More suspected terrorists moved to watch lists

[February 04, 2010]  WASHINGTON (AP) -- Counterterrorism officials have moved the names of dozens of people onto the terror watch list and the no-fly list after reviewing a massive government database of suspected terrorists.

An intelligence official says the government scrubbed thousands of names in its database after an attempted bombing aboard a Detroit-bound airliner on Christmas Day. Officials focused on people from countries with ties to terrorism. The official wasn't authorized to speak publicly and requested anonymity.

The man arrested in connection with the Detroit incident, Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, 23, was in a database with about 550,000 other terror suspects since late November. But officials said the government did not have enough information to put him on the no-fly list that would have kept him off a U.S.-bound plane.

[Associated Press; By EILEEN SULLIVAN]

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