Security Experts Say Antiterror Information Tools Flawed

Computerworld - Washington
False visas, forged passports and identification documents, and the ability to slip into the country before the CIA's watch list of suspected terrorists could be shared with the FBI and border patrol agents: These are just a few of the factors that enabled terrorists to enter the U.S., board commercial airliners and crash them into the World Trade Center, the Pentagon and rural Pennsylvania, killing thousands.
And now the events leading up to the Sept. 11 tragedy have led experts to call for massive upgrades and improvements in the way border-crossing security data is handled in the U.S.
Attorney General John Ashcroft has issued a legislative proposal to pass new wiretap laws that would allow federal law enforcement officials to obtain wiretaps that target individuals instead of the hardware they use to communicate, as is called for under current law. Meanwhile, other security experts are calling for a dramatic change in the systems used to share intelligence information and authenticate the identities of individuals entering and leaving the country.
Virginia Gov. James Gilmore, a Republican, heads a special commission of experts that's looking into ways the U.S. government can improve its ability to track suspected and known terrorists and respond to incidents. Gilmore's commission, which has issued two reports so far, is speeding up the release of its third and final report, which will include specific recommendations on information-sharing and border security.
"We need to have an intelligence dissemination capability," said Gilmore. "We don't have that today."
Currently, there are at least a half-dozen database systems used to help authorities weed out known or suspected terrorists and criminals at border crossings and airports, as well as a visa and passport system that does not yet take advantage of advanced authentication technologies such as biometrics. That's the conclusion of a report issued in June by the Congressional Research Service (CRS).
"With new technologies, a traveler's identity could be quickly and definitively verified by matching their identity with biometric identifiers like facial geometry, iris scans and fingerprints that could be incorporated into passports, visas, and other travel documents," states the report.
The problem of monitoring and tracking border crossings is monumental. This year, the State Department plans to process more than 7.5 million nonimmigrant visa applications, about 500,000 immigrant visa applications and more than 7.8 million passports, according to the report. In addition, of the 250,00 foreign students who enter the U.S. every year, about 1,000 are from states that support terrorism, said L. Paul Bremmer, former director of the State