Number of names on terrorist watch list at 400,000, agency says
[washingtonpost.com] Newly released FBI data offer evidence of the broad scope and
complexity of the nation’s terrorist watch list, documenting a daily
flood of names nominated for inclusion to the controversial list.
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 provided to the Senate Judiciary
Committee by the FBI in September and made public last week.
FBI officials cautioned that each nomination "does not necessarily
represent a new individual, but may instead involve an alias or name
variant for a previously watchlisted person."
The ever-churning list is said to contain more than 400,000 unique
names and over 1 million entries. The committee was told that over that
same period, officials asked each day that 600 names be removed and
4,800 records be modified. Fewer than 5 percent of the people on the
list are U.S. citizens or legal permanent residents. Nine percent of
those on the terrorism list, the FBI said, are also on the government’s
"no fly" list.
This information, and more about the FBI’s wide-ranging effort
against terrorists, came in answers from FBI Director Robert S. Mueller
III to Senate Judiciary Committee members‘ questions. The answers were
first made public last week in Steven Aftergood’s Secrecy News.
Sen. Russell D. Feingold
(D-Wis.), who has shown concern over some of the FBI’s relatively new
investigative techniques assessing possible terrorist, criminal or
foreign intelligence activities, drew new information from the agency.
Before the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, the FBI needed initial
information that a person or group was engaged in wrongdoing before it
could open a preliminary investigation.
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Under current practice, no such information is
needed. That led Feingold to ask how many "assessments" had been
initiated and how many had led to investigations since new guidelines
were put into effect in December 2008. The FBI said the answer was
"sensitive" and would be provided only in classified form.
Feingold was given brief descriptions of the types of assessments
that can be undertaken: The inquiries can be opened by individual
agents "proactively," meaning on his or her own or in response to a
lead about a threat. Other assessments are undertaken to identify or
gather information about potential targets or terrorists, to gather
information to aid intelligence gathering and related to matters of
foreign intelligence interest.
Feingold pointed to a November 2008 Justice Department inspector
general audit showing that in 2006, approximately 219,000 tips from the
public led to the FBI’s determination that there were 2,800
counterterrorism threats and suspicious incidents that year.
"Regardless of the reporting source, FBI policy requires that each
threat or suspicious incident should receive some level of review and
assessment to determine the potential nexus to terrorism," the audit
said.
In a different vein, the FBI was asked why it is losing new recruits
as special agents and support personnel at a time when terrorist
investigations are increasing. The FBI responded that failed polygraph
tests rather than other factors, such as the length of time for getting
security clearances, are the main reason recruits are ending their
efforts to join the bureau. In the past year, polygraphs were the cause
of roughly 40 percent of special-agent applicants dropping out, the
records showed.
Source: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/10/31/AR2009103102141.html
