WaPo: Terror Database Has Quadrupled In Four Years

[babylonsister]

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/03/24/AR2007032400944.html

Terror Database Has Quadrupled In Four Years
U.S. Watch Lists Are Drawn From Massive Clearinghouse

By Karen DeYoung
Washington Post Staff Writer
Sunday, March 25, 2007; Page A01

Each day, thousands of pieces of intelligence information from around the world -- field reports, captured documents, news from foreign allies and sometimes idle gossip -- arrive in a computer-filled office in McLean, where analysts feed them into the nation's central list of terrorists and terrorism suspects.

Called TIDE, for Terrorist Identities Datamart Environment, the list is a storehouse for data about individuals that the intelligence community believes might harm the United States. It is the wellspring for watch lists distributed to airlines, law enforcement, border posts and U.S. consulates, created to close one of the key intelligence gaps revealed after Sept. 11, 2001: the failure of federal agencies to share what they knew about al-Qaeda operatives.

But in addressing one problem, TIDE has spawned others. Ballooning from fewer than 100,000 files in 2003 to about 435,000, the growing database threatens to overwhelm the people who manage it. "The single biggest worry that I have is long-term quality control," said Russ Travers, in charge of TIDE at the National Counterterrorism Center in McLean. "Where am I going to be, where is my successor going to be, five years down the road?"

TIDE has also created concerns about secrecy, errors and privacy. The list marks the first time foreigners and U.S. citizens are combined in an intelligence database. The bar for inclusion is low, and once someone is on the list, it is virtually impossible to get off it. At any stage, the process can lead to "horror stories" of mixed-up names and unconfirmed information, Travers acknowledged.

The watch lists fed by TIDE, used to monitor everyone entering the country or having even a casual encounter with federal, state and local law enforcement, have a higher bar. But they have become a source of irritation -- and potentially more serious consequences -- for many U.S. citizens and visitors.

more...

[Laughing Mirror]

1. Catherine Stevens aka Yusuf Islam aka Cat Stevens

The momentum is there. They just won"'t stop until they have every living breathing person in the world in that phony goddam database in McLean.

What a huge ridiculous waste of money, time, & resources. And it's all for what? Of all the many millions of people coming in and out of this country every year, how many so-called terrorists have been caught? One?

One of these days, after this sham eavesdropping system running this country finally collapses - and I hope the sooner the better - there'll be a Museum of Terrorism on the Washington Mall. It will be filled with all the junk and contraptions of agencies such as this TIDE joint out in McLean (next to CIA, I guess) that have been devised to snoop on innocent people and wreak general havoc in everybody's lives. Visitors to the Terrorist Musuem will be amused and shocked at how anybody could have believed the official story for one second and how Americans willfully put up with this insane nonsense. Tour guides will amaze the visitors recounting the many stories of how Americans were at one time (the present day now) actually were tricked into believing that there were slimy terrorists and all kinds of goblins and spooks out there in dark corners of the world jumping at the chance to come and get them. Peoples' mouths will drop open when they discover that the real terrorists were their own government.

How in the world do they get away with it I wonder. The country has really gone to the dogs.

[babylonsister]

2. Here's a 60 Minutes segment from last year, talking to a bunch of

'Robert Johnsons' who always had problems with airport security because their lists were so screwed up.

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2006/10/05/60minutes/main2066624_page2.shtml