I'm beginning to feel that the purpose of this list is actually quite different - that it is a deterrant for regular people, an incentive not to speak out or talk to any non-mainstream-political group in fear of having their lives being made increasingly difficult by things like getting included on this list.

This list is not aimed at terrorists, it's aimed at us. Er, US.

That is a really terrifying and cynical possibility. I wish I could conclusively disbelieve it.

Cynical or not, it's suprisingly common. I started to notice those patterns of thinking after reading too much Schelling's "Strategy of Conflict". A good book, btw.

One could ask the same thing about Guantanamo. If those people are sufficiently dangerous that it's necessary to keep them imprisoned for 12 years (and counting), then the least they should expect is to be charged with something and tried for it.

> why the hell haven't they been arrested for whatever they did to get themselves on that list?

Read my reply to the parent. It's a preventive measure.

> radicalized American

And yet tried for nothing and convicted of nothing. It is a perversion of justice, full stop.