1,600 Are Suggested Daily For Watch List

The Washington Post reported that during a 12-month period ending in March of this year, 1,600 people were recommended daily by the U.S. intelligence community to be put on the list due to ‘reasonable suspicion.’  It’s important to know,  each nomination does not necessarily represent a new individual, but may instead involve an alias or name variant for a previously named to the watchlist.

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.

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Terror Names Linked To Air France Flight 447

Two passengers with names linked to Islamic terrorism were on the Air France flight which crashed with the loss of 228 lives, it has emerged.

French secret servicemen established the connection while working through the list of those who boarded the doomed Airbus in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, on 31 May.

Flight AF447 crashed in the mid-Atlantic en route to Paris during a violent storm.

While it is certain that there were computer malfunctions, terrorism has not been ruled out.

Soon after news of the fatal crash broke, agents working for the DGSE (Direction Générale de la Sécurité Extérieure), the French equivalent of MI6, were dispatched to Brazil.

It was there that they established that two names on the passenger list are also on highly-classified documents listing the names of radical Muslims considered a threat to the French Republic.

A source working for the French security services told Paris weekly L’Express that the link was “highly significant”.

Agents are now trying to establish dates of birth for the two dead passengers, and family connections.

There is a possibility the name similarities are simply a “macabre coincidence”, the source added, but the revelation is still being “taken very seriously”.

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Terrorist Watch List Smaller Than Previously Reported

The federal government’s terrorist watch lists are far shorter than have been reported, the secretary of homeland security said Wednesday.

Michael Chertoff revealed for the first time that 2,500 people are on the “no fly” list and only about 10 percent of those are U.S. citizens. Individuals on this list are barred from boarding aircraft because intelligence indicates they pose a threat to aviation.

Fewer than 16,000 people are designated “selectees,” he said, and most are not Americans. These people represent a less specific security threat and receive extra scrutiny, but are allowed to fly.

The American Civil Liberties Union has estimated more than 1 million names have been added to the lists since the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. The FBI, which manages the Terrorist Screening Database, said in August that there were about 400,000 people on its list, but that approximately 95 percent of those people were not U.S. citizens.

But even if there are only 18,500 names on the no fly and selectee lists, thousands of people not on the lists are mistaken for those who are. They are often subjected to extra security at airports because their names are similar to ones on the lists.

A government program unveiled Wednesday is aimed at addressing that problem.

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TSA Proposes Screening Private Jet Passengers

Travelers who fly on private corporate jets would have to clear background checks before boarding under a proposal made today by the Transportation Security Administration.

The TSA is seeking to impose the security requirements on roughly 15,000 corporate jets and 315 small airports that currently have none.

There is no specific threat to corporate jets, but the TSA said in its 260-page proposal that many are the same size and weight as commercial planes “and they could be used effectively to commit a terrorist act.” Private jets, possibly packed with explosives, could fly into a building or could transport terrorists or dangerous materials, the TSA said.

”This is an important milestone,” said Michal Morgan, TSA head of general aviation security. “It’s the evolution of security into a new operating environment.”

The proposal would take effect next year at the earliest and be phased in over two years. The TSA said it would cost $200 million a year, with corporate jet owners paying 85%.

Passengers would have to be checked against a terrorist watch list, just like airline passengers. They would also have to give their names and birth dates. The TSA says the checks would likely be done by companies that specialize in the process.

Morgan said passengers who regularly fly on corporate jets could be cleared once and would not have to face background checks again. Pilots of corporate jets would also have to pass criminal background checks.

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