“Innocent passengers are being entered into an international intelligence database as suspicious persons, acting in a suspicious manner on an aircraft … and they did nothing wrong.”

Say what?! I thought if you aren’t doing anything wrong, you have nothing to worry about. Isn’t that what my government and its supporters keep telling me every time they institute some new far-reaching program to keep me safe? So what’s this about innocent people ending up on terrorist watchlists?

You could be on a secret government database or watch list for simply taking a picture on an airplane. Some federal air marshals say they’re reporting your actions to meet a quota, even though some top officials deny it.

The air marshals, whose identities are being concealed, told 7NEWS that they’re required to submit at least one report a month. If they don’t, there’s no raise, no bonus, no awards and no special assignments.

I’d say it’s unbelievable, but there isn’t much I am not willing to believe anymore, especially where surveillance in the USA is concerned. This really takes the cake though … a quota for reporting suspicious activities (one Surveillance Detection Report a month). Not only will this lead to innocent people being harassed while trying to get on an airplane, it’s going to dilute the database to the point where it is totally useless for its intended purpose of catching real criminals.

Word to the wise: This report is about the Las Vegas area, though I’d suspect it’s a little more widespread than that. For the meantime, if you want to go to Vegas, I’d suggest you drive.