[Peace-discuss] Fwd: [SRRTAC-L:17143] Who's Watching the Watch List?

[Al Kagan]

Begin forwarded message:

> From: "Dana Lubow" <danalubow at hotmail.com>
> Date: July 9, 2005 8:24:00 AM CDT
> To: SRRT Action Council <srrtac-l at ala.org>
> Subject: [SRRTAC-L:17143] Who's Watching the Watch List?
> Reply-To: srrtac-l at ala.org
>
> Who's Watching the Watch List?
> http://www.commondreams.org/views05/0707-30.htm
>
> Published on Thursday, July 7, 2005 by CommonDreams.org
> Who's Watching the Watch List?
> by John Graham
>
> Heading for Oakland from Seattle to see my grandkids last week, the
> Alaska Airline check-in machine refused to give me a boarding pass.
> Directed to the ticket counter, I gave the agent my driver's license
> and watched her punch keys at her computer.
> Frowning, she told me that my name was on the national terrorist No Fly
> Watch List and that I had to be specially cleared to board a plane. Any
> plane. Then she disappeared with my license for ten minutes, returning
> with a boarding pass and a written notice from the Transportation
> Security Administration (TSA) confirming that my name was on a list of
> persons "who posed, or were suspected of posing, a threat to civil
> aviation or national security."
>
> No one could tell me more than that. The computer was certain.
>
> Back home from Oakland, I called the TSA 800 number, where I rode a
> merry-go-round of pleasant recorded voices until I gave up. Turning to
> the TSA website, I downloaded a Passenger Identity Verification Form
> that would assist the TSA in "assessing" my situation if I sent it in
> with a package of certified documents attesting to who I was.
>
> I collected all this stuff and sent it in. Another twenty minutes on
> the phone to the TSA uncovered no live human being at all, let alone
> one who would tell me what I'd presumably done to get on The List.
> Searching my own mind for possible reasons, I've been more and more
> puzzled. I used to work on national security issues myself for the
> State Department and I know how dangerous our country's opponents can
> be. To the dismay of many of my more progressive friends, I've given
> the Feds the benefit of the doubt on homeland security. I tend to
> dismiss conspiracy theories as nonsense and I take my shoes off for the
> airport screeners with a smile.
>
> I'm embarrassed that it took my own ox being gored for me to see the
> threat posed by the Administration's current restricting of civil
> liberties. I'm being accused of a serious--even treasonous--criminal
> intent by a faceless bureaucracy, with no chance (that I can find) to
> refute any errors or false charges. My ability to earn a living is
> threatened--I speak on civic action and leadership all over the world,
> including recently at the US Air Force Academy. Plane travel is key to
> my livelihood.
>
> According to a recent MSNBC piece, thousands of Americans are having
> similar experiences. And this is not Chile under Pinochet. It's
> America. My country and yours.
>
> With no real information to go on, I'm left to guess why this is
> happening to me. The easiest and most comforting guess is that it's all
> a mistake (a possibility the TSA form, to its credit, allows). But how?
> I'm a 63-year-old guy with an Anglo-Saxon name. I once held a Top
> Secret Umbra clearance (don't ask what it is but it meant the FBI
> vetted me up the whazoo for months). And since I left the government in
> 1980, my life has been an open book. It shouldn't be hard for the
> government to figure out that I'm not a menace to my country.
>
> But if they do think that--I can't see how. Since 1983 I've helped lead
> the Giraffe Heroes Project, a nonprofit that moves people to stick
> their necks out for the common good. In the tradition of Gandhi, King
> and Mandela, that can include challenging public policies people think
> are unjust. But in 1990, the Project's founder and I were honored as
> "Points of Light" by the first President Bush for our work in fostering
> the health of this democracy. I've just written a book about activating
> citizens to get to work on whatever problems they care about, instead
> of sitting around complaining.
>
> I'm also engaged in international peacemaking, working with an
> organization with a distinguished 60-year record of success in places
> ranging from post-war Europe to Africa. Peacemakers must talk to all
