U.S. Citizens Question Terror Watch Lists

"No-Fly" And "No-Drive" Lists Hold Up Americans Crossing The Nation's Borders

(CBS)  From CBS News correspondent Cynthia Bowers and Producer Phil Hirschkorn.

Toledo, Ohio native Zak Reed is tired of being stopped and detained at the Canadian border every time he tries to drive home.

"I don't feel very welcome in my home at all," Reed tells CBS News. "In fact, I feel like I am not wanted in my country any more."

Last month, for the ninth time in the past year, Reed was held in custody during a routine border crossing across Detroit's Ambassador Bridge, en route to Toledo, about an hour from there. The procedure has become a familiar drill for Reed.

"They swipe the passport, they double take at the screen," Reed says. "They make a phone call. They open up the window, the car is surrounded, and off I go."

Held in a small building to the side of the bridge's toll booths, Reed is fingerprinted, photographed, and interrogated. Guards from U.S. Customs and Border Protection quiz him about his travels, his religious faith, or about whether he sends money overseas.

"I am told that they don't have the authority to tell me what's wrong. They're just doing their job," Reed says.

Reed may be one of the 300,000 people - or close to 800,000 names, including aliases - on the nation's consolidated Terrorism Watch List administered by the Department of Homeland Security since December 2003. The names, from 22 component agencies, have quadrupled in the past four years, and DHS won't confirm who is or isn't on the list.

Leonard Boyle, the Director of the Terrorist Screening Center, told a congressional hearing last month that during the past year, 269 foreigners were denied entry into the U.S. because of the watch list.

According to the Justice Department, only about five-percent of the individuals in the database are U.S. citizens like Reed. During the past year, more than eight million cars and drivers were stopped for secondary security screenings while crossing the Canadian or Mexican borders into the U.S. That's 14 percent of cars crossing from Canada and five percent from Mexico, and the percentage of trucks and buses stopped is significantly higher. By comparison, only four percent of airline passengers undergo secondary screenings.

The irony for Reed seeming to be classified as a homeland security risk is that he is a part of his city's homeland security plan. Reed, 41, is a firefighter for more than a decade whose helmet is graced by a memorial sticker in honor of the 343 New York firefighters who perished in the September 11, 2001, attack on the World Trade Center. Reed also served 20 years in the Ohio's National Guard.

Typically wearing jeans and a T-shirt, Reed, who stands six-foot three with light brown hair and blue eyes, was born Edward Eugene Reed, the son of a U.S. Navy veteran, and raised a Lutheran. When he converted to Islam ten years ago, he changed his name to Zakariya Muhammad Reed. His religion, Reeds believes, could be at the root of the problem.

"There's been a growing trend towards fear and loathing toward Islam and Muslims in this country for a long time. Certainly, we are treated as second class citizens," Reed says.

He travels regularly to Toronto with his wife and two sons to visit his in-laws. Sometimes they take two cars to avoid the whole family being detained during the border stops. "It's terrifying. My wife is in tears most of the time," Reed says.

While Reed and a handful of others are going public with their border ordeals, advocacy groups like the Arab-American Discrimination Committee (ADC), the Arab Community Center for Economic and Social Services (ACCESS), and the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) says they know of dozens of other examples.

The American Civil Liberties union (ACLU) is now spearheading a class action lawsuit in federal court with nine plaintiffs, all U.S. citizens, who've been stopped while driving home from Canada.

Illinois native Akif Rahman, 34, a Muslim, who runs a computer consulting firm outside Chicago, is the lead plaintiff in the suit, Rahman v. Chertoff, now winding its way through federal courts.

In May 2005, returning from a visit to relatives in Canada, Rahman was stopped by U.S. border guards at Detroit's Windsor Tunnel. They escorted him from his car and detained him for six hours, separating him from his wife and two children, who were with him.

"I was handcuffed to a chair for three hours. I was guarded for the full duration I was there," Rahman tells CBS News. "And asked a series of questions about whether I knew any of the 9/11 hijackers, whether I knew anything about terrorism funding." He did not.

Rahman had previously been detained three times while trying to fly international flights back to the U.S. In response to a letter of complaint, the Department of Homeland Security wrote back to Rahman that his difficulties had resulted from an "unfortunate misidentification scenario."

"Didn't tell me why I was handcuffed, didn't tell me why I was detained, didn't tell me why I was set free," Rahman says. "They should be able to know, based on my passport number or my name or my certain identification, I am who I am, and I am not someone they need to be concerned about."

ACLU attorney Harvey Grossman is leading the litigation in the Rahman case. "The fact that they're always allowed to go home, we know they don't pose the kind of threat that the government suggests in the manner in which they treat them," Grossman says.

Earlier this year, DHS established the Travelers Redress Inquiry Program (TRIP), an internet-based tool for people to submit complaints about screening or misidentification problems. To date, the department has received nearly 16,000 inquires and has responded to half of them. Kathleen Kraninger, DHS's Director of Screening Coordination, told the House of Representatives Homeland Security Committee that DHS's goal is to clear people who are wrongly listed within 30 days, but currently it is taking, on average, 44 days to clear the innocent.

