On the one hand, obviously there is a need of some kind of centralized information warehouse regarding enemies of the state. On the other, we don't seem to have one, at least one that can be relied upon with any certainty.
Terrorism database is ballooning, keepers say - The Boston Globe
Each day, thousands of pieces of intelligence information from around the world -- field reports, captured documents, news from foreign allies, and sometimes idle gossip -- arrive in a computer-filled suburban office where analysts feed them into the nation's central list of terrorists and terrorism suspects.Called TIDE, for Terrorist Identities Datamart Environment, the list is a storehouse for data about individuals who the intelligence community believes might harm the United States.
TIDE is the wellspring for watch lists distributed to airlines, law enforcement, border posts, and US consulates. It was created to close a key intelligence gap revealed after Sept. 11, 2001: the failure of federal agencies to share what they knew about Al Qaeda operatives.
But in addressing one problem, TIDE has created others. Ballooning from fewer than 100,000 files in 2003 to about 435,000 today, the growing database threatens to overwhelm the people who manage it.“The single biggest worry that I have is long-term quality control,” said Russ Travers, in charge of TIDE at the National Counterterrorism Center in McLean, Va. “Where am I going to be, where is my successor going to be, five years down the road?”
TIDE has also created concerns about secrecy, errors, and privacy. The list marks the first time foreigners and US citizens are combined in an intelligence database. The bar for inclusion is low, and once a person is on the list, it is virtually impossible to get off. At any stage, the process can lead to “horror stories” of mixed-up names and unconfirmed information, Travers acknowledged.
and in a telling sign of how much erroneous data is actually contained in the TIDE database, even the wife of Senator Internet Pipes was misidentified, as Cat Stevens no less:
Senator Ted Stevens, Republican of Alaska, complained last year that his wife had been delayed repeatedly while airlines queried whether Catherine Stevens was the watch-listed Cat Stevens. The listing referred to the Britain-based pop singer who converted to Islam and changed his name to Yusuf Islam. The reason Islam is not allowed to fly is secret.So is the reason why Maher Arar, a Syrian-born Canadian, remains on the State Department's consular watch list.
Detained in New York while en route to Montreal in 2002, Arar was sent by the US government to a year of imprisonment in Syria. Canada, the source of the initial information about Arar, cleared him of all terrorism allegations last September -- three years after his release -- and has since authorized $9 million in compensation.
TIDE is a vacuum cleaner for both proven and unproven information, and its managers disclaim responsibility for how other agencies use the data.
If Fair Isaac can maintain a fairly reputable database of all of our credit histories, why can't the Federal Government, with vastly superior resources, compile a useful database of actual threats? Boggles the mind how poorly managed our country is since the MBA President was given office space in Washington. For that matter, why is Cat Stevens is an enemy of the state?
Technorati Tags: civil_liberties, surveillance, terrorism
