Stuff You Should Know - How to Land on a Government Watch List

Episode Date: August 18, 2011

The U.S. Government's Consolidated Terrorist Watch List keeps track of people who are known or suspected terrorists. But what how do people end up on it, and what happens if your name is similar to a suspected terrorist? Tune in to find out. Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.comSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Flooring contractors agree. When looking for the best to care for hardwood floors, use Bona Hardwood Floor Cleaner. The residue-free, fast drying solution is specially designed for hardwood floors, delivering the safe and effective clean you trust. Bona Hardwood Floor Cleaner is available at most retailers where floor cleaning products are sold and on Amazon. Also available for your other hard surface floors like Stone, Tile, Laminate, Vinyl, and LVT. For cleaning tips and exclusive offers, visit Bona.com slash Bona Clean. The War on Drugs is the excuse our government uses to get away with absolutely insane stuff. Stuff that'll piss you off. The cops, are they just like looting? Are they just like pillaging? They just have way better names for what they call,

like what we would call a jack move or being robbed. They call civil acid for it. Be sure to listen to the War on Drugs on the iHeart Radio app, Apple Podcast, or wherever you get your podcast. Brought to you by the reinvented 2012 Camry. It's ready, are you? Welcome to Stuff You Should Know from HowStuffWorks.com. Hey, and welcome to The Chuck Show. I'm Josh with me always. Of course, it's Chuck. Charles W. Chuckers Bryant. That's weird. It sounded like you said it. The star of The Chuck Show. It sounded like you said The Chuck Show. I said it twice. You should know. The Chuck Show. Did you hear it at that time? I did.

How you doing? Chuck? Get out of here. You're fired. I've been waiting for this day for 30 years. That would be awful and such like, I don't even want to say relief. That sounds awful. But you know how it is. It would be devastating and also like, my brain can relax. And then the next day I'd be all upset again. I know what you're talking about. I used to have an alternative weekly newspaper. And whenever we were up on deadline, deadline, deadline, deadline, and we'd miss the deadline, there was a sense of abject failure that was encapsulated by the greatest sense of relief you've ever experienced. Yeah. I know exactly what you're talking about. I don't think I feel

relieved here because we got this. We got this. Right? Yes. Say reassure me again. You got it. Chuck. Josh. Okay. We should probably chill out a little bit because what we're about to talk about is, to some, a necessary evil. Yeah. To others, it's brain dead national security that we should have been doing since 1787. Sure. And to others, it's an egregious affront to civil liberties of citizens. Yeah. But you know what I found? I did some research on the ACLU. I haven't found anyone that says, like, we shouldn't have a watch list. No. But it's just like, Hey, if you're going to have a watch list, you're going to do it better than this. Better than this. Yes. I took an ACLU as well. And I think everybody just assumed I was talking about the ACLU. And I said that

some people find it in a, in a run to civil liberties. I was, I went up, we're researching this, like I had this little tick in the back of my head, right? It was burning and saying, like, there was something about 9 11. And I was like, Oh yeah, there were all these different warnings, all these different agencies had information. Yeah. About Al Qaeda apparently Bush was briefed before like the month before the New York Times reported back in 2004. Right. And Al Qaeda was being watched that we were aware that there was a hijacking plot. Right. And there, all of these people, most of them at least were on watch lists. But the problem was is all of these agencies were in the midst of like some serious turf wars. Right. And no one was talking to one another.

