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At orwellawards.com, the orwell awards website, you will find hundreds of articles about george orwell, corporate surveillance, government spying, government surveillance, corporate spying, the NSA, the NSA wiretaps program, the FBI, illegal FBI spying on Americans and FBI warrantless wiretapping, along with other government warrantless wiretapping, biometrics tracking, fingerprints, DNA databases, national ID cards, no fly lists, microchips, microchip implants and spy satellites. All of them a direct threat to our privacy and freedoms.

Now there are Over 900,000 Names on U.S. Terror Watch List

Up From Only 20 in 2001 and Doubling About Every 160 Days

According to the American Civil Liberties Union, the FBI now keeps a list of over 900,000 names belonging to known or suspected terrorists. USA Today stated that in 2007 the government's terrorist watch list had more than 755,000 names, according to a government report. Following the Sept. 11, attacks, the United States government started the watch list with only 20 names.

According to Mother Jones, "President Bush called upon every agency of government to provide his administration with the names of every so-called person of concern contained in their millions of files. Those records included not just potential terrorists, but also deadbeat dads, people wanted by the federal Marshal, and Drug Enforcement Administration suspects, among others."

"The FBI's Terrorist Screening Center manages the list, but to date the administration has failed to establish a clear, consistent methodology for government agencies to use when determining who goes on the list and who doesn't. The criteria vary widely, when they're known at all. The Central Intelligence Agency, for instance, flatly refuses to disclose its criteria for submitting a name to the list."

I don't believe that anybody has ever suggested that President Bush has a degree in advanced mathematics. However, even grade school math is enough to figure out that this list is growing so fast, 20 to 900,000 in only 7 years, that in the foreseeable future, 50% or more of the US population could end up on that list.

Do the Math:

Starting in October 2001 and ending March 1, there are 2343 days.

Starting at 20 on lets say Oct 1, 2001 and repeatedly doubling, we get:

The number 20 doubles 14 times to get to 655360, still less than the 900,000 estimated to be on the list. Divide 2343 days by 14 and you get about 167 as the number of days it takes for the database to double.

USA today says it has been growing at the rate of 200,000 names a year since 2004. Even if the rate has levelled off, this still amounts to 4 million people in 20 years.