The nation's centralized watch list has grown to include 755,000 names suspected of having terrorist ties, resulting in nearly 20,000 positive matches of persons against the list in 2006, according to a new report from Congress's investigative reporting arm. Since the list is now used in nearly all routine police stops and for domestic airline travel, Americans made up the bulk of those matches.

The numbers appear to be a bit fuzzy, but there is now a centralized federal list of people who are not suspected of a crime that is checked everytime you have an enounter with a police officer. The size of the list is rapidly growing as are the places it is used. Inevitably the sort of people who are placed on it will evolve as well.

(For those who don't get it, yes terrorism is a crime, but there is a significant difference between a most wanted list that looks for people who are suspected of having committed crimes in the past and a watch list that looks for people who are suspected of being capable of committing crimes in the future. What is required to establish such suspicion? Could it merely be adherence to a particular political view?)

860,000 Name Long Terror Watch List Scrutinizes Americans Most on Threat Level