White House: Keep watch-list data a secret

The administration that has made transparency its top priority now wants to keep terrorist watch-list information a secret. An article in the Washington Post this week reports that the administration is working hard to keep information it routinely shares with federal, state and local agencies under wraps.

To make it stick, intelligence officials in the administration are calling for legislation that would exempt terrorist identity information from disclosure. That includes more than names, and details such as aliases, fingerprints and other biometric identifiers.

Advocacy groups maintain the secrecy would make it impossible for people improperly included on the lists to challenge the government.

"Instead of enhancing accountability, this would remove accountability one or two steps further away," said Steven Aftergood, director of the Federation of American Scientists' Project on Government Secrecy.

The administration is standing firm on this issue, but it sure will be interesting to see what happens when it ultimately winds up in court--the place where advocacy groups seem headed.

For more on the watch list:
- see this Washington Post article