(WASHINGTON, D.C., January 24, 2023) — The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), the nation’s largest Muslim civil rights and advocacy organization, today called on the Biden administration to suspend the FBI’s dissemination of two of their secret lists, which leaked copies show to be “almost entirely lists of Arabic and Muslim names.”
On Friday, January 20, a Swiss hacker that goes by the moniker “maia” reportedly gained access to copies of the No-Fly List and Selectee List. These two lists are subsets of what is colloquially known as the terror watchlist and what the FBI has called Terrorist Screening Data Set. The breach occurred because a regional airline, just one of the tens of thousands of public and private entities all over the world that receive the watchlist, simply left the list exposed on the public internet.
EXCLUSIVE: U.S. airline accidentally exposes ‘No Fly List’ on unsecured server
https://www.dailydot.com/debug/no-fly-list-us-tsa-unprotected-server-commuteair/
CAIR attorneys have obtained copies of the lists. Their contents confirm what many in the Muslim community long suspected: the FBI’s secret lists comprise a vast Muslim registry deployed against Muslims all over the world.
“Even a cursory review of the lists show they are both almost entirely lists of Arabic and Muslim names. Children who were at most 10 years old at the time are on the No-Fly List. A then 7-year-old is on the Selectee list,” said CAIR Trial Attorney Justin Sadowsky.
“These leaks confirm that, in response to 9/11, the FBI decided to build a Muslim registry,” said CAIR Senior Litigation Attorney Gadeir Abbas. “If the FBI is allowed to keep its Muslim registry, it is only a matter of time before the FBI aims its secret lists at others.”
He said CAIR is calling on the Biden administration to suspend the FBI’s dissemination of its secret lists. The FBI disseminates various lists to tens of thousands of law enforcement agencies, hundreds of private companies, and more than 60 foreign governments.
SEE: Feds Share Watchlist with more than 1,400 private Entities
“This racist list serves no useful purpose,” said CAIR Civil Rights Director Lena Masri. “It has done nothing over its two-decade existence to make us safer or stop terrorism.”
CAIR’s mission is to enhance understanding of Islam, protect civil rights, promote justice, and empower American Muslims.
La misión de CAIR es mejorar la comprensión del Islam, proteger las libertades civiles, promover la justicia, y empoderar a los musulmanes en los Estados Unidos.
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CONTACT: CAIR National Litigation Director Lena Masri, 202-642-4934, lmasri@cair.com; CAIR Senior Litigation Attorney Gadeir Abbas, 720-251-0425, gabbas@cair.com; CAIR Trial Attorney Justin Sadowsky, 202-752-6440, jsadowsky@cair.com