No agency was sharing this information with one another. Yeah. It's kind of par for the course from what I understand. Yeah. But I think that changed in large part after 9 11. Right. Right. Let's hope if it didn't change in spirit at the very least it changed in practice on paper because all those different lists after 9 11 happened were consolidated pretty quickly after 9 11 happened. I think May of 2003 Bush signed something called Homeland Security Presidential Directive six. And the first one signed in 2001, I believe, established Homeland Security as an agency. Right. Two years later, he signed six basically saying, have you read it? Two, three, four and five or six? Six. Is there a two, three, four and five? Yeah. Okay. I figured

there was. There's a there's one through 25. It loses focus toward the end. The last one was signed on Bush's last day in office. And it basically says all those international treaties we signed that say the Arctic and the Antarctic are belong to everybody no one can lay claim on. We revoked the part about the Arctic. We decided that the U.S. is quote an Arctic nation. And therefore it has to protect its Arctic interests, specifically natural resources as a matter of national security. That's in there. Yeah. So it kind of lost focus toward the end. But early on with with the presidential directive six, that said, we need to take all of these watch lists and create a central watch list. And we need to actually administer it or

or administrate it. Sure. Properly. Yeah, that was big. And that created Chuck the consolidated a terrorist watch list, right? Because it's consolidated. It makes a lot of sense. Yeah. So that's the government list that everyone is long joked about. There were lists before. But the the one that everybody thought about prior to 2001 or 2003 didn't bear any resemblance to this one. This is the list. Anyone who's ever been even remotely suspected of being a terrorist. What's the language? Engaging in terrorist activities, right? Suspected to have engaged in conduct constituting in preparation for an aid of or related to terrorism. Yes. And apparently associating with a known terrorist isn't enough to get you on that list. Really? Yeah. Because

after September 11th, there were not many guidelines. It was just sort of let's just put a bunch of names on the list. Yeah. I mean, not that willy-nilly, obviously. But they realized they needed to refine it over the years. And I think in 2009 was the last major revision, a 72 page memorandum, yeah, in February 09, that clarified what the minimum substantive derogatory criteria was. What is it? Well, it's a 72 page memorandum. But associating with a known terrorist, suspected terrorist, is not enough. There had to be evidence of that you actually supported terrorism. And it generally requires more than a single source, which is good. Really? Yeah. Like, hey, this one guy said you were, so boom, you're on the list. Right. So they refined

it some over the years. Right. Prior to 2009, I think it was a little easier to get on there. Yeah. And that's when a lot of the press was generated about this. A lot of the media was up in arms or reporting about people being up in arms. There are tons of stories and all that. Yeah. Yeah. And you can kind of tell like how open it was by just the sheer numbers. Right. In 2003, I think the thing opened up for business with 325,000 people, 325,000 names. Yeah. That was in 2006. Oh, 2006. Yeah. Now there's over a million supposedly. See, that number is highly disputed. It is. So the ACLU says a million or more. A lot of people reported that, but that's just the ACLU's estimate. The TSA says it's less than

400,000. I saw that too. And they threw in that 95% of those people are foreign nationals. Yeah. Yeah. But most not even in the country, even they say. See, I can see them like that 95% struck me as the same as saying like one of your buddies being like, I'm 99.99% positive. I wonder how accurate that is. Yeah. It's hard to get stats on this stuff because a lot of it is kept under wraps for a good reason. Including the criteria. Who's on there? And yeah, like you said, for a good reason, there is, it's a very, it's Orwellian circular logic. And of course, I think everyone who press play on this knew that the word Orwellian was going to come up at least once knowing us, right? But they are saying that they can't release information on this list

because then you know how to beat the list. Yeah. And beats the surface. And I'm a defender of civil liberties. And I will even admit that this is a tough situation because you can't just do everything behind closed doors, but you also can't open it wide open because then it kind of defeats the system in a lot of ways. So this is a tough one. It is very tough when it comes to that. That number of the names on there is it's not necessarily individual people. That's different spellings of single name. Yeah. That's aliases of these people. So there could be a fraction of that number of actual people that are on this list, right? But there's all these different spellings or whatever. Yeah. Countries are on the list. Not like entire country. Well,

entire countries, but not saying your entire country is on the list. It's just, I think countries from that country. Yeah. Then you, then you, I think the red flag is raised, not necessarily your, because Israel was on the list recently. And they said, Oh, that was a big mistake. Israel shouldn't be on the list. Obviously. So yeah, but that just happened, I think within the past few months. Is that right? That would have made a great intro. Yeah. I like your intro. Thanks. Yes. So with nominating, right? You said now it takes more than one source to get you on there. That's what they say. Apparently before that revision, somebody from the FBI, the NSA, the CIA, the FDA, the SEC, pretty much any government agency could say NASA. Hey, yeah.

