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Terror alerts by Muslim names
 Any person with the first, middle or last name of Muhammad automatically gets into the Terrorist Identities Datamart Environment (TIDE) in the Homeland Security Administration/FBIs database as a potential or possible terrorism suspect. When a person with such a name travels, he is subjected to special scrutiny. A letter from Brigid Starkey of Catonsville, Maryland, in the Washington Post this week said, My son proudly carried his grandfathers name, Reza, as his middle name. Will this cost him opportunities or cause him embarrassment in the future? How about his friend Ali, a girl of Italian heritage whose nickname is short for Allensandra? She wrote that every American of ethnicity and faith should see this as a wake up call. She noted that entry on the lists of potential suspects maintained in US security agency databases could occur simply because a person had a middle name such as Muhammad, a name as common as Mike or John. We must end the witch-hunt that is ensnaring innocent people and trampling their rights. This is our America, the correspondent wrote. Posted by: Fred 2007-04-06 |
| http://www.rantburg.com/poparticle.php?ID=185071 |