US: Lawsuit claims Muslims are unfairly on terrorist watch list

A lawsuit filed last week claims that thousands of Muslim Americans, among them a 4-year old, have been unfairly put on a federal watch list designed to screen potential terrorists. The class-action complaint criticizes the Terrorist Screening Database, a list of about 1.5m people overseen by the FBI's Terrorist Screening Center. It's one of several lawsuits that have been filed in recent years challenging the list, saying that it's unconstitutional in how it's compiled and used. The lawsuit was filed by the Michigan chapter of the Council on American-Islamic two Michigan lawyers and an attorney in Washington against the FBI center and other federal agencies. More than half the 18 plaintiffs listed in the complaint live in southeastern Michigan. "Our federal government is imposing an injustice of historic proportions upon ... thousands," says the lawsuit filed Tuesday in US District Court in the Eastern District of Virginia, which is where the list is compiled. "Through extra-judicial and secret means, the federal government is ensnaring individuals. ... The secret federal watch list is the product of bigotry and misguided, counterproductive zeal." In addition to being unable to fly in some cases, Muslims are being jailed, interrogated and threatened by federal agents, the lawsuit alleges. In other cases, FBI agents pressure people on the list to become informants if they want to get off the list, the complaint says. Another problem is the lack of redress, with many Muslims unable to get off the list and unsure how they got on it, plaintiffs said.<br/>