Commission: Agencies still not sharing information
Current system would not prevent another large-scale terrorist attack, 9/11 panel chief says.
The federal government's current system for sharing information across agencies would not thwart another terrorist attack, the top commissioners of the independent committee investigating the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks told Congress Friday.
"The present system is unacceptable and just doesn't work," said Sept. 11 Commission Chairman Thomas Kean, who along with Vice Chairman Lee Hamilton, laid out top proposals for the Senate Governmental Affairs Committee. The commissioners said as recently as three weeks ago they found important data isolated at one agency.
The commission's top reforms call for elevating one official - a national intelligence director - to break up turf wars with sharing information across the federal government and give the director authority over all intelligence personnel, information technology and security.
The second key proposal is creating a National Counter Terrorism Center, which would integrate all federal databases that contain information about suspected criminal and terrorists to allow officials searching capability across agency lines.
But Sen. Richard Durbin, D-Ill., argued the government must go beyond current technological capabilities and quickly establish the next "Manhattan Project," referring to the World War II initiative on nuclear weapons, to counter terrorism threats against the United States.
"We're woefully behind on development of technology in our government," stated Durbin, during the first in a series of congressional hearings slated for August on its recommendations.
The commissioners agreed, and said a national intelligence director at the White House level - rather than the existing disparate intelligence offices across the government -- would help to carry out new information technology policies.
Friday's hearing follows reports that President Bush plans to issue executive orders next week to quickly implement some commission recommendations. Congress also has cut short its annual summer break to hold numerous hearings on the matter next month. Senate Governmental Affairs Chairwoman Susan Collins, R-Maine, who supports a national intelligence director, said her panel would draft legislation by the end of September.
After establishing a national intelligence director, the next "urgent" priorities include improving congressional oversight of the intelligence community and border screening technology, added Kean and Hamilton.
The commission's report found the Homeland Security Department's current traveler screening system - known as US VISIT - covers only 12 percent of all noncitizens crossing U.S. borders and may not be fully installed before 2010.
Kean and Hamilton on Friday said the government must move faster on deploying biometric technology - such as facial recognition, iris scanners, digital fingerprints and others - for a robust system to track foreign visitors entering and exiting the country. The report also said the department must link the biometric traveling documents with "good data systems and decision making," not the current "antiquated computer environment."
The commissioners conceded Congress may need to infuse more money into the US VISIT system for quick completion - one of their only proposals that they said would require federal dollars.