Prosecutor's Name Turns Up on Terrorist Watch List (Lara Jakes Jordan)

Created by : Airlight View profile

Terrorist Watch List Graph

WASHINGTON — The Justice Department's former top criminal prosecutor says the government's terror watch list likely has caused thousands of innocent Americans to be questioned, searched or otherwise hassled.

Former Assistant Attorney General Jim Robinson would know: he's one of them.

{xtypo_quote_left} Chicago-area computer consultant Akif Rahman, who was born in Springfield, Ill., said he has been detained at least seven times after traveling abroad. During one such incident in May, he said, he was held for five hours, shackled to a chair and kicked by a Customs Service agent after being stopped at a U.S. checkpoint on the Canadian border. {/xtypo_quote_left}

Robinson joined another mistaken-identity American and the American Civil Liberties Union on Monday to urge eliminating the list that's supposed to identify suspected terrorists.

"It's a pain in the neck, and significantly interferes with my travel arrangements," said Robinson, the head of the Justice Department's criminal division during the Clinton administration. He believes his name matches that of someone who was put on the list in early 2005, and is routinely delayed while flying _ despite having his own government top-secret security clearances renewed last year.