The House just passed a bill compelling the Department of Homeland Security to create an office of "appeals and redress" and establish a "fair and timely process" for removing one's name from that ever-growing terrorist watch list that over the summer, ballooned to over four hundred thousand people. The DoHS would have to maintain a "comprehensive cleared list" of people who were once on the list but have had their names removed, which would be distributed to the relevant agencies and state and local governments that use the lists.
Obviously, it's good that they've developed a process for getting one's name off the list if you're there for no reason, but having a "terrorist watch list" with that many people on it means that the list is basically useless to begin with. The ACLU shot out a press release expressing tentative approval of the bill in which ACLU legislative counsel Timothy Sparapani argued that the burden of proof shouldn't be entirely on the citizen to have their name removed:
“In order to make the current watch lists more effective in keeping our nation safe, they need to be scrubbed, retaining only individuals for whom there is credible evidence of terrorist ties or activities. But it remains critical that Congress and the Obama administration reexamine and reform our whole approach to the watch list system.”
The bill is pretty straightforward, but given all the demagoguery we've been hearing on national security related issues I was somewhat surprised to hear that the bill passed with overwhelming bipartisan support, with only three people in the House voting against. Of course we don't know what will happen in the Senate, especially since Homeland Security and Government Accountability Committee Chairman Joe Lieberman believes that there is a secret fifth column of Muslims in the United States trying to "destroy it from within." But I'm guessing it'll pass anyway.
-- A. Serwer
This post has been corrected.
