High TIDE...Holy book riot, Batman!...Republicans eating their own

Good Morning!

Is your name on the terrorist database list? You never know....

The government maintains a huge database called Terrorist Identities Datamart Environment (TIDE) that is a central storehouse for every bit of terrorism-related information that it receives. This is the source of the infamous no-fly list. I'm certain each and every one of us liberal bloggers is on it somewhere. But here's the kicker....so much data is coming in now, seeing that so many people, places, and things have been declared "enemies of the state" that the administrators of the database are having problems keeping up with it.

...Ballooning from fewer than 100,000 files in 2003 to about 435,000 today, the growing database threatens to overwhelm the people who manage it.

"The single biggest worry that I have is long-term quality control," said Russ Travers, in charge of TIDE at the National Counterterrorism Center in McLean, Va. "Where am I going to be, where is my successor going to be, five years down the road?"

TIDE has also created concerns about secrecy, errors, and privacy. The list marks the first time foreigners and US citizens are combined in an intelligence database. The bar for inclusion is low, and once a person is on the list, it is virtually impossible to get off. At any stage, the process can lead to "horror stories" of mixed-up names and unconfirmed information, Travers acknowledged.

The watch lists fed by TIDE, used to monitor everyone entering the country or having even a casual encounter with federal, state, and local law enforcement, have a higher bar.

But they have become a source of irritation, and potentially more serious consequences, for many US citizens and visitors.

In 2004 and 2005, misidentifications accounted for about half of the tens of thousands of times a traveler's name triggered a watch-list hit, the Government Accountability Office reported in September. Congressional committees have criticized the process, some charging that it collects too much information about Americans, others saying it is ineffective against terrorists. Civil rights and privacy groups have called for increased transparency.

"How many are on the lists, how are they compiled, how is the information used, how do they verify it?" asked Lillie Coney, associate director of the Washington-based Electronic Privacy Information Center. Such information is classified, and individuals barred from traveling are not told why.

Senator Ted Stevens, Republican of Alaska, complained last year that his wife had been delayed repeatedly while airlines queried whether Catherine Stevens was the watch-listed Cat Stevens. The listing referred to the Britain-based pop singer who converted to Islam and changed his name to Yusuf Islam. The reason Islam is not allowed to fly is secret.

So is the reason why Maher Arar, a Syrian-born Canadian, remains on the State Department's consular watch list.

Detained in New York while en route to Montreal in 2002, Arar was sent by the US government to a year of imprisonment in Syria. Canada, the source of the initial information about Arar, cleared him of all terrorism allegations last September -- three years after his release -- and has since authorized $9 million in compensation.

TIDE is a vacuum cleaner for both proven and unproven information, and its managers disclaim responsibility for how other agencies use the data.

"What's the alternative?" Travers asked. "I work under the assumption that we're never going to have perfect information -- fingerprints, DNA -- on 6 billion people across the planet. . . . If someone actually has a better idea, I'm all ears."

A bit of an unusual story coming from Yemen this morning. Perhaps this serves to illustrate the intrinsic differences between Islam and other 'western' religions. If you were mad at a Christian, would you throw a bible to the floor to see what he would do? Apparently, that starts a riot in an Islamic country if you do that with a Quran.

Violence between local and foreign workers at a gas plant in southern Yemen has left at least four Yemenis and a French employee of an energy company injured.

Early reports said fighting began after a French employee at the natural gas liquefaction plant threw a copy of the Quran, Islam's holy book, onto the ground during an argument on Sunday.

As word of the incident spread, hundreds of workers rioted, damaging a gas export terminal under construction and setting fire to vehicles, security sources said.

Calm was only restored once soldiers from the Yemeni army arrrived, backed by tanks.

"After a fight between a French engineer and another who is Yemeni, the Frenchman - to enrage the Yemeni - threw a Quran on the floor in an offensive way," AFP reported one official as saying.

Yemeni employees then reacted by attacking the French employee and setting fire to a helicopter and a large number of vehicles inside the plant site, an officials said.

The rioters allegedly tried to attack expatriate workers in their camp inside the plant site but were pushed back by Yemeni troops who arrived with tanks and armored vehicles to contain the violence and restore calm.

The LNG plant, in the coastal city of Balhaf, is being constructed by Yemen LNG, which is partly owned by the Yemeni government and partly by France's Total energy company.

Yemen LNG confirmed the clashes took place in a press release, but did not report any injuries, only "undefined damage".

Lastly this morning...signs that all hope is not lost in Washington. There's a new voice bandying about the "I"-word....Senator Chuck Hagel, (R-NE)

WASHINGTON -- A prominent Republican lawmaker charged yesterday that President Bush has adopted a go-it-alone approach on Iraq that is flouting the will of the public and Congress, where he said some members are considering impeachment an option.

Senator Chuck Hagel of Nebraska, a member of the Foreign Relations Committee and a frequent GOP critic of the war, stopped short of calling for Bush's impeachment. But he made clear that some lawmakers viewed that as an option should Bush choose to push ahead despite public sentiment against the war.

Meanwhile, Senator Trent Lott of Mississippi, the Senate's number two Republican leader, harshly criticized House Democrats for setting an "artificial date" for withdrawing troops from Iraq and said he believes Republicans have enough votes to prevent passage of a similar bill in the Senate.

"We need to put that kind of decision in the hands of our commanders. . . . For Congress to impose an artificial date of any kind is totally irresponsible," Lott said on "Fox News Sunday."

Hagel, who is considering a 2008 presidential run, said on ABC's "This Week" that there are ways for Congress to deal with "any president who says, 'I don't care,' or 'I will not respond to what the people of this country are saying about Iraq or anything else.' "

"This is not a monarchy," he added, referring to the possibility that some lawmakers may seek impeachment. "There are ways to deal with it."

So...interesting things out and about in the world today. Do pay attention...you never know what may happen.