- Nearly half of the people on the U.S. government’s widely shared database of terrorist suspects are not connected to any known terrorist group, according to classified government documents obtained by The Intercept.
Of the 680,000 people caught up in the government’s Terrorist Screening Database—a watchlist of “known or suspected terrorists” that is shared with local law enforcement agencies, private contractors, and foreign governments—more than 40 percent are described by the government as having “no recognized terrorist group affiliation.” That category—280,000 people—dwarfs the number of watchlisted people suspected of ties to al Qaeda, Hamas, and Hezbollah combined.
It's interesting to note that the leak which this story is based on was determined not to have come from Snowden. Here is CNN's coverage of the leak. Apparently the government also "spoiled the scoop" by leaking this information to the AP before the Intercept published.
Also, those binoculars make Obama look like an insect. What a creepy looking picture.