Travelers caught in a loop

Saturday, July 29, 2006 | 8:13 a.m.

A report by the Homeland Security Department's inspector general says the agency must limit the repeated interrogations of certain travelers at international border posts and airports because it compromises immigration and narcotics traffi cking enforcement.

According to the report released this week, frequent travelers whose names resemble those of the estimated 200,000 known terrorists and suspected terrorists are subjected to several hours of interrogations and background checks each time they attempt to board an airplane or enter the United States.

Unyielding guidelines keep security offi cials unduly occupied with collecting duplicate information and prevent them from making judgment calls, the report says. As a result, there has been "a significant decrease over the past few years in the interception of narcotics and the identifi cation of fraudulent immigration documents, especially at airports."

When a person is stopped because his name resembles one on the watch list, it generates several reports with varying levels of detail about the individual. But it is unclear how, or even whether, these reports are analyzed as a unit. So travelers' information is rerecorded each time they travel. Also, not all airport and border personnel have the same degree of security clearance, so some workers are not privy to police interrogations, further compromising information analysis.

The report describes a disjointed system that needs better oversight and technology. We agree with the inspector general's conclusions that information about individuals should remain in a single database and that checkpoints should use voluntary biometric information, such as fi ngerprints or iris scanners, to quickly identify those who previously have been cleared. Checkpoint personnel also must have the security clearance that is necessary to adequately do their jobs.

While we don't want a terrorist to slip through the cracks, repeated interrogations of those who have nothing more in common with terrorists than similar names are allowing illegal immigrants and narcotics to slip unnoticed across U.S. borders. Wasted time and attention are imperiling national security.