January 22, 2007

U.S. Customs Tries to Minimize Watch List Misidentifications

There are at least 300,000 names on the U.S. government's watch lists. People who are under an unenviable category of false positives are wrongly detained because some of their personal information matches that of a terrorist or other suspect. The number of misidentifications is unknown, according to government auditors, but it has caused headaches for a cross-section of travelers, including nuns, infants and members of Congress. The U.S. Customs and Border Protection agency, under the jurisdiction of the Homeland Security Department, said it was trying to remedy the problem with a system to prevent unwarranted detentions on international flights.

U.S. Agency Tries to Fix No-Fly List Mistakes, Washington Post, January 20, 2006.