Creation of Terrorist Database Delayed

[Khephra]

WASHINGTON -- An ambitious effort to create a central terror suspect database for use by all U.S. federal and local officials has been struggling for months because of challenges as mundane as merging Microsoft spreadsheets and as sensitive as protecting people's privacy.

Attorney General John Ashcroft said in September that the Terrorist Screening Center -- "one-stop shopping so that every federal terrorist screener is working off the same page" -- would be operational by Dec. 1.

But in December, the FBI launched only a "test phase," while government employees and contractors at the northern Virginia center finish merging the identifying information on all suspected or known terrorists into a single database.

Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge said recently the goal now is to have the work done by midsummer.

most..........

http://www.newsday.com/news/politics/wire/sns-ap-terrorist-screening-center,0,1899985.story?coll=sns-ap-politics-headlines

[DeepModem Mom]

1. These people can campaign, but cannot govern --

and, also interesting from the article, re. our ignorance of the rest of the world:

"But more broadly, (Elizabeth Rindskopf Parker, a former general counsel for the CIA and NSA) said, the United States must improve its understanding of foreign cultures to sort out names and identities, because confusing like names and irregular spellings is still a major problem.

For instance, 'it is hard to decipher Chinese names. They all sound the same,' Parker said.

'Our systems aren't ready,' she said."

[TrogL]

2. What they deserve for using Micro$oft products

A database on spreadsheets??!?!

[FormerOstrich]

3. Never ceases to amaze me...

how incompetent and wasteful....

I want to know how many millions has been spent to date on this little project. For a very small fee I could have told them what a mess they would have. Yes, at 50,000 feet it all sounds so wonderful. An integrated database for all the agencies. However, it's where the rubber meets the road it starts to all fall apart. I think they need to "think outside the dots" for accomplishing the goals rather than sinking their teeth into the tried and true technologies/philosophies.

The excerpt below mentions TIPOFF. How can this project be two years old and they are just now studying other systems to determine the basic architecture!! How can you have a two-year project that has reportedly been placed into "test" slipping its schedule at least twice and not have the BASIC ARCHITECTURE?

My next question is: Has this work been outsourced to off-shore development companies?

My next prediction is, to solve the identity issues, they will determine they must include DNA. After all, you can't rely on names, dates, locations, or any of those other house-holding identifiers. Collect that DNA!

Excuse me...i have an overwhelming desire to scream!!

For now, about a dozen databases from nine agencies are being massaged and merged. Officials are studying whether to use the State Department's TIPOFF watchlist as the basic architecture.

FBI Director Robert Mueller has compared combining the information to lining up the colors on a Rubik's Cube.

Some of the problems are quite mundane. One law enforcement official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said a tricky problem is sorting out what is duplicative and what criteria should be used to develop the list, given all the available information.

More complex problems arise out of the issue of sharing data.