Clevelandplaindealer.com 6/10/11

 

When a U.S. citizen is arrested, that person has the right to a lawyer and to learn what crime he or she is suspected of committing. But when a citizen is handcuffed at the border, questioned for 2 1/2 hours without an attorney and her car is secretly searched -- all because her name appears, apparently erroneously, on a terrorist watch list -- such rights seem to evaporate.

 

At least, that's what Julia Shearson, a Muslim activist and executive director of the Cleveland office of the Council on American Islamic Relations, says she discovered in 2006 on her way back from Canada.

 

Even after the government acknowledged its mistake by releasing her, it would not say how Shearson got on the watch list or whether the growing complexity of the Automated Targeting System computer program used to track and rank terrorist threats was contributing to errors. Nor could Shearson figure out how to get her name off the list -- or, possibly, lists.

 

Yes, all travelers understand that they face added scrutiny because of the need for vigilance after 9/11. One of the lessons of the terrorist attacks was that stove-piped intelligence kept agencies from sharing names widely enough to track potential terrorist threats effectively. That's led to watch lists.

 

Still, those erroneously listed should be able to learn why, and to clear their names.

 

Working at first on her own and then with some pro bono lawyers, Shearson has sued the U.S. Department of Homeland Security for damages, alleging that her rights were violated because she hasn't been able to see or respond to the records upon which her watch listing was based. She won a major legal victory this April when the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals agreed to let the case proceed to trial.

 

To protect the integrity of the watch lists -- and to make sure they don't turn into "witch hunt" lists -- Shearson and others erroneously detained should be able to learn why they've been listed.