State secrecy conceals how watchlist names get selected

Evidence

The Muslim men I interviewed all shared the same experience of U.S. airports. Their Muslim names mark them as violent and dangerous to the state, and their bodies were consequently treated with scrutiny. The government maintains secrecy regarding the procedures for these lists, making it difficult to know how names are selected or why one actually appears on the lists. None of the Muslim American men interviewed exhibited travel behaviors that might raise suspicion of involvement in terrorism. They are ordinary American citizens who are routinely humiliated in airports on the basis of their Muslim identity. Muslim men are subjected to the Orientalist stereotype that they are incapable of loyalty to the United States (even when it is their country of origin), which strips them of the basic privileges associated with citizenship. The utilization of the Selectee List is one of the ways airports have become a racial terrain where some bodies are criminalized and scrutinized through hypersurveillance. — , Selod, Saher - Forever Suspect_…, 283

Categorization

• XREF: The ‘racial terrain’ framing and Orientalist stereotype link directly to the ‘Inventing the Muslim Enemy’ thread — the state’s discretionary, secret list gives the Orientalist template its enforcement arm. — connects to: Secrecy about surveillance lists creates chronic uncertainty and vulnerability for Muslim citizens — , Selod, Saher - Forever Suspect_…, 276
• recurring: this claim recurs 2 times within its source

Related

• The Selectee List turns airports into racialized surveillance terrain. (similarity 0.87)
• Named Muslim men on the Selectee List endure stacked layers of airport checks (similarity 0.83)
• Secrecy about surveillance lists creates chronic uncertainty and vulnerability for Muslim citizens (similarity 0.82)
• Undisclosed watchlist status keeps citizens in permanent uncertainty and vulnerability (similarity 0.82)
• Muslim men are placed on TSA lists based on name similarity to suspected terrorists. (similarity 0.81)
• TSA agents themselves disclosed watchlist status to Muslim passengers (similarity 0.81)
• Selectee List status imposes layered redundant security checks on Muslim men. (similarity 0.80)
• Listed Muslim travelers are routinely pulled for pat-downs at airport checkpoints (similarity 0.80)
• TSA terror databases hold about one hundred thousand to one million names (similarity 0.80)
• Airport profiling of Muslims is systemic and state-institutionalized rather than random (similarity 0.79)
• The watchlist database skews heavily toward Arab and Muslim Americans. (similarity 0.79)
• The Terrorist Screening Database’s inclusion criteria are secret and skew toward Arab names (similarity 0.79)
• TSA Selectee List status subjects Muslim men to repeated layers of airport interrogation (similarity 0.79)
• Government watchlists target Muslim men for extra airport security (similarity 0.79)
• Airport profiling targets Muslims as a religious class, not any specific nationality (similarity 0.78)