Really? Hey, I think any government agency, anybody from a government agency could nominate you. And you're nominated, right? Yes. And that means you're put before, or you physically aren't, but your name is put before the terrorist review and examination unit. And they start checking things out and then pass you along to the terrorist screening center and the watch list if you are deemed by their criteria to be a threat. Right. And the terrorist screening center is a branch of the FBI. And they're the ones who are responsible for administering the watch list. Right. And it's most closely associated with flying. It's a no fly list is what it's often called. Well, no, those are two different lists. Oh, are they? Yeah. There's a no fly list. There's a select

T list. And then there's the terrorism watch list. Okay. Lay it on me. Well, the no fly list only has like 5,000 people on it. Okay. But it's different. But if you're on the no fly list, obviously you're also on the terrorism watch list. Right. But as I understand it, if you're on the terrorism watch list, you may pop up when you go through a TSA screening. Oh, yeah. Yeah. So like, if you're on this terrorism watch, so if you're on a no fly list, like they, they, your name pops up and they just take you to prison, essentially. Well, they can do a range of things from take you away to be investigated and frisked and never heard from again, or the people have been arrested. Right. Okay. So that's, but these are people, people who are probably like known terrorists

or not. Okay. But on the no fly list. Yeah, both. That's what that's what created a lot of the problems is that, is it, you know, like an eight year old boy was on the no fly list. And this lady researched a Muslim woman from, I can't remember where she's from, but she was a Stanford duck, Torrell candidate. And you can get placed on the no fly list while you're, while you're on vacation. And then you can't come back into the country. Like bad vacation. There are army veterans stranded in Columbia and other countries that can't come back because their name is erroneously on the no fly list. And it takes a long time to get it off. I would imagine 67 days to get off the terrorist watch list. That's the average, but I don't know about that. I bet it takes longer than

that. Okay. The war on drugs impacts everyone, whether or not you take drugs. America's public enemy number one is drug abuse. This podcast is going to show you the truth behind the war on drugs. They told me that I would be charged for conspiracy to distribute a 2,200 pounds tomorrow one. Yeah. And they can do that without any drugs on the table without any drugs. Of course, yes, they can do that. And on the prime example of the war on drugs is the excuse our government uses to get away with absolutely insane stuff. Stuff that'll piss you off. The property is guilty. Exactly. And it starts as guilty. It starts as guilty. Cops. Are they just like looting? Are they just like pillaging? They just have way better names for what they call like what we

would call a jack move or being robbed. They call civil asset. Be sure to listen to the war on drugs on the iHeart radio app, Apple podcast or wherever you get your podcast. Hi, everybody. I'm Tyler Florence and I'm Wells Adams. We're the hosts of the new podcast, Two Dudes in the Kitchen. You might be asking yourself, why do these guys have a podcast? Because we love food. You and I have known each other for a while. We got a chance to click together on television, on Food Network back in the day. And I gotta tell you, there's no two better guys are more equipped to take you guys on a journey through the kitchen. It's all

about great recipes. It's all about connecting with fantastic techniques and having a great time while you're doing it. This is a podcast for you, for you to call into, give us your feedback. And we're here to answer your questions, kind of get those kitchen burners fired up. I got a lot of questions just because I'm not nearly as good of a chef as you are. So I'm going to be asking you a lot of questions and you guys out there can ask them as well. It's going to be a lot of fun. We're going to learn a lot. And you know what? Most importantly, we're going to eat good. We're going to eat good, man. Eat good in the neighborhood, man. We're here for you. Listen to Two Dudes in the Kitchen on the iHeart radio app, Apple podcast or wherever you listen

