US:A US watch list of terrorism suspects has passed one million records, corresponding to about 400,000 people, and a leading civil rights group said yesterday the number was far too high to be effective.
The Bush administration disagreed and called the list one of the most effective tools implemented after the September 11th hijacked plane attacks - when a federal "no-fly" list contained just 16 people considered threats to aviation.
The American Civil Liberties Union publicised the one million milestone with a news conference and press release.
It said the watch list was an impediment to millions of travellers and called for changes, including tightening criteria for adding names, giving travellers a right to challenge their inclusion, and improving procedures for taking wrongly included names off the list.
"America's new million-record watch list is a perfect symbol for what's wrong with this administration's approach to security: it's unfair, out of control, a waste of resources [and] treats the rights of the innocent as an afterthought," ACLU technology director Barry Steinhardt said in a statement.
President George W Bush ordered in the current list in September 2003 as a way to wrap several growing terrorism watch lists into a single government database compiled and overseen by the FBI.
Suspected terrorists or people believed to have links to terrorism are included on the list, which can be used by a wide range of government agencies in security screening. About 50,000 individuals are included on the Transportation Security Administration "no-fly" or "selectee" lists that subject them to travel bans, arrest or additional screening.
Critics have pointed to troubles that figures such as US senator Edward Kennedy, 1960s civil rights leader John Lewis and singer Yusuf Islam (formerly Cat Stevens) have had with watch lists as evidence that the consolidated database is poorly managed.
The Terrorism Screening Center, which maintains the list, has already put in place several steps to ensure the list is accurate and up to date, spokesman Chad Kolton said.
"The list is very effective. In fact it's one of the most effective counter-terrorism tools that our country has," he said. - ( Reuters)