> sides, so over the years I've met with Cambodians, Sudanese,
> Palestinians, Israelis and many others. You can't convince people to
> move toward peaceful solutions unless you understand who they are.
>
> As I said, I'm not into conspiracy theories. But I can't ignore this
> Administration's efforts to purge and punish dissenters and opponents.
> Look, for example, at current efforts to cleanse PBS and NPR of
> "anti-Administration" news. But I'm not Bill Moyers and the Giraffe
> Heroes Project is not PBS. We're a small operation working quietly to
> promote real citizenship.
>
> Whether it's a mistake or whether somebody with the power to hassle me
> really thinks I am a threat, the stark absence of due process is
> unsettling. The worst of it is that being put on a list of America's
> enemies seems to be permanent. The TSA form states: "the TSA clearance
> process will not remove a name from the Watch Lists. Instead this
> process distinguishes passengers from persons who are in fact on the
> Watch Lists by placing their names and identifying information in a
> cleared portion of the Lists" (which may or may not, the form
> continues, reduce the airport hassles).
>
> Huh? My name is on a list of real and suspected enemies of the state
> and I can't find out what I'm accused of or why, let alone defend
> myself. And I'm guilty, says my government, not just until proven
> innocent or a victim of mistaken identity--but forever.
>
> Yes, 9/11 changed a lot. Tougher internal security measures (like
> thorough screenings at airports and boundary crossings) are a dismal
> necessity. But, in protecting ourselves, we can't allow our leaders to
> continue to create a climate of fear and mistrust, to destroy our civil
> liberties and, in so doing, to change who we are as a nation. What a
> victory that would be for our enemies! And what a betrayal of real
> patriots, and to so many in the wider world who still remember this
> country as a source of inspiration and hope.
>
> I don't think it's like Germany in 1936. But look at Germany in 1930.
> Primed by National Socialist propaganda to stay fearful and angry,
> Germans in droves chose not to see the right's extreme views and
> actions as a threat to their liberties.
>
> And don't forget that frog. You know that frog. Dropped into a pot of
> boiling water, he jumps out to safety. But put into a pot of cold water
> over a steady flame, he won't realize the danger until it's too late to
> jump.
>
> So how hot does the water have to get? When the Feds can rifle through
> your library reading list? When they can intimidate journalists? When a
> government agency can keep you off airplanes without giving you a
> reason? When there's not even a pretense of due process? We're not
> talking about prisoners at Guantanamo; it's you and me. Well, after
> last week, it sure as hell is me and it could be you, next.
>
> Oh yes. Washington State just refused to renew my driver's license
> on-line, a privilege given others. I had to wait in line at the DMV
> before a computer decided I could drive home. This conspiracy theory
> debunker smells a connection to the Watch List.
>
> I know what I will do. If my name is not removed completely from the
> Watch List in 45 days I will use every resource I've got to challenge
> the government of a country that I love and have served. In all the
> press about identity theft, I find myself railing at having my identity
> as a patriot stolen--by my own government. This must not stand.
>
> John Graham is the author of Stick Your Neck Out; A Street-smart Guide
> to Creating Change in Your Community and Beyond (San Francisco:
> Berrett-Koehler, 2005). He is also President of the Giraffe Heroes
> Project www.giraffe.org and a former U.S. diplomat.
>
> (c) 2005 John Graham
>
> *********
> The Universal Declaration of Human Rights of the United Nations 
> establishes that all people have the right to self-determination and 
> national sovereignty.
>
> La Declaración de los Derechos Humanos, de las Naciones Unidas, 
> establece los principios de autodeterminación y soberanía nacional.
>
> Dana Lubow
> L.A. Valley College Library
> Valley Glen, California 91401
> (818) 947-2766
>
>
>

Al Kagan
Africana Unit, Room 328
University of Illinois Library
1408 W. Gregory Drive
Urbana, IL 61820
USA

tel. 217-333-6519
fax 217-333-2214
akagan at uiuc.edu
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