to podcasts. Um, so Chuck, I guess with when you fly also, um, there's this program called safe flight that's administered by the terrorist screening center. All right. Where every flight manifest is, um, checked against the lists. That's good. It is good. That's the first step, I guess. Yeah. Um, so the terrorist screening centers, they're, they're in charge. So are they in charge of the select list and the no fly list as well? It's all under Homeland Security. Okay. Okay. Um, but this is FBI. Right. Okay. So, um, they, they, they're maintaining these lists, but they're also tracking the people who are on the list. Yes. Hopefully the right people. But if your name apparently is on the terrorist watch list, yeah, there is a screen in northern

Virginia. No one knows where. Well, no one can say where anyone who knows. And you are a red dot on that screen and you're tracked constantly. And apparently, um, I don't know if the dot is red necessarily, but the color changes depending on the length of time it's been since you made contact or a law enforcement officer made contact with you. Like since the last time you flew last time you got pulled over for a ticket the last time they came into your house or whatever. Um, the color changes, but there's someone who watches you. Uh, when you get pulled over and you're on this list, well, if you or I get pulled over, your names run, right? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. If it gets, if it pops up, then the law enforcement officer is alerting the terrorist screening center.

From what I read most of the time, the terrorist screening center already knows you just got pulled over. Wow. Yeah. Well, that's Nito. And that's MPR's reporting too. And it was Dean of Temple Raston who actually went to the center. So it's not, that's not like rumor. Yeah. And I hope we don't come across as seeing like, oh, they shouldn't do like police terrorists and things like that. Cause it's not the case. I don't think so. Okay. Although John Lewis, the name John Lewis was on the no fly list. John Lewis, he's, uh, I think he's still a representative here, isn't he? Yeah. Okay. I think so. From, from Georgia, uh, from Atlanta, I believe, uh, he's a civil rights leader as well. And his name was on there. He kept getting

hassle going through the airport. Um, and not because he was suspected of any kind of terrorist activity, but because his name matched one of the spellings of a name of somebody on the terrorist watch list, right? As did every other John Lewis. So, right. So if you are, um, that's one good way to find out that your name is likely on the terrorist watch list, right? Is getting held up at the airport. Yeah. Uh, John Lewis isn't the only one. Very famously, there was a nun named Sister Glenn Ann McPhee, right? Yeah. And she apparently spent a lot of time getting interrogated, um, so much so that the council of bishops called the White House and said, you gotta take her off. How much was she flying? Is what I wanted to know. I don't know. Since

she was hassled a lot. It's like, did not, I didn't know nuns like traveled that much. Sure. The sister of the flying cross. The flying nun. Yeah. Uh, and as I mentioned, there's an eight year old famously in New York. And even though they came out and said there are no eight year olds on the list, it's a myth. There is an eight year old on the list. I don't know if he still is, but the parents said, no, he's right here. Come meet him. He's a Boy Scout. And the first time he was pulled aside and frisked was when he was two. Wow. At an airport, two years old on the terrorist watch list was frisked. Yeah. Pretty, pretty neat. So that's led to a lot of calls about, reducing the watch list, making it more focused. Yeah. And apparently it sounds like Obama

made those changes in 2009. Right. What, what was that? What happened there? Well, what you were talking about, like it's the, the criteria is narrowed a little more, like it takes two sources to get you on the list. Yeah. Just associating with somebody will keep you off the list. And then, um, I wonder if redress has gotten any easier. I don't know. Redress is the process of, of sort of applying to get off the list. And, um, that's for the terrorism watch list. Apparently the no fly list. There is not much of a process going on there. And it's led to a lot of frustration from people like John Lewis. Right. But yeah, now you apply and they, I think you have to apply through the agency. You can't just

