Feds' flawed watch lists invite abuse of rights

It is beyond unfathomable that we live in what is supposed to be a free, constitutional republic, but government is allowed to secretly put citizens' names on a secret, flawed terrorist watchlist for secret reasons never revealed.

What made me think of that is the U.S. Senate's rejection of knee-jerk gun-control legislation before the smoke cleared from the unspeakable June 12 mass murder in Orlando by a killer claiming allegiance to the Islamic State. The votes made it crystal clear the political left, and, unfortunately, one or two on the right, believes gun control — despite untold numbers of such laws on the books — trumps constitutional safeguards.

None of the four measures was expected to pass — the Senate rejected similar legislation after last year's San Bernardino, California terrorist attacks – but two of the votes make the point the U.S. Constitution is secondary to the Democrats' gun control agenda.

The measures were offered last week as amendments to HR 2578, an appropriations bill. Two of them, Republican and Democrat proposals to expand background checks for gun purchases, failed to reach the 60 votes necessary for cloture.

The votes that caught my eye were the Republican and Democrat offerings to bar suspected "terrorists" from buying guns. Each was based on the secret, consolidated federal Terrorist Screening Database, or terrorism watchlist administered by the FBI. It would have assumed a larger role in the National Instant Check System for gun sales by licensed dealers if either amendment had passed.

The American Civil Liberties Union, which once called a subset of that list, the no-fly list, "Kafkaesque," opposed both amendments, saying the nation's watchlisting system "is error-prone and unreliable because it uses vague and overbroad criteria and secret evidence to place individuals on blacklists without a meaningful process to correct government error and clear their names."

The Republican amendment by GOP Sen. John Cornyn of Texas would have allowed the government to delay a gun sale to a suspected terrorist for 72 hours. Prosecutors would have that time to prove probable cause to a judge to block the sale permanently. It failed to reach cloture, 53 to 47, mostly along party lines.

Democrats, in blocking cloture, voted to strip due process from any gun buyers unlucky enough to find themselves on, say, the no-fly list — a list The New York Times, in a blistering 2014 editorial, described as "a violation of basic rights" and unsuitable for a "democratic society premised on due process."

The final vote was on California Democratic Sen. Dianne Feinstein's broader amendment to bar people on a terrorism watchlist or anybody suspected of presenting "a threat to public safety" from buying guns. Period. No judge. No due process. Obama's Justice Department endorsed the amendment. It failed, 47-53, mostly along party lines.

The largest impediment to using watchlists to block gun buyers should be that the lists have more holes in them than a Hillary Clinton denial.

It is easy to get on them. Maybe you posted something weird on Facebook. Or somebody called police about you. Or your ex decided to have fun. Or your name is close to that of a bad guy's. It could happen. Yusuf Islam, known formerly as Cat Stevens, was denied entry into the U.S. and forced to return to the U.K. Or the late Sen. Ted Kennedy. Or Georgia Democrat Rep. John Lewis, who now, inexplicably, is pushing to have watchlists used for gun purchases.

All made the no-fly list, along with hundreds of others. Babies. Reporters. Businessmen. Teachers. All trapped in the web. There are a lot of them.

That consolidated, secret overall blacklist slapped together using a dozen or so watchlists after the 9/11 attacks is estimated to contain more than 1 million names today. The no-fly list? Perhaps 7,000 citizens, maybe more, along with permanent legal residents. But who really knows how many are caught in the expansive spiderweb of terror watchlists — or for what?

In the wake of the Senate's action, Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, and members of both parties have crafted a compromise. It would deny gun sales to people on the no-fly list and the "selectee" list calling for more scrutiny at airports. It would allow a court appeal and require notification of law enforcement if someone trying to buy a gun was listed on broader terrorism watchlists within the past five years.

Would that make us safer? You decide. How safe can we really be in a free, constitutional republic where the government secretly puts citizens' names on a secret, flawed terrorist watchlist for secret reasons never revealed.

How safe, indeed?

Paul Jenkins is editor of the AnchorageDailyPlanet.com, a division of Porcaro Communications.

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