Editorial: Errors linger on watch list

Tuesday, Sept. 11, 2007 | 7:27 a.m.

A new inspector general's report says the government's primary terrorist watch list remains riddled with mistakes and doesn't include important information about known terrorists.

A report released last week by Justice Department Inspector General Glenn Fine says the Terrorist Screening Center, an agency run by the FBI that is in charge of the list, is "unable to ensure that consistent, accurate and complete terrorist information" is given to the nation's screening agents when and where they need it. The result, Fine said, is that even known terrorists could enter the United States undetected by authorities at borders or, astonishingly, be issued government visas.

In a story by The New York Times on Friday, Leonard C. Boyle, the Terrorist Screening Center's director, said, "When you're talking about 800,000 records, there are going to be errors as a result of human mistakes and technical glitches."

Technical glitches? This is the U.S. government's master terrorist watch list - the one that is supposed to cull and categorize information that, before the 2001 terrorist attacks, was compiled on about a dozen different watch lists among various agencies. A "single omission of a terrorist identity or an inaccuracy in the identifying information can have enormous consequences," the inspector general's report says.

Although the center has increased the number of employees who oversee the integrity of the list and investigate complaints from people who say they are on the list by mistake, it still is making significant errors. Fine's report found that information on 20 known terrorists was not being given to Border Patrol officers, visa application reviewers and other frontline screening agents.

The Terrorist Screening Center was created in 2003 as a response to terrorist attacks on the United States six years ago today - attacks perpetrated by terrorists who had obtained visas to be in this country. This database needs to be accurate and timely. "Human mistakes and technical glitches" cannot be tolerated.