[NYTr] "Terrorism" watch list is faulted for errors -- still, again

[All the News That Doesn't Fit]

The Washington Post via rick kissell - Sep 7, 2007

Terrorism Watch List Is Faulted For Errors

Justice Dept. Official Urges Improvement

By Ellen Nakashima
Washington Post Staff Writer

The government's master watch list of known or suspected terrorists 
continues to be marred by errors and inconsistencies that can obstruct 
the capture of terrorists or cause innocent people to be detained by 
U.S. authorities, the Justice Department's inspector general said
yesterday.

As one of the most powerful intelligence tools created by the Bush 
administration after the 2001 attacks, the watch list is used to screen 
about 270 million people a month and its content can determine whether 
people are allowed to fly on airplanes or detained after routine
traffic stops.

Its size has more than quadrupled since its creation in 2004, to the 
point that it contained more than 720,000 records as of April,
according to the new report. It is growing at the rate of more than
20,000 records a month.

But Inspector General Glenn A. Fine said its management by the
Terrorist Screening Center (TSC) "continues to have significant
weaknesses," producing a high error rate and a slow response to
complaints from citizens.

In an examination of 105 records, for example, the auditors found that 
38 percent of the records contained errors or inconsistencies that the 
TSC's own quality-assurance efforts had not found. They also discovered 
that the TSC is operating two versions of the database in tandem
without ensuring that their contents are identical, which they said
could result in missed opportunities to identify terrorists.

"It is critical that the TSC further improve the quality of its 
watchlist data because of the consequences of inaccurate or missing 
information," Fine said in a statement. "Inaccurate, incomplete and 
obsolete watchlist information can increase the risk of not identifying 
known or suspected terrorists, and it can also increase the risk that 
innocent persons will be stopped or detained."

The report, a follow-up to a 2005 audit, noted that the TSC has opened 
an office to deal with complaints, and that 438 have been registered so 
far. But auditors found that the office typically took more than two 
months to resolve them.

In 97 of the 388 complaints resolved as of February, the TSC found that 
the watch-list record was inaccurate or incomplete. In an additional 76 
instances a person's name was removed from the watch list, and in other 
cases people were misidentified or their records wound up being 
modified. The whole process was complicated by the fact that the 
government generally does not reveal a person's watch-list status to 
avoid tipping off terrorists.

The report attributed some problems to the fact that the FBI can 
directly enter international terrorist information into the database 
while bypassing the TSC and the National Counterterrorism Center, which 
is responsible for vetting such information. That bypass creates 
unnecessary data errors, the report said.

The review found that nearly half the initial name matches against the 
watch list proved worthless, suggesting that the government should 
consider misidentifications a priority and develop policies to address 
them, Fine said.

The inspector general's staff also identified 20 watch-list records on 
suspected or known terrorists that had not been made available to 
front-line screening agents such as Border Patrol officers, visa 
application reviewers and local police officers who use the list during 
routine traffic stops.

"The new report confirms a widespread impression that the watch-list 
system still needs work," said Steven Aftergood, director of the 
Federation of American Scientists' Project on Government Secrecy. "Not 
only are too many innocent people being listed in error, some of the
bad guys are not properly included."

The TSC, created in December 2003 at the president's direction and run 
jointly by the FBI and the Department of Homeland Security, is a single 
point of contact for screeners and police seeking help in identifying 
people with possible ties to terrorism. The TSC database is a 
consolidation of a dozen different government watch lists, such as the 
Transportation Security Administration's "no-fly" list, the State 
Department's Consular Lookout and Support System, and the FBI's Violent 
Gang and Terrorist Organizations File.

In a reply to Fine, Willie T. Hulon, executive assistant director of
the FBI's National Security Branch, said that "the FBI remains
committed to ensuring the timely and accurate collection of
watchlisting data." He said a TSC priority is to ensure that the
database is "accurate, current and thorough." For example, as of July,
the TSC has completely vetted the TSA's no-fly list, reducing it by
about half, he said.

TSC officials said in a statement that they have acted or will act on 
each of the recommendations.

The inspector general's report is available on the Web at 
http://www.usdoj.gov/oig/reports/FBI/a0741/final.pdf