Homeland Security Can't Even Police Their Own Ranks: 72 In DHS On Terrorist Watch List
While they're feeling the seams of your underpanties in the airport -- because you're under suspicion as a terrorist because you're flying to visit your granny...again! -- they're ignoring the actually worrisome people in their own ranks.
Adam Kredo writes at Free Beacon:
Rep. Stephen Lynch (D., Mass.) disclosed that a congressional investigation recently found that at least 72 people working at DHS also "were on the terrorist watch list.""Back in August, we did an investigation--the inspector general did--of the Department of Homeland Security, and they had 72 individuals that were on the terrorist watch list that were actually working at the Department of Homeland Security," Lynch told Boston Public Radio.
...Lynch referred to a recent report that found the Transportation Security Administration, which is overseen by DHS, failed to stop 95 percent of those who attempted to bring restricted items past airport security.
"We had staffers go into eight different airports to test the department of homeland security screening process at major airports. They had a 95 percent failure rate," Lynch said. "We had folks--this was a testing exercise, so we had folks going in there with guns on their ankles, and other weapons on their persons, and there was a 95 percent failure rate."
Lynch said he has "very low confidence" in DHS based on its many failures over the years. For this reason, he voted in favor of recent legislation that will tighten the vetting process for any Syrian refugees applying for asylum in the United States.
..."I have even lower confidence that they can conduct the vetting process in places like Jordan, or Belize or on the Syrian border, or in Cairo, or Beirut in any better fashion, especially given the huge volume of applicants we've had seeking refugee status," Lynch said.
Here's one of the lovely ladies we let in. 
And, finally, as a commenter on a friend's FB post wrote about the 72 on the terrorist watch list:
That may be true, but they successfully make me throw out my water every single time, so there is that.
via SH
Some of those people are on the list because their name is the same as an actual terrorist. But not all.
Oh, and who knows? maybe they're the ones vetting "Syrian" refugees. That would be, what's the word? awesome!
I R A Darth Aggie at December 7, 2015 8:07 AM
A 7+ year old NBC News article on false positives on the no fly list.
I R A Darth Aggie at December 7, 2015 8:20 AM
I R A Darth Aggie at December 7, 2015 8:30 AM
Related:
http://www.foxnews.com/us/2015/12/06/san-bernardino-gunman-obsessed-with-israel-isis-dad-says/?intcmp=hphz09
"San Bernardino gunman Syed Farook shared ISIS’ ideology, wanted to see the establishment of an Islamic caliphate and was fixated with Israel, Farook’s father told an Italian newspaper during an interview in which he also offered his own unusual ideas about Israel."
The father also said:
"I told him he had to stay calm and be patient because in two years Israel will not exist anymore."
And the mother said:
"My husband is mentally ill and is on medication but is also an alcoholic and drinks with the medicine."
And just who vetted these people? Are they really the kind we are letting in?
Or is all this just some sort of media hype? Just make up shit to get more ratings.
charles at December 7, 2015 10:20 AM
DHS has nearly a million people on their stupid watch list. That's useless. You can't closely monitor that many people. All it does is make life difficult for innocent people who wind up on the list, while barely slowing down the actual terrorists.
Cousin Dave at December 7, 2015 11:18 AM
At least one Liberal has some common sense and a willingness to presume history has some lessons.
http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2015/12/07/my-fellow-liberals-don-t-support-obama-s-terror-watch-list-gun-ban.html
Bob in Texas at December 7, 2015 11:49 AM
72 is a lot. 1 or 2 slipping through the cracks I can see, but 72 makes me wonder what else is going on. What percentage of the population is on the list? What percentage of DHS?
NicoleK at December 7, 2015 11:45 PM
NicoleK has a point. At this point, are they just picking names out of the white pages of each city or something?
Shannon at December 8, 2015 10:11 AM
The explanation I heard that makes sense, in a bureaucratic sort of way, is that they play a Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon game with everyone on the list. Did you at some point ever work at a place where one of your co-workers lived next door to the second cousin of the terrorist's college roommate? That gets you on the list. There's lots of problems:
1. Obviously, there's no vetting.
2. As Williamson's article points out, they don't make any effort to establish an identity, just a name. Which means the number of people impacted by the list is far larger than just the names on the list.
3. No one ever makes an attempt to scrub the list. I can't help but wonder how many people on the list are dead.
This all makes it useless as an investigating or monitoring tool. But that's not the point. The list is part and parcel with the new government philosophy of universal surveillance. From that standpoint, the bigger the list gets, the better.
Cousin Dave at December 8, 2015 10:43 AM
Sorry, slightly off topic . . .
But, every time I see that picture of the female terrorist, with her buggy eyes, I wonder who the fuck let Gollum into the country!?
Or am I being to too unkind to Gollum?
charles at December 8, 2015 11:38 AM
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