[Infowarrior] - FBI Shows Off Counterterrorism Database

[Richard Forno]

FBI Shows Off Counterterrorism Database

By Ellen Nakashima
Washington Post Staff Writer
Wednesday, August 30, 2006; A06

The FBI has built a database with more than 659 million records -- including
terrorist watch lists, intelligence cables and financial transactions --
culled from more than 50 FBI and other government agency sources. The system
is one of the most powerful data analysis tools available to law enforcement
and counterterrorism agents, FBI officials said yesterday.

The FBI demonstrated the database to reporters yesterday in part to address
criticism that its technology was failing and outdated as the fifth
anniversary of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks nears.

Privacy advocates said the Investigative Data Warehouse, launched in January
2004, raises concerns about how long the government stores such information
and about the right of citizens to know what records are kept and correct
information that is wrong.

The data warehouse is an effort to "connect the dots" that the FBI was
accused of missing in the months before the 2001 attacks, bureau officials
said. About a quarter of the information comes from the FBI's records and
criminal case files. The rest -- including suspicious financial activity
reports, no-fly lists, and lost and stolen passport data -- comes from the
Treasury, State and Homeland Security departments and the Federal Bureau of
Prisons.

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http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/08/29/AR2006082901
520_pf.html