Boiling Frogs Beltway Buzz: DHS-TSA Terror Watch List Includes Dead & Long-Dead US Citizens

Resilient Founding Fathers with Propensity for Resistance among One Million+ Terror Watch List Suspects!

By Sibel Edmonds STAFF WRITER

In May 2009 the Inspector General of the Justice Department found that 35% of the nominations to the Department of Homeland Security’s Terror Watch Lists were outdated, many people were not removed in a timely manner, and tens of thousands of names were placed on the list without predicate.  A September 2009 report by the Inspector General of the Department of Homeland Security found that the process for clearing innocent travelers from the list is a complete mess. Although significant, both reports failed to mention their findings on the number of names of already-dead US citizens who seem to be stuck there permanently.

Even more significantly, it’s been reported that the TSA Terror Watch List includes the names of Long-Dead but well-known and well-respected US citizens, including several members of a group collectively known as the Founding Fathers of the United States. So far, based on our former and current TSA sources, we have been able to confirm the inclusion of two such long-dead persons on at least one DHS-TSA joint Terror Watch List: Thomas Jefferson and Benjamin Franklin.

A former TSA manager and a member of National Security Whistleblowers Coalition (NSWBC) provided us with his first-hand knowledge of what he referred to as the ‘DHS-TSA Terror Watch List Black Hole’, where US citizens’ names remain ‘forever.’ According to this source:

‘The current one million plus list contains the names of many deceased US persons, since there is no working mechanism in place to remove names, whether due to mistaken inclusion or those deemed cleared later, or even those no longer alive…We are talking about the names of thousands of dead Americans who still remain on our terror watch list, and keep getting renewed! Yet they spend millions of dollars to maintain this black hole and keep it classified-secret from the public…’

The most explosive aspect of these recent reports, confirmed by three former and current government officials, was the revelation that since 2002 several well-known historical figures known as the ‘Founding Fathers’, who served our nation in various capacities, including one US President, and all that over two hundred years ago, have been on one joint DHS-TSA Terror Watch List. Through documents and several sources we have been able to confirm two such cases involving Thomas Jefferson and Benjamin Franklin.

After several attempts I was able to secure a phone interview with the current TSA Chief John Pistole by agreeing to his condition. Mr. Pistole asked me to sign an agreement pledging that I would provide him with the names of my sources who had leaked these reports and the names of the Founding Fathers currently on the DHS-TSA Terror Watch List. I complied (At the end of this article I will provide you with additional details on this fulfilled agreement), and within an hour after I faxed his office the signed and notarized agreement we began our interview:

Sibel Edmonds (S.E.): Sir, I have confirmation from three sources, but for the record I would like to receive your confirmation on the report that at least two members of the group ‘Founding Fathers’, Mr. Thomas Jefferson and Mr. Benjamin Franklin, are on one of your most comprehensive joint Terror Watch Lists.

John Pistole (J. P.): Let me first express my utter contempt for those who leak classified and highly sensitive information such as this. As you will see soon we will hold these individuals accountable for divulging sensitive national security intelligence. And to answer your question…YES. Based on solid evidence, evaluation, and subsequent investigations and reviews we have determined that those individuals, Mr. Jefferson and Mr. Franklin, pose a high-level threat to our national security. After careful review and investigation they were placed on our watch list in 2003, and have remained there since our bi-annual review still finds them to be a threat to our security.

S.E.: Could you please explain what you mean by ‘threat to our national security. I mean these individuals are revered as the founders of our democracy, our political system… architects of our nation’s Constitution. How could they possibly be perceived as a ‘threat to national security’?

J.P.: It is because whether indirectly or even unwittingly they aid and abet our enemy, who happen to be the bad, very bad terrorists. With inflammatory writings and speeches they undermine our national security and that my friend is what the terrorists are hoping for, waiting for!

S.E.: I still don’t see it, Mr. Pistole. Okay, let’s take Thomas Jefferson here. Please tell me how Mr. Jefferson can possibly aid and abet terrorists.

J.P.: Have you read this man’s preposterous writings? Have you paid attention to his shameless propaganda against the government? Just listen to this quote: “The spirit of resistance to government is so valuable on certain occasions that I wish it to be always kept alive. It will often be exercised when wrong, but better so than not to be exercised at all” This man, this anarchist, is encouraging Americans to resist us; to resist us the government, who are in charge of protecting their national security!! By making us the government the enemy of you the people, he is making the terrorists the friends of you the people. Because you the people are either with us the government or with the enemy! You understand that, Ms. Edmonds?! And while we are at it, here is another one: “And what country can preserve its liberties, if the rulers are not warned from time to time, that this people preserve the spirit of resistance? Let them take arms.” We the rulers are the protectors of your security, and this man uses his fame and name to make us the real enemy of the people??! He may as well work for the terrorists!

