Inspector general slams watch list's weaknesses

Jerry Seper
Washington Times
Saturday November 10, 2007

A multiagency effort headed by the FBI that maintains the government's terrorist watch list continues to have significant weaknesses and its information is neither complete nor fully accurate, a Justice Department official said yesterday.

Inspector General Glenn A. Fine told the House Homeland Security Committee that although the Terrorist Screening Center (TSC) has made progress to ensure the quality of its watch-list information, it is "critical" that further efforts be made to improve the data's accuracy and remove inaccurate information.

"These weaknesses can have enormous consequences," Mr. Fine said. "Inaccurate, incomplete and obsolete watch-list 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."

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Committee Chairman Bennie Thompson, Mississippi Democrat, said although the TSC has "stopped some really bad people from getting into our country," serious issues must be resolved if the watch list is to expand.

"We can do better, and we have to do better," he said. "An accurate watch list keeps our nation safe and keeps the bad guys out. An inaccurate and incomplete watch list creates more and more misidentifications — which in turn creates fear and frustration."

"If there is accountability, [the American people] will trust it"s being done right, not fear that they"re being monitored by Big Brother," he added.

Full article here.

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