[Infowarrior] - Report: FBI Mishandles Terror Watch List

[Richard Forno]

Report: FBI Mishandles Terror Watch List

     * By Ryan Singel Email Author
     * May 6, 2009  |
     * 4:47 pm  |
     * Categories: Watchlists

http://www.wired.com/threatlevel/2009/05/fbi-gets-f-in-handling-terror-watch-list-ig-finds/

terrorism watch list posterThe FBI can’t figure out the right way to  
add or remove suspected terrorists from the country’s unified  
terrorist watch list, subjecting citizens to unjustified scrutiny from  
government officials and possibly putting the country at risk, the  
Justice Department’s internal watchdog said Wednesday in a new report.

“We found that the FBI failed to nominate many subjects in the  
terrorism investigations that we sampled, did not nominate many others  
in a timely fashion, and did not update or remove watchlist records as  
required,” the Inspector General report (.pdf) said. “We believe that  
the FBI’s failure to consistently nominate subjects of international  
and domestic terrorism investigations to the terrorist watchlist could  
pose a risk to national security.”

Senator Patrick Leahy (D-Vermont), a longtime civil liberties  
advocate, took issue with the nation’s premier law enforcement agency  
letting innocent citizens languish on a secret list.

“Given the very real and negative consequences to which people on the  
watchlist are subjected, this is unacceptable,” Leahy said.

The FBI is responsible for adding domestic threats to the list, while  
the intelligence community nominates foreigners.

Inspector General Glenn Fine’s findings are not surprising, given the  
Fine’s 2007 audit of the watchlist found that the list full of  
duplicate entries and bad information.

As of December 31, 2008, the centralized terrorist watch list  
contained more than 1.1 million known or suspected terrorist names,  
referring to an estimated 400,000 individuals. The list is used by  
local police to screen speeding drivers, by the State department to  
vet visa applicants and by Homeland Security to create the No-Fly list  
and pick-out travelers for interrogation.

In 15 percent of terrorism cases the office reviewed, FBI agents  
failed to add the subjects to the list, while in 8 percent of closed  
cases, people were left on the list, in violation of policy. In 72  
percent of the closed cases people weren’t removed in a timely manner,  
causing people to undergo unjustified screenings by the Secret Service  
and at the airport.

Neither the FBI or the inspector general knows how many people the FBI  
has put on the list, but the IG’s best estimate is the FBI has  
nominated between 68,000 and 130,000 known or suspected terrorist  
identities since 2003. Of the 68,669 known or suspected terrorist  
identities in the database the IG could attribute to the FBI, 35  
percent were outdated or had no known link to terrorism cases.

Additionally the FBI has added tens of thousands of name s of Afghani  
and Iraqi citizens stopped and fingerprinted by the military with help  
from crack FBI teams. These entries have little information attached  
and no process for removal.

The Terrorist Screening Center, which runs the list, says it is  
constantly scrubbing unjustified entries from the list. When the  
systems record a hit for a rogue speeder, the trooper calls the center  
to clarify the person stopped is the person on the list and what  
should be done.

At the TSC, analysts sit in front of giant monitors, checking  
information called in against the intelligence that put the person on  
the list. Along one wall, the center plots encounters on an  
electronic, color-coded, electronic map of the United States..