Prosecutor turned up on U.S. terror watch list

updated 1:39 p.m. ET July 14, 2008

WASHINGTON - The name of the Justice Department's former top criminal prosecutor turned up on the government's terror watch list.

This terrorism-era roster, which likely has caused thousands of innocent Americans to be questioned or searched, popped up with the name of former Assistant Attorney General Jim Robinson.

Robinson joined another mistaken-identity American and the American Civil Liberties Union Monday in calling for elimination of the list, which is designed to identify suspected terrorists.

The ACLU estimates that 1 million records will have been added to the list by the end of July.

Chad Kolton, a spokesman for the Terrorist Screening Center that maintains the list, says that number includes aliases. Kolton said about 400,000 individuals are on the list, nearly all of whom are foreigners.

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