Comedy Central, home to political satirists such as Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert, has launched a new online series called “The Watch List.” The series features the comedy of Arab American humorists, and revolves around their experiences living in a post 9/11 America. In one of the episodes, comedian Ahmed Ahmed jokes about his adventures in airports. “Yes, my name really is Ahmed Ahmed,” he says, head hanging and pausing momentarily. “I can’t fly anywhere!”
He then goes on to say that if you Google his name, you will find that it matches the name of an Egyptian terrorist, landing him on the FBI’s list of Most Wanted Terrorists. Ahmed’s place on a government watch list means he is detained and searched at airports, which he cleverly portrays in his stand-up routine. But as both Ahmed’s comedy and the name of his series suggest, government watch lists have grown so notoriously out of control that they are the newest source of political satire. It seems that because of the numerous mistakes in identities and other errors, they are in danger of becoming a joke.
These problems are not limited to people with Arabic names. Ahmed joins the distinguished ranks of Senator Ted Kennedy and Bolivia’s president Evo Morales, fellow victims of erroneous airport detainment. Countless similar stories of other watch list victims have appeared in the news, such as that of Marine Staff Sgt. Daniel Brown, who was detained at an airport on his way home from deployment in Iraq. Indeed, the Washington Post reported in March 2007 that the names included in the Terrorist Identities Datamart Environment, the source for all government watch lists controlled by the National Counter Terrorism Center, have quadrupled over the past four years, and a June 2007 report by ABC news indicated that the consolidated terrorist watch list now contains a staggering 509,000 names. As of last October, more than 30,000 delayed and otherwise inconvenienced airline passengers had asked the Transportation Security Administration to have their names – erroneously placed on a watch list – removed from those lists, according to the Associated Press.
The problems with watch lists have not been limited just to airline travelers. A report by the San Francisco Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights shows that the government has encouraged private businesses to screen consumers by using the public Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) watch list. The OFAC list connects these ordinary consumers with suspected terrorists on such tenuous bases as a shared middle name. Tom and Nancy Kubbany were denied a mortgage because Tom’s middle name, Hassan, matched an alias of Saddam Hussein’s son—despite the fact that Tom was born in Michigan, has never been to Iraq, and is thirty years older than Saddam’s son. With the same level of “proof,” Barack Obama, Muhammad Ali, and Paula Abdul could be considered terrorist suspects.
Although watch lists may play an important role in identifying threats to national security, they have grown to be inaccurate, unreliable and too widely used. The harms caused by the inefficiencies and inaccuracies of these lists go beyond mere annoyances to travelers: the cost of wasted resources is too high, especially when balanced against the critically important task of keeping our nation safe. Furthermore, if these errors are not addressed, they have the potential to continue to violate our civil liberties and harm innocent civilians.
The Constitution Project recently released a report on how to confront the problems posed by government watch lists. Because we recognize that there are situations in which watch lists must be employed to protect our safety, our report calls not for eliminating these lists, but for restrictions on their use. Certain situations, such as those in which a decision must be made quickly and inaction might have potentially dire consequences – such as at airports - merit the use of a government watch list. However, these lists should not be used as “blacklists” in any context relating to employment or the application for licenses or contracts. In these cases, there is enough time to pursue a thorough background check. Reliance on watch lists in these cases is unnecessary, and poses an undue risk of violating individuals’ civil liberties.
The Constitution Project’s report also proposes reforms to improve the accuracy of watch lists and includes guidelines for a system that would allow individuals to challenge their erroneous inclusion on a list. Among other reforms, it is critical that the government provide clear, written standards for when names may be added to watch lists, including specific criteria to ensure that that those placed on a watch list deserve to be there. A Government Accountability Office report from last September stated that in a 26 month period, half of misidentified persons referred to the Terrorist Screening Center had names that were similar to those on a watch list. Individuals must have a meaningful procedure for challenging their inclusion on a list; the sheer volume of complaints demonstrates the need for an improved and standardized system of redress.
While the impact of watch lists on people such as Ahmed Ahmed may be funny to those of us who have not mistakenly ended up on one, his comedic riffs expose a serious danger: the infringement of our civil liberties. We can, and must, recognize that we can keep our nation safe while at the same time protecting the rights and freedoms that make America free. Those rights and freedoms should never be compromised.