Thursday, May 12, 2005

The Terror Watch List's Tangle

The goal was to be a master database pooling information on terror suspects. The result: A litany of technical glitches and red-tape follies
The National Security Agency intercepts a vague communication about terrorist activity on U.S. soil. An analyst in the National Counterterrorism Center in Virginia takes that information, and using data from several other agencies, identifies a U.S.-based suspect and passes the info to the FBI's Terrorist Screening Center (TSC).
A few days later, the suspected terrorist -- missing until now -- happens to be pulled over for speeding in Maryland. The state trooper runs his name through the TSC's master terror watch-list database, and the man's name, photo, and fingerprints come up. Bingo, a potential catastrophe is averted.
At least that's what government officials hope will be able to happen -- some day. But computer incompatibilities, slow interagency negotiations, and formidable data-crunching challenges are hindering the coordination of U.S. intelligence data. While it has made progress, the TSC says it doesn't know when it will finish consolidating information from a dozen different criminal databases into a master "terrorist watch list" database that can be checked by state and local police, border agents, airport workers, and others.

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