TerrorismU.S. security agents have 20,000 contacts a year with people on terrorist watch lists

U.S. law enforcement and security agencies encounter, on average, fifty-five “known or suspected terrorists” a day – at airports, border crossings, ports, and more. This means that U.S. security agencies have more than 20,000 contacts per year with known or suspected terrorists.

Msnbc reports that these encounters are reported – by federal, state, and local law enforcement personnel — to the U.S. Terrorist Screening Center (TSC), located in northern Virginia.

TSC is run by the FBI.

On average, TSC receives between 100 and 150 terror-related calls and inquiries a day. Of these calls, fifty-five, on average, turn out to involve individuals who are listed on various terrorist watch-lists maintained by TSC.

About 60 percent of the calls which involve individuals on the terror watch lists come from federal agents posted at airports, ports, and border crossings. The other calls come from local law enforcement agencies.

The watch lists which TSC maintains include the No-Fly List, which is the best-known list, but also the Selectee List – a list which includes the names of individuals who the U.S. government considers to be “of interest,” and who should get additional screening or questioning before being allowed to board a plane.

TSC says that before the December 2009 underwear bomber incident in Detroit, the No-Fly List had around 4,000 names. The list has expanded since, and it now contains about 20,000 names. The Selectee List contains another 18,000 names.

Of the 20,000 individual on the No-Fly List, only 500 are U.S. citizens.