call the FBI or no, you can't call Homeland Security. You have to apply through the agency that gave you trouble. Gotcha. Like the TSA or whoever it is. Gotcha. And then they, they give you what's called a redress number. So when you book travel, you, you include that. Oh, you do? Yeah. And it's like, it's basically like I've been cleared. Here's proof. I'm sure you're not on any list then. So Chuck, how do you get on this list, aside from the obvious of being a terror, a known terrorist or a suspected terrorist, appropriately suspected terrorist? You could be, um, a member of some sort of extremist organization, like even a hardcore, like environmental organization might land you on

the list, like elf. Yeah. What, what are they? Earth liberation front. Yes. They like to burn down subdivisions, um, that are built over clear cut forests. Oh, really? Really? They like to burn down any subdivision where any trees are sacrificed or whatever, you know, the kind where they go in and cut all the trees down, build everything and then go replant like little saplings, right? Those kinds of subdivisions. Yeah. Yeah. Elf likes to go in before they're populated and burn them all to the ground. Really? And then maybe leave a garage standing and spray paint ELF on it. So that's, that's domestic terrorism. Really? I mean, yeah, that's 12, the order of the 12 monkeys. It is, isn't it? Sort of. Yeah. So, uh, yeah,

if you're a member of elf, if you're, um, like a, uh, a member of, I would imagine any group that's been deemed a hate group or an extremist group, a domestic group, you might be on that list. You're probably on the list. But again, I think most people accept that at the very least, um, American citizens are in the minority on the government, uh, terrorist watch list, right? Yeah. Which is what I was trying to say, which is why it's easy for 98% of their people or 95% to say like, Oh, what's the big deal? Wait till you're one of those five percent. Right. Sure. You know what I'm saying? Sure. Um, you found some other ways too, though, some like more mundane ways. Yeah. Sadly, um, I shouldn't say sadly, I found it on maximum. There's some good. The

men's magazine. Yes. There was some, um, I just did a Google search. It's not like I was like, what does maximum have to say about this? Right. Um, there was, uh, there were four that I found that I thought were pretty good. One is, um, searching using Google what could get you flagged. Uh, we can be watched under the Patriot Act. Certain was searching for certain terms, I guess. Yes. Okay. Um, we do a lot of research, man. That's kind of scary to think about. Well, I imagine that like if that's the case, then yeah, just, just researching for this podcast. Yeah, exactly. Um, last minute flights apparently after a certain number of last minute flights, you will be flagged and even just doing your, your immediate flight,

like just the first time you do it, they're going to pay extra attention to you. Right. Because you're booking a last minute flight. Right. Um, and apparently patterns, the government loves patterns. And if you're operating within a normal pattern, you're likely going to be less scrutinized. Okay. Um, when you suddenly book a last minute flight, then they're going to be like, wait, that's abnormal and we're going to pay attention to you. Or if you pay with cash, that's abnormal. Right. We're going to pay attention to you. Right. There, there's certain patterns that the normal average person does without even thinking. Um, and it, when you act outside of that, then you're going to invite more scrutiny. Um, apparently, uh, email as well

is also under the Patriot Act likes to be watched. So if you say something stupid on there, yeah, so basically you and I are on the list. The war on drugs impacts everyone. Whether or not you take America's public enemy, number one is drug abuse. This podcast is going to show you the truth behind the war on drugs. They told me that I would be charged for conspiracy to distribute a 2,200 pounds a month. Yeah. And they can do that without any drugs on the table without any drugs. Of course, yes, they can do that. And I'm the prime example. Okay. The war on drugs is the excuse our government uses to get away with absolutely insane stuff. Stuff that'll piss you off. The property is guilty.

