POST CONSTITUTIONAL AMERICA .

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TREASURY DEPARTMENT ENEMY LIST KEEPING SIMILAR NAMED PEOPLE FROM BUYING
HOMES AND CARS

CHANNEL FIVE, SAN FRANCISCO - A little known Treasury Department terror
watch list is causing trouble for people trying to buy homes and cars. .
. The 250-page list, posted publicly on a Treasury Department Web site,
is being used by credit bureaus, health insurers and car dealerships, as
well as employers and landlords, according to the Lawyers Committee for
Civil Rights of the San Francisco Bay Area.

The list includes some of the world's most common names, such as
Gonzalez, Lopez, Ali, Hussein, Abdul, Lucas and Gibson, and companies
are often unsure how to root out mismatches. Some turn consumers away
rather than risk penalties of up to $10 million and 30 years in prison
for doing business with someone on the list, the group said.

"We have found that an increasing number of everyday consumers are being
flagged as potential terrorists by private businesses merely because
they have a name that's similar to someone on this government watch
list," said the report's author, Shirin Sinnar, an attorney with the
Asian Law Caucus.

The 6,000-plus names on the list, managed by the Treasury Department's
Office of Foreign Assets Control, include people, companies or groups
accused of supporting or financing terrorism. Most of them are
foreigners. Any of their assets may be frozen by U.S. banks, and
Americans are forbidden from doing business with them. "Few people in
the U.S. are actually on the OFAC list," said Sinnar. "But the list
includes names shared by thousands of Americans that have nothing to do
with U.S. sanctions."

http://cbs5.com/investigates/local_story_086143221.html

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