Why government watch lists don't really work...

10:30 PM Posted In , , Edit This 0 Comments »
I have tried to stay out of the insanity that is the Crotchbomber, and succeeded in doing so save for the previous post... Until I saw this post on You Are Dumb. Here is the reality: since 9/11 you could end up on a watchlist for being a peacenik or to fill a quota.
A former partner of mine was a writer. He had written a fairly innocuous article, which was then stolen and placed on the website of a fringe group that was on some alphabet agency's list. He then found himself on the same list because someone else had taken excerpts from it out of context and twisted them to suit their own ends. A group to which he had absolutely no connections.
Then when you factor in other stupid stories, there are simply too many people being watched for ridiculous reasons or simply have the same name as a "potential threat" for them to be effectively caught. In short, I am not surprised that Farouk Abdul Mutallab was reported, yet allowed to fly. I say, throw out all the old lists from the Bush regime and start over. But that would be too logical, wouldn't it?

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