Exactly. And it starts as guilty. It starts as guilty. The cops, are they just like looting? Are they just like pillaging? They just have way better names for what they call like what we would call a jack move or being robbed. They call civil acid. Be sure to listen to the war on drugs on the iHeart radio app, Apple podcast or wherever you get your podcast. Hi, everybody. I'm Tyler Florence and I'm Wells Adams. We're the hosts of the new podcast, Two Dudes in the Kitchen. You might be asking yourself, why do these guys have a podcast? Because we love food. You and I have known each other for a while. We got a chance to

click together on television, on Food Network back in the day. And I gotta tell you, there's no two better guys, they're more equipped to take you guys on a journey through the kitchen. It's all about great recipes. It's all about connecting with fantastic techniques and having a great time while you're doing it. This is a podcast for you, for you to call into, give us your feedback, and we're here to answer your questions, kind of get those kitchen burners fired up. I got a lot of questions just because I'm not nearly as good of a chef as you are. So I'm going to be asking you a lot of questions and you guys out there can ask them as well. It's going to be a lot of fun. We're going to learn a lot and you know what? Most importantly,

we're going to eat good. We're going to eat good, man. Eat good in the neighborhood, man. We're here for you. Listen to Two Dudes in the Kitchen on the iHeart radio app, Apple podcast or wherever you listen to podcasts. They also, the Homeland Security this week, said that the terror watch list is exempt from the Privacy Act, which was brought about after Watergate. It basically permits citizens to obtain files about them with the intent of correcting it, which is what this would be all about. And they said, no, we're not under the Privacy Act. And that's the biggest problem with the ACLU is put a system in place. First of all, like you said, they think it's bloated. In 2009, Justice Department and Specter General Report found that

35% of the nominations to the list were outdated. Yeah. So it's counterproductive even. It's not like they're just saying it's not fair. It's not doing the job that it should be doing if it's bloated. But their whole point is just have a system in place, a transparent system in place where you can go. I mean, I guess redress is that for the terrorism watch list, but it doesn't sound like a very good system. Well, they also have a really big bone of contention in that this is technically unconstitutional. There's something against unlawful search and seizure. Search and seizure without due processor, at least probable cause. Right. And if you're an eight-year-old Boy Scout, there's really no way of justifying the fact that you're being searched without probable cause.

You know? Right. Just because there's terrorists out there doesn't give probable cause to some individual who's not a terrorist to be searched. Right. It's kind of that simple. Yeah. But again, as you say, it's really tough to say, oh, we need to just do away with this. Sure. I don't think that's the case. I just think there's better ways to do it. Yeah. I got a couple of more startling things on the state level. You know, you can't profile federal policies prohibit that and you can't on the state level either, but they allow states to, they have different criteria for each state on what is deemed suspicious at least. Not necessarily this will get you nominated, but red flags at least. And in Ohio, any immersion in, I'm sorry, immersion in a purely Muslim

environment could get you red flagged. They advise landlords in some states to be alert on tenants who prefer ground floor apartments and who have little furniture. And then anyone, the study of technical subjects like engineering. Just engineering. It's interesting. Do you remember when the Patriot Act was first being discussed for like three minutes? Yeah. One of the mandates in it was that postal employees were expected to spy and report on people on their route. And the post office actually pushed back and said, we're not doing that. Oh yeah, that's right. And they won. It was taken out, but it was in there like they wanted to deploy the postal service as domestic spies.

Dude, we just don't want to get bit by dogs. It's all we're asking. We've got enough on our plate as it is. I got a redress stat for you too. All right. The conger found. This is written by Kristen Conger from Stuff Mom Never Told You. Yeah. And she's got a new host we should mention. Yes. New co-hosts. Yeah. Molly is no longer there and they're doing a great job. No. And best of luck to Molly. Of course. She's writing her heart out right now. Yeah. Sitting right next to you. Yeah. Anyway, Conger found this stat. And from 2005 to 2007, 35% of people who complained that were on the redress list, I guess filed for redress were kept on the list. 45% were either granted lower security or removed. And that's only how many? 80%? 80%? The other 20 were never heard

