325,000 Names on U.S. Terror Suspect List: Report

by JoAnne Allen for Reuters - Wednesday, February 15, 2006

WASHINGTON - A government database of alleged international terrorism suspects or associates includes 325,000 names, four times more than when the central list was created in 2003, The Washington Post reported on Wednesday, citing counterterrorism officials. The list maintained by the National Counterterrorism Center, or NCTC, contains far more names in a single government database than has previously been disclosed, the newspaper said.

But the report cited NCTC officials as saying the true number of individuals listed is estimated to be more than 200,000 because the same person may show up under different spellings or aliases. A NCTC official, speaking on condition of anonymity told the newspaper that the vast majority of those listed are "non-U.S. persons and do not live in the U.S." The report quoted an administration official, who asked not to be identified, as saying that "only a very, very small fraction" of those named were U.S. citizens.

The NCTC name repository began under its predecessor agency in 2003 with 75,000 names, The Washington Post said. The Post reported that civil liberties advocates and privacy experts expressed surprise over the size of the NCTC database and said it heightened concerns that large numbers of innocent people may be included on government terrorism lists. The NCTC database is a compilation of reports supplied by the CIA, the FBI, the National Security Agency and other agencies, the report said. The newspaper said officials refused to say how many names on the list were linked to the NSA's controversial domestic eavesdropping program.