Straight Outta Minneapolis

Are you on a terrorist watchlist? The Rake has an interesting and pretty funny investigation that will make you wonder. Along with a Gopher State focus, Joe Pastoor's article contains a nice survey of lists like the State Department's CLASS (13 million names and growing), along with a brief history of the FBI's top ten list.

In the watchlist game, it's hard to tell who's the more paranoid, the government or its citizens. For his part, [FBI Special Agent Paul] McCabe says the public is unaware of just how much the FBI has reformed over the past decade, and how much they play it by the book. Still, the feds certainly have history going against them. And it's hard to know whether to be comforted or disturbed when federal agencies open their files in the interest of the Freedom of Information Act.

Also has a notable sidebar, "10 Ways to Make Sure You'll Never Fly Again."