from again. That's what I wondered. It didn't have anything about the other 20%. Yeah. And I mean, it's funny and all that. But again, it would stink if you're on that accidentally. But at the same time, we're also talking about the same government that operated secret prisons overseas too for a while. Yeah. Or if you're one of these veterans that's stuck in Columbia. Who are you talking about? There's this one ACLU article I mentioned found there were two Army veterans that are stuck outside the United States. And then the New York Times article was that lady with her 14-year-old daughter was stuck in Malaysia for a while. That's crazy. And a UK officer, because different countries have their own watch list and Britain has one. He got his wife put on

the list so she couldn't come home. Wow. She's been in Turkey for three years until they found out about it. Wow. And then he was fired. Like he was set to get promoted and they were like, wait a minute. They were doing their research. They were like, your wife's on the no fly list. And he was like, what? Blimey. And she's been in Turkey for three years. So that's funny. It's an interesting way to get out of whatever he didn't want to do. Yeah. Taking out the garbage. That's what it was. He just got trash piled up now. He's like Sylvia Plath? No. No. The Shel Silverstein poem where the girl doesn't want to take the garbage out. Oh, yeah, yeah. Sylvia's something silver suits now or something like that. Yeah, well. And then Chuck,

lastly, what do you want to, like, if you want to know, obviously we're not on the list or we weren't the last time we flew because we flew. Nobody took us aside. Although you and I now always get pat-downs. Oh, really? I just don't trust that back-scatter thing. I don't think everybody knows enough about it. I'm sure it could be fine. Oh, you're giving the option and you request the pat-down. Every time, yeah. Interesting. And I have to say, they almost never use the metal detector anymore. Really? Never. Huh. So, yeah, we always do the pat-down now. And it's nice. You get to know the TSA agent a lot more, more closely. As they're patting you down with the backside of their hands? Yeah. And telling you what they're doing ahead of time. Right. I'm going

to touch your waistband. You know how to build up a sense of tension, don't you? Yeah. So, what do you, if you want to know if you're on this list, you can just fly, right? Try to go fly. That's going to do something. It's going to be a expensive way to do it. It is. If you've been pulled over and not detained for, like, speeding or something like that, if you've just gotten a standard ticket, your name's not on this list. You're not on this list. True. And if you are, you can apply for information about yourself, not through the terrorist watch list, but through something called the specifically designated nationals and block persons list that the Treasury has. Oh, that means you can't do business, right? Exactly. You can't get a loan. You can't do

business with these people. It's a way of freezing somebody out of dealing in the United States, making money in the United States, usually because they're some sort of criminal, right? If your name's on that list, there may be a high likelihood that you are on the terrorist watch list. Right. And even if you're not, you want to get your name off that list because if you want to do business. Yeah. Eventually, somebody's going to be like, I can't loan you this money, Mr. Escobar. Josh, I thought it was good. It was not good. I wasn't prepared. I think you saved us. No, I think this was, it always gets so tricky with these civil liberties podcasts because you want it both ways. You don't want

terrorists coming into the country, but you also don't want your friend who's just a friendly Muslim to be on the list. Right. It's a tricky ground. I don't know how I feel about it. You. Personally, between you and me, if any other person. As long as it's amounting to little more than an inconvenience and there's still pressure to make it better to do a better job of this. Yeah. I'm for the list, but I'm maintaining a list. Yeah. But being stuck in another country is yeah. Again, it's my personal experience until some terrorist named Josh Clark ends up on the list. And I'm cool with it. And you're stuck in Turkey. I'm Bob Smith from Iowa. If you want to know more about the terrorist

