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Article: DON'T PANIC OVER FEDERAL WATCH LIST.(Opinion/Commentary/Editorial)
- Article from:
- Rocky Mountain News (Denver, CO)
- Article date:
- September 18, 2003
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2003 Rocky Mountain News. All rights reserved. Reproduced with the permission of Dialog LLC by Gale Group. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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Although many privacy advocates, civil libertarians and foes of big government will undoubtedly have deep reservations, the creation of a unified national terrorist ``watch list'' is both inevitable and necessary.
Nine federal agencies already keep 12 such lists, and this will just consolidate them, if the bugs can be worked out, into a single, instantly accessible database maintained by the FBI. Backers of the watch list say that if it had been in operation before Sept. 11, 2001, at least two of the suicide hijackers would likely have been nabbed.
The database would include not only known and suspected terrorists but the list of felons and fugitives ...