A bill currently before Congress would require DHS to maintain a comprehensive "cleared" list and distribute it to federal, state, and local law enforcement agencies so that once a person is cleared, they're no longer stopped at the border crossings by mistake.

"I hope, first of all, that there is a process put into place for people like me who have been mistakenly identified to be taken off that list or not repeatedly be detained," Rahman says. "I have nothing to hide. I know I haven't done anything wrong."

[watcher269-2009]

It is rumored that Bush and Cheney were overheard once stating that, "they want cops and the military on every corner asking people for their papers in order to stop and round up all these terrorists out there who don''t believe in their cause".

Sound familiar. Probably not to most americans under their pathetic educational system.

Papers Please!

Next thing you know the muslims will have to wear the star of david to identify themselves like the jews did under Hitler - heeheehee.

[gogam]

Well why wasn''t the mass murdering idiot from Omaha on their WATCH list? If they were so keen on having everyone who was suspicious --they would have caught him before he took those innocent lives. Talk about stupid priorities.

[ericmichael1]

A necessary evil since 9-11. But those who have common names on the list or improperly added should have a speedy appeals system that permanently takes their name off the list or that gives them a free official pass that allows them to travel.

Eric

[nativewoman]

Posted by Xlib at 01:01 AM : Dec 09, 2007

The 19 9/11 hijackers entered the US on legal visas although 3 of the 19 had overstayed their visas by 9/11. Those legal entry documents were really effective in stopping 9/11 weren''t they?

Educate yourself. While passports are not currently required to enter from Canada, they will be required in 2008.

http://travel.state.gov/travel/cbpmc/cbpmc_2223.html

JANUARY 31, 2008
U.S. and Canadian citizens will need to present either a WHTI-compliant document, or a government-issued photo ID, such as a driver%u2019s license, plus proof of citizenship, such as a birth certificate. DHS also proposes to begin alternative procedures for U.S. and Canadian children at that time.


SUMMER 2008
At a later date, to be determined, the departments will implement the full requirements of the land and sea phase of WHTI. The proposed rules require most U.S. citizens entering the United States at sea or land ports of entry to have either a U.S. passport; a U.S. passport card; a trusted traveler card such as NEXUS, FAST, or SENTRI; a valid Merchant Mariner Document (MMD) when traveling in conjunction with official maritime business; or a valid U.S. Military identification card when traveling on official orders.

[brianbwb-2009]

Please explain to me why it should be punishable by death to name a teddy bear Muhammad, but any a$$hole can name himself Muhammad at any point in his life.
Posted by downtowner97

Doesn''t need any explanation, that is how they choose to live, and if you go to Rome, do as the Romans do.

There are people who like to smoke pot, but if they do it in the US, they can go to jail. This is how those who control us have made it, and we choose to accept it...

[ibnkhaldun]

I think the writers of this story, as well as the story that appeared on TV, need to be clearer as to which border the man is being stopped at. As is incorrectly stated in the opening sentence,he is not being detained at the Canadian border, he is being detained at the US border. He had already left Canadian jurisdiction when detained, the Canadian''s have nothing to do with this story. Whether this mistake on the part of CBS was purely ignorance of the correct terminolgy regarding border crossing or intentional to deflect blame to a Canada is unclear (blame Canada!!). Neither is forgivable by a major network (or a minor one for that matter).

[missingamerica]

Just from a strictly practical perspective, if Homeland Security is admitting that there may be as many as 300,000 suspected terrorists transiting our borders - many of them apparently living in the United States - then they have failed at their job most miserably.

By the way - how many Army divisions is that?

Hope those 300,000 people who are deemed to be de facto terrorists don''t all get mad at once!

[downtowner97]

Please explain to me why it should be punishable by death to name a teddy bear Muhammad, but any a$$hole can name himself Muhammad at any point in his life.

[mh4cbs1]

brianbwb:

Absolutely!

It is incredible that people can still support this NeoCon Nightmare being waged on our democracy and on the middle class citizens of our nation. Just shows you how Hitler came to power: FEAR (remember the fake color-coded terror alerts, the "mushroom" clouds the fake Al Qaeada links to Saddam, the fake Niger uranium, aluminum tubes, bio-mobile labs...) and 2) Authroitarian Leadership - the fake tough-guy cowboy image "War President (reality being a spoiled privileged brat, a draft-dodging chickhawk!)

Enough is enough! We need to end the NeoCon Nightmare and restore our democracy. To be informed and to seek justice also means to want impeachment and jail time for Cheney and Bush

[brianbwb-2009]

I travel internationally. My opposition to Bush''s policies, and my calls for his impeachment, arrest, and trial for war crimes and crimes against humanity have appeared on postings on many of these news sites for years. I am unapologetic, and have even grown stronger in my belief that Bush, as Hitler was, is a sick figurehead of a dangerous group that must be stopped.

Having said that, I am not a terrorist, and if my name appears on such a list, and my travel is hindered because of it, my lawyers will demand proof of any reason that I might be on such a list, and when the proof is found to be non existent, false, or simply based on racial profiling, My settle out of court price will be $250 million minimum, plus all attorneys'' fees. If it goes to court, it will be a jury trial, and not in some neocon white enclave like Simi Valley.

Fair warning.