Who’s watching the watch list?

Have you wondered how many actual terrorists since 9/11 have come though the airport security screeners?

The name of the Justice Department’s former top criminal prosecutor has turned up on the U.S.’s terrorist watch list, according to the Associated Press.

This terrorism-era roster, which likely has caused thousands of innocent Americans to be questioned or searched, popped up with the name of former Assistant Attorney General Jim Robinson.

Robinson joined another mistaken-identity American and the American Civil Liberties Union Monday in calling for elimination of the list that’s designed to identify suspected terrorists.

Chad Kolton, a spokesman for the Terrorist Screening Center that maintains the list, says that number includes aliases. Kolton said about 400,000 individuals are on the list, nearly all of whom are foreigners.

Something’s not right here. A government report (from the General Accounting Office) last fall, put the number of watch list “members” at 755,000. The ACLU, which claims to have been been tracking the list, says there are over 1 million names on it now.

An additional problem is that officials are stopping people whose names are close to the names on the list, according to the Washington Post.

U.S. senators, congressmen and women, Nelson Mandela, veterans, and dead dictators are also reportedly on the list.

Oh, and they’re also stopping 6 year olds.

The Feds won’t tell you if you’re on the terror watch list. But they’ve still set up a “redress procedure” (which is overburdened) for people who think they are. But when you go to the FBI site, it tells you they don’t accept inquiries from the public. Instead, it recommends you go to the Department of Homeland Security where you can fill out a complaint form.

Or you can fill out a form on the ACLU site.