Senate leader prods officials to better share data

The chairwoman of the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee on Wednesday blasted Bush administration officials for the sluggish rate at which they are making improvements to share information in order to better target terrorists and criminals.

"It is particularly frustrating to me to see that there are still serious examples of a lack of consistent information sharing that is harmful to our homeland security," said Susan Collins, R-Maine. "It doesn't require a new law to be passed; it does not require an executive order; it does not require a massive appropriation. What it requires is simply to have agencies to work together to share vital information to help protect our nation against terror and other criminals who would do us harm."

The National Commission on Terrorist Attacks last year found that al Qaeda terrorists were using fraudulent passports and had violated immigration laws while in the United States. The commission also found that the consular offices within the State Department were not provided the requisite information or lists to help them identify terrorists.

Those findings have been buttressed by a Government Accountability Office (GAO) report issued in May that said State had incomplete information about the FBI's most-wanted fugitives.

State has addressed many of the issues raised by the GAO report, Frank Moss, the department's deputy assistant secretary for passport services, said during the hearing.

He reported that State signed an agreement with the Terrorist Screening Center (TSC) on Tuesday. The deal will enable the department to provide the center with information about passport applicants who are of "concern to TSC due to a nexus to terrorism or an ongoing investigation." The agreement will not be operational until August, he said.

State also has taken steps recommended by the GAO report to strengthen its process for issuing passports. They include building a library of suspicious documents that could be used fraudulently to obtain legitimate passports, as well as checking with the Social Security Administration to verify Social Security numbers used to obtain passports.

In his written testimony, Moss reported that State has begun a field test of its new e-passports with United Airlines employees who fly between the United States and Australia and New Zealand. Those passports have come under criticism from privacy advocates, who have said that their wireless chips pose a security threat to the holders because they can be scanned from afar.

Calling the agreement between TSC and State a major step forward, Collins nevertheless pressed administration officials who testified Wednesday to hurry.

"I realize there are technological challenges, I realize there are problems of false positives, but in this age of databases and computers, surely we ought to be able to come up with a system that would allow us to stop issuing passports to fugitives ... and to terrorists," she said.