[Infowarrior] - 1600 are suggested daily for FBI's list

[Richard Forno]

1,600 are suggested daily for FBI's list
Number of names on terrorist watch list at 400,000, agency says
By Walter Pincus
Washington Post Staff Writer
Sunday, November 1, 2009

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/10/31/AR2009103102141_pf.html
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.

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.