travelers who are commonly mis-flagged at the airports.
In addition to the uncontrolled growth of the list, the
Americans for Terror Watch List Reform cite this as part of their cause:
Civil Liberties. Uncertainty surrounding the list infringes on individual civil liberties. Procedures to get off the list are classified for national security reasons. Access to the list has grown, raising concerns beyond minor hassles at the airport. Americans on the list can be denied mortgages and student loans, lose their jobs, be labeled as terror suspects on routine traffic stops, or be detained traveling abroad.
Wired.com reports that despite the high number of mis-flags, as well as other inconveniences of being on the list such as electronic money transfers, the government still has not set up any sort of system to clear innocent names. The same individuals and families therefore receive repeated harassment from agents of the US Government, and no one is any safer.
What we have here folks is the modern-day internment camp. Individuals are singled out based on race or religion, harassed, and made to suffer needlessly in the name of "national security".
Says Ahmad Al-Akhras, Ph.D in an article on
freepress.org:
Like racial profiling, the so-called Watch List hinges on a false premise that people commit crimes because of their racial, ethnic or religious background. This false premise caused huge suffering to African America, Japanese Americans and now Arab and American Muslims. The worst part of this is the assumption that practicing Islam, never mind being an activist at that, gives one an appetite for terrorism. In the process, people who are in good standing who did not commit nor had a criminal record are treated as "posing a threat to civil aviation or national security" or as "potential enemies of the state".
He adds:
Watch lists only provide false sense of security by pacifying the public with the perception of added security.
Unfortunately, there are a lot of ignorant ppl in this country who are in fact placated by the Watch List. Just like with the internment camps, the government is keeping the public in fear in order to do what they want. In WWII it was drop atomic bombs on the Japanese. Now the stakes are even higher: Civil liberties are lost, the War in Iraq ("conflict" my foot) continues, and social services for poor and struggling middle-class families are being cut, all so that we can fund a nebulous and poorly-defined "War on Terror".
Don't let your rights be eroded away. Refuse to be terrorized yourself by standing up to the War on Terror.
clipped from news.bbc.co.uk
clipped from thinkprogress.org
clipped from news.bbc.co.uk
clipped from www.commondreams.org
clipped from www.savetheinternet.com
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