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Wednesday 20 February 2019

8PM

APNewsBreak: Feds share watchlist with 1,400 private groups

By MATTHEW BARAKAT generally not shared with include only those who are
Associated Press the private sector. known or suspected terror-
FALLS CHURCH, Va. (AP) — Gadeir Abbas, a lawyer ists but contains hundreds
The federal government with the Council on Amer- of thousands of names. The
has acknowledged that it ican-Islamic Relations, government’s no-fly list is
shares its terrorist watch- which has filed a consti- culled from a small subset
list with more than 1,400 tutional challenge to the of the watchlist.
private entities, including government’s use of the The government’s admis-
hospitals and universities, watchlist, called the gov- sion comes in a class-ac-
prompting concerns from ernment’s admission shock- tion lawsuit filed in federal
civil libertarians that those ing. court in Alexandria by Mus-
mistakenly placed on the “We’ve always suspected lims who say they regularly
list could face a wide vari- there was private-sector experience difficulties in
ety of hassles in their daily dissemination of the terror travel, financial transac-
lives. watchlist, but we had no tions and interactions with
The government’s admis- idea the breadth of the law enforcement because In this Jan. 30, 2017, file photo, attorney Gadeir Abbas speaks
sion that it shares the list so dissemination would be so they have been wrongly during a news conference at the Council on American-Islamic
broadly comes after years large,” Abbas said. added to the list. The Asso- Relations (CAIR) in Washington.
of insistence that the list is The watchlist is supposed to ciated Press is the first to re- Associated Press
port on the disclosure after in court hearings, govern- It is not clear what restric-
reviewing the case docu- ment officials had denied tions are placed on how
ments. until very recently that private institutions use the
Abbas said now that the the watchlist compiled by list. The FBI did not respond
government has disclosed the FBI’s Terrorist Screen- to emails and phone calls
how many private entities ing Center is shared with seeking comment.
receive access to the Ter- private entities. At a pre- Hugh Handeyside, attorney
rorist Screening Database, trial hearing in September, with the ACLU’s National
the official name of the government lawyer Dena Security project, said the
watchlist, it now needs to Roth told U.S. District Judge government’s disclosure is
explain exactly which pri- Anthony Trenga that the “noteworthy in that it cor-
vate entities are receiving Terrorist Screening Center roborates what we’ve long
it and what they’re doing “does not work with private suspected, but it still leaves
with it. He’s asked a judge partners, and that watchlist unanswered several im-
to require the government status itself ... is considered portant questions.” He said
to be more specific. A hear- law enforcement sensi- more information is needed
ing is scheduled for Friday. tive information and is not to know how private enti-
“Are universities taking TSDB shared with the public.” ties use the information.
status into account in mak- In response to Trenga’s or- “The likelihood of stigma or
ing admission or disciplinary der, TSC Deputy Director of adverse consequences is
decisions? Are Inova Alex- Operations Timothy Groh increased” every time the
andria Hospital’s building filed a written statement government shares the list
security personnel screen- earlier this month acknowl- with a private organization,
ing visitors against the TSDB edging that 1,441 private a foreign government or
and denying entry to list- entities have received any other agency, he said.
ees? Is Motorola screening permission to access the The exact number on the
its software engineers who watchlist. Groh says those list is kept secret by the gov-
work on cellular infrastruc- private entities must be in ernment, but it acknowl-
ture equipment against some way connected to edged in an earlier lawsuit
the TSDB and firing listees? the criminal justice system. that it adds hundreds of
Plaintiffs have no idea,” Ab- He cited police forces at thousands of names to the
bas and co-counsels Lena private universities, hospital list every year. It also em-
Masri and Carolyn Homer security staff and private phasized that names are
wrote in a brief submitted correctional facilities as ex- routinely removed from the
Friday. In depositions and amples. list.q