While my sister attends grad school at one of Ohio’s largest universities, she’ll be working there. She had to fill out a lot of paperwork and shared with me a form provided her by the Ohio Department of Public Safety, Division of Homeland Security.
The gist of this form is: are you a terrorist? If so, check the “Yes” box. If not, check “No.” There is no “Maybe” box but a handy three-and-a-half-page single-spaced addendum lists 133 organizations designated as terrorist by the U.S. Departments of State and Treasury.
Dana wonders if she wasn’t singled out with this form because she lived for a few years in Ireland, home to listed associations such as the Continuity Irish Republican Army, as well as the Real Irish Republican Army, which has better biscuits at its tea socials.
I have the same question as you: if one is a terrorist, why would one admit it to the state? But maybe the form is working. The ACLU noted today that there are now one million names on the nation’s watch list of individual terrorists, including “[m]embers of Congress, nuns, war heroes and other ‘suspicious characters.’”