watch list and probably end up on the terrorist watch list yourself, JK, you can type in government watch list in the search bar at howstuffworks.com. You can also probably search that on Maxim too. It'll bring up some stuff. And since I said Maxim, that means it's time for listener mail. Oh, I thought it was going to be time for top 10 sexiest broads on reality TV. I'm sure it is on Maxim. If this were a Maxim podcast for sure. I can't believe that. I bet you that article that they had had like, not clip art, but the stock photo of some guy like kind of half drunk on a plane, some bachelor, like arguing with the stewardess. That's in the, it's in the last one about email that's saying that like, if the plane on the way to spring break is delayed,

it should be like bomb or fire so they can get off and then drink, which is a very Maxim thing to do. That's a Maxim fiber herd one. All right, Josh, I'm going to call this, did you call for listener mail? Yeah, he did. Did we hear the ding? Yeah, it was in there somewhere. I'm going to call this a very sweet email from a from a sister about her sister. Oh, I was hoping we would do this one. This is nice. Sweet to I've been meaning to write for a while now, but hadn't found an episode I thought it could contribute to. Then I realized how much the entire podcast means to me. My twin sister is married to a Marine. They move all over the country. She's currently in Hawaii. We miss each other dearly. And it may sound funny, but your show makes us feel a little closer.

We especially enjoyed the shrunken heads episode. You had a good flow and we're both very witty. We even call each other skull bag as an inside joke. The spam episode made us laugh. My sister's name is Tony Ann. In high school, she was nicknamed Tony Spam because of the rhyme and her affinity for the canned pork product. It just made sense. Yeah, all around. She actually went to Spam Jam last spring, I guess in Hawaii, of course, and was a little disappointed that it wasn't as much fun as she expected. That's a very serious event. Oh, is it? I don't know what she was expecting. Right. We have so many inside jokes pertaining to your show. We run with Josh and Chuck. We hang at home with Josh and Chuck. And I think our friends are starting to think we are actually friends

with Josh and Chuck. Anyway, although we are 6,000 miles and six hour time difference apart, we love to listen to the show each week and talk about all the jokes and the content. Thanks for bringing my other half a little closer every Thursday. I wonder if she knows about Tuesdays. She's missing out on half the fun. If you could read this letter, I know it would mean the world to my twin. If not, I'm just happy to know you all know that your show helps make our separation a little easier. One half of the stuff you should know fan Melissa from Babylon, New York. That is very sweet. And I guess Tony Ann in Hawaii, Tony Spam. Yeah. Thanks a lot, Tony Spam and Melissa for listening to us and discussing what we say. That's still, after three years, is just

out there to me. What? The people talk about things that you and I say. Yeah. That's crazy. We're in a bubble in here. Yeah. If we are overlooking some huge pratfall to being on a government watch list or there even being a government watch list, let us know. We want to hear your stuck on the no fly list stories, the terrorist watch list stories, whatever you got. You can tweet to us, syskpodcast. That's our Twitter handle. Visit us on Facebook. That's facebook.com slash stuff you should know. And you can always send a good old fashioned email to us via stuff podcast at how stuff works dot com. Be sure to check out our new video podcast, Stuff from the Future. Join how stuff works staff as we explore them as promising and

perplexing possibilities of tomorrow. Brought to you by the reinvented 2012 Camry. It's ready. Are you? The war on drugs is the excuse our government uses to get away with absolutely insane stuff. Stuff that'll piss you off. The cops, are they just like looting? Are they just like pillaging? They just have way better names for what they call like what we would call a jack move or being robbed. They call civil answer. Be sure to listen to the war on drugs on the iHeart Radio app, Apple podcast or wherever you get your podcasts. I'm Langston Kermit. Sometimes I'm on TV. I'm David Borey and I'm probably on TV right now. David and I are going to take a deep dive every week into the most exciting groundbreaking and

sometimes problematic black conspiracy theories. We've had amazing past notable guests like Brandon Kyle Goodman, Sam J. Quinta Brunson and so many more. New episodes around every Tuesday, many episodes out on Thursdays where we answer you, the listeners conspiracy theories. Listen to my mama told me on the iHeart Radio app, Apple podcast or wherever you get your podcasts.