Friday, January 08, 2010

Via Counterpunch

Franklin Lamb: The Israel Lobby's War on Al Manar TV
How a Lebanese Television Station Got Included on the T-List
The Israel Lobby's War on Al Manar TV

By FRANKLIN LAMB

Beirut.

Having inherited the Bush administration’s rising stack of terrorism lists, President Obama’s team had expressed interest in culling them “so they are more accurate and manageable and Americans experience less stress”, according to Homeland Security director Janet Napolitano.

These lists, plus the reported existence of others that have not been made public, are supposed to reduce the fear and stress on Americans just knowing there are such lists and that someone is ‘watching out’.

In many cases travelers experience more stress because they never know when Transportation Security Authority (TSA) agents at airports might eye a ‘hit’ on a computer screen, lunge into action and ruin a trip. Duplicate names on various lists plus the difficulty of getting oneself off the lists have led to increasing pressure on the Obama administration to refine the concept of who really is a terrorist. The various “T” and watch lists are swelling annually by thousands of names-some quite similar leading to confusion and uncertainly who really is and isn’t on and who is on but shouldn’t be and vice versa.




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