Here’s something to think about as some of you may be heading through airport security this Thanksgiving. I followed a link to the American Civil Liberties Union site yesterday. There I learned that there are one million people on the Transportation Securities Administration’s terrorist watch list. Then follows a little quiz with some leading questions.

The answers to all the questions: false! More people than just “true terrorists” are on the list!

In fact, the terrorist watch list includes hundreds of thousands of ordinary Americans with common names like Robert Johnson and even Senator Ted Kennedy.

I’m pretty sure they’re not saying that the senator is on the terrorist watch list, but that the name “Ted Kennedy” might be on it.

Your name might be on the list, too….Yet, there is almost no disclosure about where the information is coming from, how to know if your name is on it and how to get off it.

Come on, Feds! Why won’t you provide more disclosure about who is on the terrorist watch list? Tell us who you’re watching! :)

I did very little digging and discovered that the TSA doesn’t have a terrorist watch list, and that the list they do have of people who need more “intense scrutiny” at airports contains 16,000 names, according to Homeland Security.

I don’t pretend to know all the background to this debate. Many serious discussions have and will take place about the issues with the Patriot Act, where the government gained access to private information in the name of the war on terror.

But from a superficial standpoint I have to laugh about the ACLU demanding more disclosure on a terrorist watch list. Isn’t the point of watching a suspected terrorist that they don’t know you’re watching?