S.E.: Okay, let’s move to the next one. Tell us about Mr. Benjamin Franklin.

J.P.: Oh, that Franklin guy! First, he is what we despise the most. He is what his current highness Obama is determined to quash forever. Yes, he is a known leaker, a whistleblower, a proven traitor. He defied the higher power in charge of people’s security by leaking the Hutchinson Letters, thus, undermining the rulers’ government. Our regime won’t show the meekness and weakness of the Bush regime. As you can see we now arrest and jail these leakers-whistleblowers. And Franklin is not and won’t be an exception!!! Of course, there also are his inflammatory and preposterous propaganda against national security such as this: “Those who would give up essential liberty to purchase a little temporary safety, deserve neither liberty nor safety.” What kind of nonsense terrorist-abetting sh.. is this?! We have also suspicions that he may be behind this ludicrous OPT-OUT movement. I wouldn’t put it past him!! If so we’ll also issue him a $11,000 fine, and have the right to indefinitely hold him in custody…

As we approached the end of our interview I quickly asked him the following question:

S.E.: Sir, these men have been dead for over two hundred years. How can long-dead men be of any threat to our national security?!

J.P.: We haven’t found any hard-evidence, any scientific proof of their deaths; have you?! Sure, it is ‘said,’ only ‘said,’ that they in fact died. Can you, with no doubt, prove that the men inside those graves marked with the names Jefferson and Franklin are indeed the real Jefferson and Franklin? Maybe with excavation and DNA samples and …however, that doesn’t seem to be the case here. Come on, these guys were known for their resilience with a propensity for resistance. Who says they couldn’t still be alive today?! When it comes to our national security we do not take any chances, and this is NO EXCEPTION. Americans have trusted us with their security through their private parts and hard-earned dollars, and we are not about to let them down by taking chances on resilient men keen on resistance who may unwittingly and indirectly aid and abet terrorists; whether they are said-to-be-long-dead Founding Fathers or Quaker grandmothers…

S.E.: One last question, Mr. Pistole. How about Patrick Henry, John Paine…or even the US Constitution, are those all classified as terror threats and watch-list inhabitants?

J.P.: We are not going to divulge classified information, and the names of our suspects are all considered classified. As for the Constitution? Who says there is a Constitution? Last time we investigated we found it to be mythical and highly irrelevant. Now I am going to hang up and wait for your list of names, the sources you pledged to divulge.

At this point Mr. Pistole, also known as Mr. Pee-Stool, hung up. As for my list of names faxed to his office? I kept my word, and faxed him a signed paper containing the following names: John Brown, Aaron Dwight Stevens, and Mary Jenkins Surratt. They may all be long-dead men and women, but as Mr. Pistole says, these people were known to be resilient, and who can prove they are really dead!

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This piece was originally published here at Boiling Frogs Post.

Sibel Edmonds

Sibel Edmonds is the founder and publisher of Boiling Frogs Post, an online news, analysis, and weekly Podcast interview site covering select but significant blacked out stories and issues. Ms. Edmonds is also the founder and director of National Security Whistleblowers Coalition, NSWBC, a nonprofit organization dedicated to aiding national security whistleblowers. PEN American Center awarded Ms. Edmonds the 2006 PEN/Newman’s Own First Amendment Award for her “commitment to preserving the free flow of information in the United States in a time of growing international isolation and increasing government secrecy”. She is also the recipient of the 2004 Sam Adams Foundation Award. Ms. Edmonds has a MA in Public Policy and International Commerce from George Mason University, and a BA in Criminal Justice and Psychology from George Washington University. She is certified as a Court Appointed Special Advocate and as an instructor for the Women’s Domestic Violence Program. She is fluent in Turkish, Farsi and Azerbaijani.

She has appeared on national radio and TV as a commentator on matters related to whistleblowers, national security, and excessive secrecy & classification, and has been featured on CBS 60 Minutes, CNN, MSNBC, NPR, and in the New York Times, Washington Post, Vanity Fair, The American Conservative, and others.