WASHINGTON, March 25 (UPI) -- More than two and a half years after gaps between the nation's systems for monitoring terror suspects allowed 19 suicide hijackers to kill 3,000 people in the Sept. 11 attacks, the United States finally has a single database to which are being added the names of all those authorities know or suspect to be terrorists.
FBI official Donna Bucella told lawmakers Thursday that the Terrorist Screening Database went live on March 12, three months after the center that houses it opened its doors last December.
"The (Terrorist Screening Database) allows the consolidation of disparate information, currently held by multiple agencies and used in different ways, to be brought together for a single purpose -- to help identify and detain potential terrorists," Bucella, the director of the Terrorist Screening Center, told a congressional hearing.
She acknowledged that the database is still a "work in progress" and that it would be the end of the year before it was fully functional, when other federal agencies like the Transportation Security Administration and Customs would be able to access it online in real time, and when the system would be expanded to make it capable of storing biometric information like fingerprints.
Lawmakers, who have been vociferous in their criticism of the way responsibility for the task was moved among various government agencies and the deadline for completion repeatedly pushed back, said they remained concerned.
"There are serious questions we must ask," said Rep. Christopher Cox, R-Calif., chairman of the House Select Committee on Homeland Security. "Are civil liberties and privacy interests scrupulously safeguarded? Could a name get on the ... list erroneously? If so, how would that be discovered and how corrected, quickly and certainly?"
Cox's concerns were underlined by another witness at the hearing, Jerry Berman of the Markle Foundation and the Center for Democracy and Technology.
Berman said that it was not clear how high the evidentiary bar was for individuals to be put on the list.
He quoted Homeland Security Department Secretary Tom Ridge, who told an appropriations hearing earlier this month that, of more than 50,000 names currently in the database, only 500 or so were actually wanted for crimes. "How did the rest of the names get on that he list?" he asked.
"There have to be a clear set of standards which are ... public and articulable" for U.S. citizens to be placed on the list, he argued, acknowledging that different rules might apply for foreigners.
Berman also questioned the arrangements for correcting inaccurate data, saying that it was essential that there be a transparent process, overseen by an ombudsman, that people wrongly listed could employ to get their names removed.
Ranking Democratic committee member Rep. Jim Turner of Texas expressed frustration that the task of getting the database set up was taking so long, and he suggested that even though the list was available, those who should be using it might not be.
"My staff was on the border earlier this month," he told Bucella, "and were told that border patrol is not generally aware of or linked to the (Terrorist Screening Center)."
Bucella acknowledged that ensuring state, local and even federal law enforcement officers know how to access the center was "a tremendous and enormous challenge."
"There is much work to do," she said.
James McMahon, director of the New York State Office of Public Security, said that his officials and colleagues were getting more information from the federal government than ever before. He and Bucella explained how the database worked on a day-to-day basis.
During routine interactions with members of the public such as traffic stops, officers often check an individual's name with the National Crime Information Center through terminals in their patrol cars. If the individual is on the watchlist, the check brings up a message, telling the officer to contact the center.
