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BY KERRY LEARY

You’re watching multisource US video news analysis from Newsy.


So, you’re worried about being on Santa’s naughty or nice list? Some have a more important list to worry about being on- even if they’re innocent.

The New York Times’s Charlie Savage broke the story.

“The Federal Bureau of Investigation is permitted to include people on the government’s terrorist watch list even if they have been acquitted of terrorism-related offenses or the charges are dropped, according to newly released documents.”

The FBI’s guidelines were released under the Freedom of Information Act. It covers everything from the guidelines for being put on the list, to how security personnel should react when encountering someone with “the scarlet letter.”

That has some civil rights advocates up in arms. Fox News quotes a counsel at the Electronic Privacy Information Center -- the organization who actually made the FOIA request.

“In the United States, you are supposed to be assumed innocent. But on the watch list, you may be assumed guilty, even after the court dismisses your case.”

The list is made up of more than 400 thousand people - eight thousand are Americans. So how does one exactly get on this list? The Examiner simplified the requirements:

“Ever attracted suspicion? Ever met someone on the paranoid side who might find your actions suspicious? … Ever jilted a lover? According to those protecting the Fatherland, these situations are sufficient enough to be targeted and kept on a watch list no matter what.”

That’s obviously a major oversimplification -- but The Voice of Russia suggests the list raises red flags about the increasing power of the FBI.

“...Big Brother is watching fellow citizens and all those who enter the U.S. domain. But it seems to be only a matter of time when an FBI-like structure acquires a global standing and Big Brother becomes omnipresent.”

But on MSNBC, Peter Williams reports, the FBI’s side of the story isn’t that simple. And the FBI says people don’t stay on the list willy-nilly.

“The FBI says the standard for a criminal trial of guilty beyond a reasonable doubt is different and shouldn't be the threshold for putting somebody on the terrorism database. In other words, the FBI says somebody could be found not guilty because evidence was improperly obtained for example. But that would not end the suspicion about possible terrorist activity.”

Being on the terror watch list makes things a little more difficult - it doesn’t allow non-citizens to enter the country or to fly on planes. The moral of the story? Stay on Santa’s good side. 



Transcript by Newsy.