In the 1976 film The Front, Woody Allen plays an opportunistic cashier who "fronts" for a series of writers blacklisted during the Communist witch hunts of the 1950s. He puts his name on their work and takes part of the fee. The movie was written by Walter Bernstein, a blacklisted writer, and starred a number of blacklisted actors including Zero Mostel and Herschel Bernardi. It portrayed the mendacity of the House Un-American Activities Committee and the timidity of those who joined the hysteria.
But if you think those dark times are just a bad blip of history, think again. A new blacklist is emerging, one that in the main may have more credibility, but offers a similar opportunity for innocent people to be unjustly denied employment.
Under a longstanding payroll deduction program called the Combined Federal Campaign, federal employees and military personnel may donate directly to charities. The CFC distributes nearly $250-million annually to over 2,000 charities and public interest groups designated by employees. However, since October, any group that wants to continue to receive CFC funds must check a terrorism and drug kingpin watch list and sign a certification that it has not knowingly hired anyone on the list.
The verboten individuals are on the Treasury Department's Office of Foreign Assets Control list of Specially Designated Nationals. It is a compendium of thousands of names of individuals and groups densely packed onto 143 pages. Some of the listings also include dates of birth, associations, birthplaces and aliases. Others just offer a name. Common Arab, Asian and Hispanic surnames populate the list including the surnames Martinez, Lopez, Abu and Mohamed. The names are drawn from various U.S. government sources as well as those of our allies.
Charities as diverse as the Seattle-based Children's Hospital Foundation, to Food for the Poor in Deerfield Beach, are having to check the list and make employment decisions based on it. But we know from experience with the "no-fly" list at airports that government watch lists are faulty tools. Travelers with a similar last name as suspected terrorists are stopped and interrogated time and time again.
Michelle Green is one such victim. "As someone who has served her country in the United States Air Force for nearly 16 years and who obeys the laws of the land, I was shocked to discover that I am on this list. I am even more disturbed to find out that there is no way to get off the list," Green said in a lawsuit filed by the American Civil Liberties Union challenging the "no-fly" list. Even Massachusetts Democratic Sen. Edward Kennedy has found himself on the list after a terror suspect used the name Edward Kennedy as an alias. For the senator that has meant problems at airports where he has been repeatedly told he wouldn't be allowed to fly. Only his high profile and political connections cleared his name.
While harassment at an airport is embarrassing and inconvenient, it is nothing compared to being passed over for employment. Emily Whitfield, ACLU spokeswoman, said that employers who may be deciding between hiring John Smith or Mohamed Achmed might just decide it's easier to go with Smith than have to worry about whether Achmed is on the list. "There's a real potential for people to shy away from hiring people of Muslim, Asian or Hispanic descent because these names appear so often on the list," Whitfield says.
The government justifies the blacklist as a way to prevent terrorists and drug dealers from benefiting from a government program, but private charities are not an arm of law enforcement and trying to enlist them to the task in this remarkably clunky fashion is not going to make us safer. Relevant here is that there are federal and state prohibitions on asking job applicants how old they are or their nationality - the kinds of details that might differentiate the Cesar Lopez who is on the list from the Cesar Lopez who just wants a job.
Even more concerning is the way this blacklist has spread. The U.S. Agency for International Development is also demanding that international aid organizations and human rights groups check their employees against the list as a condition of receiving money. And Newsweek reported in June that the list must be checked by title companies before any house closings may proceed.
It all stems from an executive order signed by President Bush on Sept. 23, 2001. The order precludes anyone on the blacklist from engaging in "any transaction or dealing . . . in property or interests" within the United States. That means opening a bank account or engaging in any business transaction, including buying a house.
Being on the list or being mistaken for someone on the list has the potential to seriously disrupt a person's life. But there is no due process associated with it. Individuals are placed on the list on the basis of suspicion alone, with no formal charges necessary. Molly Millerwise, spokeswoman for the Treasury Department, says that her agency "arrests assets not people" and if criminal charges are warranted against someone on the list, that is left to other arms of government.
As to getting off the list or correcting errors, one can appeal to the Office of Foreign Assets Control, but there are no formal procedures or protections.
These kinds of lists are dangerous to civil liberties when used beyond the law enforcement community. It is too easy for innocent people to get caught in their snare. Let's leave catching terrorists to the FBI and let the nation's charities alone to feed the hungry.
