Bolivia's Morales, Saddam on US no-fly list

NEW YORK - Bolivian President Evo Morales, Saddam Hussein and 14 of the 19 dead September 11 hijackers are among the names on the US no-fly list designed to stop terrorists boarding planes, 60 Minutes said today.

The CBS news program said in a statement it had obtained a March copy of the secret US government list of 44,000 people, used to screen airline passengers for potential terrorists.

Former FBI agent Jack Cloonan told the show, to be broadcast next week, that the list was hastily assembled after the September 11 attacks and was bungled.

"When we heard the name list or no-fly list ... the eyes rolled back in my head, because we knew what was going to happen," he says.

While the list includes such unlikely would-be terrorists as Nabih Berri, Lebanon's parliamentary speaker, many others were not on the list, 60 Minutes reports. It noted the 11 British suspects recently charged with plotting to blow up airliners with liquid explosives were not on it, despite being under surveillance for more than a year.

A spokesman for the Department of Homeland Security had no immediate comment.

- REUTERS