Yes, there are now over 435, 000 names on the Terror "Watch List" known as "TIDE" (the Terrorist Identities Datamart Environment) , and Russ Travers, the guy in charge of the list admits that it's loaded with errors.
"The single biggest worry that I have is long-term quality control," said Russ Travers, in charge of TIDE at the National Counterterrorism Center in McLean. "Where am I going to be, where is my successor going to be, five years down the road?"
A unit at the screening center responds to complaints of mistaken identies on the list, but will not remove a name if it is shared by a terrorism suspect. Instead, people not on the list who share a name with someone listed can be issued letters instructing airline personnel to check with the TSA to verify their identity. The GAO reported that only 31 names were removed in 2005. (In other words, good luck getting your name off the list.)
Sen. Ted Stevens (R-Alaska) said last year that his wife had been delayed repeatedly while airlines queried whether Catherine Stevens was the watch-listed Cat Stevens. The listing referred to the Britain-based pop singer who converted to Islam and changed his name to Yusuf Islam. (The reason Islam is not allowed to fly to the United States is secret.)
That's right- the people running TIDE can't even tell that a famous, internationally known [span style="font-style: italic; font-weight: bold;"]male [/span]singer isn't the same person as the [span style="font-style: italic; font-weight: bold;"]wife [/span]of one of [span style="font-style: italic; font-weight: bold;"]our own Senators[/span].
Full, depressing story:
[a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/03/24/AR2007032400944_pf.html"]http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/03/24/AR2007032400944_pf.html[/a]
