US 'to halve' no-fly watch list

[TechBear_Seattle]

US 'to halve' no-fly watch list

The US is reviewing the list it uses to bar suspected terrorists from travelling on airliners, saying it hopes to halve the number of names.

A revised list and new passenger screening system should prevent cases of travellers wrongfully stopped, the Transportation Security bureau said.

The number on the list is not known but estimates vary from 50,000 to 350,000.

The US will also introduce a complaints system to allow travellers to have wrong information corrected.

The full article can be read at http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/6274221.stm

Wow, and it only took a major shift in Congress.

[global1]

1. Did The Last Boston Legal Embarrass Them?.....nt

[MuseRider]

2. If it didn't

it should have.

[mantis49]

8. That was my thought when I read the

OP's headline.

I love that show!

[CoffeeCat]

3. That's a first step...

I'm not satisfied with the fascist tactics simply shrinking in half.

I want to know WHO was on that list, and HOW they got on the list. I want
to know by what means our government compiled a list of up to 350,000 American
citizens, who were deemed too dangerous to fly.

I want more information on how this was compiled, and I want to see to it
that this never happens again.

These bastard fascists. They move 10 steps forward when they're in power.
Now that they're out of power, they're taking 5 steps backward. Those 5 steps
are for PRESERVING their long-term goals. We must not rest--just because their
perverse ideas are being slightly dented.

We must shine the spotlight on all of this ugliness, because the minute these
bastards regain power again--they'll be pushing all of these fascist tactics
on us--once again.

[wakeme2008]

4. Something about being called to Congress and being under OATH

sure makes people do the right thing :grr:

[TZ]

5. my Uncle the terrorist..

My Uncle is on the list. A retired college professor/political scientist who taught at Georgetown for awhile. What they made him do was awful (we traveled together recently). I breezed through. He was pulled aside, questioned and even had those things they check for contact with explosives run over all his belonings. Truly scary actually. He swears its a random thing but I can't help wondering because 1) he now makes a living talking about Congress and it he never did say much nice about the "do nothing" congress. Plus not too long ago he traveled to Egypt for a vacation. Otherwise how dangerous sounding is "Michael Robinson"? Although he was being pulled aside before he went to Egypt so maybe thats not a factor..:wtf:

[Doctor_J]

6. Either they're lying or they're trying to get Waxman to back off

or both. Sorry, gents, your half-assed death bed confession ain't going to work.

[gratuitous]

7. Huh, interesting

I recall a story last year where some anonymous security factotum acknowledged that many of the names on the list were rather common, that its use led to all kinds of inconveniences, but that the American people were just going to have to learn to live with it, because in this post-9/11 world it was far, far better to be ridiculously overcautious than sorry. No names would ever be taken off the list, and nobody would ever know how a name got on it.

That was, I believe, before the 2006 election.