So the government has finally admitted it: in addition to the famous “do-not-fly” list, there is also a separate, likely longer, “harass before flying” list. According to Salon:

[I]n documents released this week in a federal court case in San Francisco, the U.S. Transportation Security Administration (TSA) confirmed for the first time that it keeps not just a list of potential terrorists barred from the air, but also a list of “selectees” who are subject to strict security checks before they’re allowed to board commercial aircraft. The agency has revealed almost nothing else about the selectee list, and is fighting in court to keep secret the names of people who are on it and the standards for putting them there.

It appears, however, that the list may contain thousands of names. Officials at the ACLU of Northern California, which is pressing the Freedom of Information Act case filed by two leftist newspaper editors, says it learned from authorities at Oakland Airport that there is an 88-page typed list of names.

Nobody in the TSA will tell you whether you’re on the list, why you’re on the list, or — God forbid! — how you might get off the list. Not only won’t they tell you about you, they won’t tell you about anyone else, or even discuss the list in general terms. The criteria for getting on the list appear to have little to do with your chances of actually doing something bad aboard an airplane, and quite a bit with any history you might have of political activism.

Being on the list won’t stop you from flying, but — particularly since its effects are being administered by airline personnel and the semipro TSA rather than trained, accountable law enforcement officers — it will result in extra security attention, strip searches, and even being held at the airport by local police until someone from the FBI bothers to come down to tell them they can let you go.

Arrest and trial without due process even for for American citizens. The FBI questioning people about their coffee-shop reading habits. Now, singling out dissidents for extra-judicial harassment.

Makes you wonder what we fought the Cold War for, doesn’t it?