FBI documents reveal previously confidential process
(NEWSER) - Newly released FBI documents reveal just how hard it is to get off the US government’s terrorist watch list once you’re on it, reports the New York Times in a look into the list's inner workings. Though agents are typically instructed to remove a person’s name if the investigation is closed with no charges, if the person is acquitted, or if charges are dropped, the FBI is allowed to keep such a person on the list if it still has “reasonable suspicion” that he or she poses a national security risk. “In the United States, you are supposed to be assumed innocent,” says a counsel at the Electronic Privacy Information Center. “But on the watch list, you may be assumed guilty, even after the court dismisses your case.” More»