Watching the war on terror.

Cleared at the Airport

On his way home to the United States from Canada in October 2005, Man-jit Singh was stopped at the airport with his family and held for three hours for questioning. Apparently, his name had matched one that was on an anti-terrorism watch list. Singh, a founder of the Sikh American Legal Defense and Education Fund (SALDEF), was eventually allowed to board a plane, but his experience has become far too commonplace for many Sikh, Muslims and Arabs since 9/11.

Last November, the Department of Homeland Security began trying to remedy the situation by making public a two-page "Passenger Identity Verification Form." Travelers provide personal information like birth date and eye color, along with copies of official documents including passports, birth certificates and voter registration cards. The Transportation Security Administration, a unit of Homeland Security that's in charge of protecting airports, takes the information and tries to differentiate people on the no-fly list that have the same names.

"You had a lot of people on the watch list," said Rajbir Singh Datta, associate director of SALDEF. "But they didn't know how to get off it."

Datta said the form has been available but it wasn't made public until groups like his and other civil rights groups for Muslim and Arab communities communicated with TSA about the problem. In fact, until last fall, many travelers stopped at airports weren't sure why they were being held for questioning or what they could do about it.

The real challenge now, Datta said, is with the airlines. While TSA updates their no-fly list every 24 hours, the airlines use different systems and software so it's difficult to predict how much of an improvement travelers can expect to see. One thing's for sure: filling out the form doesn't take you off the no-fly list. It just serves to help differentiate one Singh from another.

Terrorists at Martha's Vineyard?

The Department of Homeland Security paid $1.2 million to make sure that the ferries carrying wealthy Americans were safe on their voyage to Martha's Vineyard, according to GQ magazine, which tracked some of the federal department's more outrageous expenditures.

Since DHS was created, GQ reports, it has spent more than $3,000 on bulletproof vests. But these aren't for police officers. The vests are for bomb-sniffing dogs in Columbus, Ohio. And it was probably a better expenditure than the $5,000 that the police department in Washington, D.C. spent on leather jackets for their cops.

As DHS is currently structured, the department doesn't issue checks to states based on the risk from terrorist attacks. So, what about Wyoming? They got $148,000 to buy "Miss Daisy," a robot that detects bombs, handles hazardous chemicals and carries a shotgun. The state received $27.80 per capita last year from DHS; New York, by comparison, got $15.54.

This year, Congress cut anti-terrorism aid for cities by $120 million. In January, DHS was expected to announce the change in the rules: while the formula for grants to states would remain, cities would now be assessed for their risk of being attacked. Last year, 50 cities ranging from New York City to Omaha, Nebraska, received aid.

Spinning War

Reporters and watchdog groups have finally found a paper trail showing that the Bush administration is paying to plant pro-American stories abroad and also tracking the political views of Iraqi journalists.

According to the Chicago Tribune, the watchdog group Judicial Watch obtained documents showing that the Pentagon has contracted out more than $56 million in work to the Rendon Group since 9/11. The firm, run by John Rendon, a former mover and shaker with the Democratic Party, follows stories filed by foreign reporters "to identify the biases of specific journalists." At least one contract had the firm keeping tabs on Al Jazeera.

The Rendon Group might best be known for its work in Puerto Rico. In 2001, the firm's personnel told residents on Vieques Island that they would get economic aid from the United States if they supported the Navy, which wanted to continue using the island for aerial bombing practice.

The Pentagon also hired a Washington-based firm, Lincoln Group, in 2004, according to the Los Angeles Times. The Lincoln Group apparently paid journalists and newspapers in Iraq anywhere between $50 and $1,500 to run articles favorable to Bush's interests--articles that were written by American military personnel. Some newspapers knew that the American government was the source of the information; in other cases, editors were taken for a ride. Pieces even ran as op-eds supposedly written by Iraqi citizens. One op-ed suggested that terrorists were killing children and read in part, "What kind of Muslim am I if I stand in silence as immoral cowards kill our children in the name of God and the Prophet Mohammed?"

In early December, a Pentagon official admitted that "transgressions" may have happened and said it would investigate. However, it's unclear whether the administration technically broke any international laws.

Daisy Hernandez is a senior editor at ColorLines. Vanessa Huang is an organizer, writer and ethnic studies student at Brown University.