How a Treasury Department Watchlist Ensnares Everyday Consumers as Terrorist

How a Treasury Department Watchlist Ensnares Everyday Consumers as Terrorist

www.washingtonpost.com

Private businesses such as rental and mortgage companies and car dealers are checking the names of customers against a list of suspected terrorists and drug traffickers made publicly available by the Treasury Department, sometimes denying services to ordinary people whose names are similar to those on the list.

The Office of Foreign Asset Control's list of "specially designated nationals" has long been used by banks and other financial institutions to block financial transactions of drug dealers and other criminals. But an executive order issued by President Bush after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks has expanded the list and its consequences in unforeseen ways. Businesses have used it to screen applicants for home and car loans, apartments and even exercise equipment, according to interviews and a report by the Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights of the San Francisco Bay Area to be issued today.

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www.truthout.org
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This story is beyond any Orwelian scenario. If you have any arab resembling name, just one in your whole name, you might be in trouble purchasing anything were a credit transaction is required. All due to The OFAC List, the list of "specially designated nationals" issued by the Office of Foreign Asset Control.

Read the story. If you're not, or don't want to sign up to Washington Post, use the truthout link, same story. It has horrendous examples of what can happen to people who in the 2 to 3 or 4 names we all carry, have one resembling common arab names like Mahamed, Hussein, etc.

www.washingtonpost.com
(visit the link for the full news article)

Now we must consider the "domestic terrorist threat" as well. Soon you will see names of all sorts popping up on lists like these. I wonder how many Jim Jones and Tim McVeigh's are out there. And how about if a John Doe blows something up?

Before you know it, no one will be able to buy anything, or go anywhere, without having all the red-tape cleared up with the "new foolproof DNA DataScan underskin insert."

[edit on 3/1/0808 by jackinthebox]

This is how the government is going to take care of the dissenters in America, going against the government will render you in the terrorist list accidentally.

Want to protest the government? you may find yourself in the littler black list, oops I forgot Nixon had one of those at one time.

Yes this is what is becoming of our nation.

but is all good because is for you own good.

Let me take this chance to bring the attention to a paper by Zbigniew Brzezinski, originally published by WP nearly a year ago.

It's about How a three-word mantra has undermined America.

Terrorized by "War on Terror"

The culture of fear is like a genie that has been let out of its bottle. It acquires a life of its own - and can become demoralizing. America today is not the self-confident and determined nation that responded to Pearl Harbor; nor is it the America that heard from its leader, at another moment of crisis, the powerful words "the only thing we have to fear is fear itself"; nor is it the calm America that waged the Cold War with quiet persistence despite the knowledge that a real war could be initiated abruptly within minutes and prompt the death of 100 million Americans within just a few hours. We are now divided, uncertain and potentially very susceptible to panic in the event of another terrorist act in the United States itself.

[---]

That America has become insecure and more paranoid is hardly debatable. A recent study reported that in 2003, Congress identified 160 sites as potentially important national targets for would-be terrorists. With lobbyists weighing in, by the end of that year the list had grown to 1,849; by the end of 2004, to 28,360; by 2005, to 77,769. The national database of possible targets now has some 300,000 items in it, including the Sears Tower in Chicago and an Illinois Apple and Pork Festival.

Just wanna say the same expotential growth is happening on any list connected terror or terrorists.

reply to post by khunmoon


The "Culture of Fear" runs the world. Look at the MSM. Virtually very news item stresses the fear factor. Marketers and Advertisers use FEAR as their biggest weapon.

Tune into the 11:00 news tonight to see what "they" are putting in your childrens' cereal.
or
Tune in tonight to see what criminal is on the loose in your neighborhood.

Sell all your stocks, because a depression is coming.
or
You'd better stock up on bottled water (on special at $3.99 a gallon in aisle 7)
or
You'd better get down to the store today in the next hour before all of the snowshovels are gone.
or
.....the list goes on.
Once you realize that it is happening, you need not fear again.

Whenever you hear a news item, or an ad, stop and ask yourself, "where is the fear factor in this item?"
The truth shall set you free.

Oh, I'm quite aware of the fear mongering in the news.

I think it's funny actually. How other people can actually believe what is being said enough to literally be scared is beyond me.

My girlfriend came back from work today after I did, I was watching the news... she asked what I was up to, and I responded "Watching the propaganda."
To which she quickly responded, "Ah, is Bush talking again? Or is it just another terror threat?"

I love her.

Point is, when it becomes so commonplace that the simple reference to propaganda triggers thoughts of Bush and Terror... you start to realize that the terrorists already won this battle, about 6 years ago.

Jack, great button. Where did you get it?