DHS is failing to lead watch-list integration, IG says

Poor interagency coordination and weak leadership on the part of the Homeland Security Department are hampering efforts to create a comprehensive list of potential or known terrorists, according to a report issued Friday by the department's inspector general.

The ongoing effort to integrate these existing databases into a meaningful "terrorist watch list" is believed by many to be a critical factor in improving security.

"In the absence of central leadership and oversight for the watch- list consolidation, planning, budgeting, staffing, and requirements definition continue to be dealt with on an ad hoc basis, posing a risk to successful accomplishment of the goal," Inspector General Clark Kent Ervin concluded in his report.

He released a redacted version of the report to the public over the objections of Frank Libutti, undersecretary of information analysis and infrastructure protection at Homeland Security. In a letter to Ervin commenting on a draft of the report, Lubutti wrote, "Given the sensitivity of this topic, we continue to express serious concerns about your intention to publicly release this report."

Watch-list consolidation has been a contentious issue for federal agencies. Nine federal agencies use 12 separate systems and databases to support law enforcement and border security processes, according to the Government Accountability Office. Those systems include the State Department's Consular Lookout and Support System, the FBI's Violent Gang and Terrorist Organization File, the Transportation Security Administration's "no-fly" lists and the Customs and Border Protection's Interagency Border Inspection System.

Information sharing between agencies historically has been done with no clear policies and procedures to govern data sharing. Because these systems were developed over time for specific purposes supporting the the mission of their parent agencies, they are not supported by common architectures, complicating efforts to share critical data among agencies.

The 2002 Homeland Security Act was intended to rectify all that. The act established the Homeland Security Department and gave the department's undersecretary for information analysis and infrastructure protection, the position held by Libutti, considerable responsibility for coordinating efforts and information among federal agencies to protect the nation against future terrorist threats.

But Homeland Security officials are not playing a lead role in coordinating the sharing of information on terrorist watch lists, the IG found: "[Libutti's office] has not provided the leadership of the watch list consolidation effort that is needed. Specifically, DHS is not carrying out significant responsibilities assigned to it under the Homeland Security Act, i.e. orchestrating the integration on terrorist information and establishing national policies and guidelines governing the use of such information."

Instead, that role is being played by two new interagency organizations, the Terrorist Threat Integration Center, or TTIC, which is directed by the CIA with support from the FBI, and the Terrorist Screening Center, directed by FBI.

Libutti's office lacked critical resources needed to coordinate the watch list consolidation. The report notes that the Information Analysis and Infrastructure Protection Directorate has had difficulty hiring personnel with the appropriate security clearances to support its risk and threat analysis missions and initially lacked adequate space and technology for handling classified information. The result has been "long workdays for employees, which negatively affects morale and results in reactionary rather than proactive operations, according to a senior IAIP representative. Sending staff to support TTIC and TSC operations only exacerbates the difficult staffing situation," the IG reported.

In his response to the report, Libutti wrote: "It was determined at the highest levels of the government that [the Justice Department] was in a better position to take on the responsibility for coordinating the Federal government's effort in watch list consolidation. That was not a decision that was made lightly."