Former Top Criminal Prosecutor on Terrorism Watch List

Terrorism

Former Top Criminal Prosecutor on Terrorism Watch List

Posted Jul 15, 2008, 06:43 am CDT
By Debra Cassens Weiss

Jim Robinson oversaw the Justice Department’s criminal division during the Clinton administration, but that didn’t stop his name from ending up on the government’s terrorism watch list.

Robinson says he is often delayed at airports because his name is mistakenly on the list, and he suspects he’s not the only one, the Associated Press reports. "I expect my story is similar to hundreds of thousands of people who are on this list who find themselves inconvenienced,” he said.

Robinson is joining the American Civil Liberties Union in calling on the government to fix the list.

The ACLU is seeking changes that include a right to access and challenge data that led to placement on the list, strict criteria for adding names to the list, and rigorous procedures for updating and cleaning up the list, according to a press release.

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Posted by kay sieverding - 1 month, 3 weeks, 3 days, 12 hours, 39 minutes ago

It seems that Joe McCarthy has returned. Americans even get put in jail without a criminal conviction or even a criminal charge.
Posted by J.D. - 1 month, 3 weeks, 3 days, 11 hours, 40 minutes ago

It was a mistake. Government has always been incompetent.

The feds shouldn’t run our health care system either.
Posted by Alice - 1 month, 3 weeks, 3 days, 8 hours, 30 minutes ago

there must be a LOT of people with the name of Jim or James Robinson who might need to be watched. Here is an example of when it is good to have an unusual name.
Posted by Sharky McFingerson Esq, III - 1 month, 3 weeks, 17 hours, 36 minutes ago

Thanks, Alice! Next time I’m born I’ll make sure to be given a weirded name than this one!
Posted by Andy the Lawyer - 1 month, 3 weeks, 10 hours, 41 minutes ago

J.D. is mistaken. Government does many things reasonably well (e.g. the National Institutes of Health, highway construction, business and securities regulation) when adequately funded and not primarily motivated by short term political considerations.

I’m always amused by those who disdain big government, and am reminded of P.J. O’Rourke’s classic truism: “Republicans spend all their time complaining that government doesn’t work—and then they get elected and prove it.”
Posted by Ha - 1 month, 3 weeks, 8 hours, 15 minutes ago

Sharky you so crazy…
Posted by Jimmy Biggs - 1 month, 3 weeks, 6 hours, 22 minutes ago

Republicans do not have a corner on the “screwing up government” market. Democrats are equally as adept at it.
Posted by JR - 1 month, 2 weeks, 5 days, 1 hour, 41 minutes ago

On big government Thomas Payne said it best - “no government is good government.”

The examples Andy sites he must not have personal experience with. Lest we forget the same army corps of engineers involved in highways is the one famous for its brilliant work in New Orleans a few years ago. And if you think Sarbanes Oxley is a good thing you obviously haven’t had to pull several millions out of shareholders pockets in order to bureucratize what you should have been doing (and may well have) in the first place. In certain situations like the environment or health, government may be the only solution but it isn’t good at it.

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