Watchlisting

Abstract

Watchlists have become a vital component of any country’s counterterrorism strategy. As first developed over three decades ago in the United States by a far-sighted analyst in the Department of State, watchlisting functioned primarily as a means enabling all-source intelligence to be used for the purpose of excluding terrorists and others from entering US national territory. Today with the rise of domestic terrorists, such watchlists must be inclusive of all potential and real terrorists, including those from the growing category of every country’s own citizens.