Scribd
Upload
69 views2 pages

The Terror Watch List Database's Troubles Continue

The Terrorist Screening Center (TSC) database was established by the FBI after 9/11 to consolidate multiple government watch lists into a single database containing information on suspected terrorists. The database contains identities, names, dates of birth, and classified information that is accessible to certain law enforcement agencies. While the consolidated database allows for improved information sharing between agencies, it also experiences issues with redundant or inaccurate listings and occasionally matching people to the wrong identities due to various input and management problems between contributing agencies. Questions remain around privacy and Constitutional rights concerns given the large scope and potential for errors in the watchlist system.

Uploaded by

Jennifer Pham
Copyright
© Attribution Non-Commercial (BY-NC)
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as DOC, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
69 views2 pages

The Terror Watch List Database's Troubles Continue

The Terrorist Screening Center (TSC) database was established by the FBI after 9/11 to consolidate multiple government watch lists into a single database containing information on suspected terrorists. The database contains identities, names, dates of birth, and classified information that is accessible to certain law enforcement agencies. While the consolidated database allows for improved information sharing between agencies, it also experiences issues with redundant or inaccurate listings and occasionally matching people to the wrong identities due to various input and management problems between contributing agencies. Questions remain around privacy and Constitutional rights concerns given the large scope and potential for errors in the watchlist system.

Uploaded by

Jennifer Pham
Copyright
© Attribution Non-Commercial (BY-NC)
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as DOC, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
You are on page 1/ 2

Olga Garza Jesus Martinez Gerardo Landeros David Price A.J.

Castillo The Terror Watch List Databases Troubles Continue The Terrorist Screening Center (TSC) was established by the FBI after the tragic events of 9/11. This database joints together multiple government agencies into one that lists information about suspected terrorists. The TSC database contains information available for airlines and other agencies such as the terrorists identity, name and date of birth. It also has classified information which only certain law enforcement can access. This database brings together information from other types of agencies, the FBI provides information based on domestic terrorism and the National Counterterrorism Center (NCTC) provides the information on international terrorism. All these agencies collect and input the individuals information in the database, if for some reason there was a mistake in information, the individual nominated into the database will remain there until the department or agency that nominated them determines they should be removed. The TSC is updated daily with 400,000 people, 1.1 million aliases and up to 200,000 more entries a year. Other agencies that have access to the database are the FBI, CIA, National Security Agency, Transportation Security Administration, Department of Homeland Security, State Department, Customs and Border Protection, Secret Service, U.S Marshals Service and the White House. The Transportation Security Administration (TSA) supplies airlines with the NoFly and Selectee lists that are used to screen airline passengers. Though it helps with tracking terrorists, the database also has its downfalls; it tends to have multiple entries of names and matches a name to the wrong person. To better understand the Terror Watch List case, several questions were included: What concepts in this chapter are illustrated in this case? The FBIs primary goal was to make the Terrorist Screening Center by consolidating multiple databases into one. The use of data warehouses is the second concept. From all the data that is being provided agencies receive a subset of data that carries the information needed for their task. For example, Border Protection and U.S. Customs use the data from the watch list to help screen potential terrorist while the NoFly and Selectee lists are used by the airlines. All these lists make up one but the agencies only use the data that pertains to their area of expertise. Why was the consolidated terror watch list created? What are the benefits of the list? The Terrorist Screening Center was created to have organized information about suspected terrorist nationally

and internationally. It allows multiple agencies to communicate with each other through this one database and gives them the information they need. Before the TSC, other databases were created that contained separate list for each agency and they couldnt share information on other agencys list. Describe some of the weaknesses of the watch list. What management, organization, and technology factors are responsible for these weaknesses? Not being able to manage and control the list effectively is the first weakness. The TSC is large when it comes to names and aliases that are being added daily to the list, finding a fast and effective way to manage the mistakes in the list will help minimize the problems that arise. For example, Michael Hicks, an 8 year old boy has been continually stopped at the airport because his name resembles one of a suspected terrorist. Like Michael, there are many more innocent people that are being stopped at airports or questioned because of a mistake in the database. As of today there is no fast way to remove someone from the watch list, it takes up to 40 days to process the request and there are up to 24,000 request for removal being submitted. As an organization, the multiple agencies lack an effective way to nominate individuals, remove them from the list or modify it. With 12 databases being converted into one, there is no correct way for someone to be added to the list. Coming up with a more organized manner of using the database would make all the agencies job simpler and more effective. When it comes to technology, the mere existence of errors and other weaknesses makes for the poor quality of the database. Most times the information ends up being inaccurate, redundant or without sufficient information. The Transportation Security Administration needs to find a way in which the wrong data could somehow be matched up with other inaccurate information from the various databases and modified. Do you believe that the watch list represents a significant threat to individuals privacy or Constitutional rights? In order to answer this question we had to weigh the pros and cons of the watch list, if it wasnt for the Terrorist Screening Center, multiple terrorists would not have been caught by the FBI and other agencies that use the TSC. The watch list gives the agencies the opportunity to track the terrorist and to be able to predict what their next move will be and prevent their plans from happening. Part of the weaknesses with the TSC was the errors in the databases and mistaking innocent people for terrorist and the concerns about privacy. Some people would not be comfortable having their private information viewed by the agencies using the watch list and that is understandable. Others claim that the watch list promotes racial profiling and discrimination and that too would make one feel uncomfortable. While we agreed with the cons of the watch list we feel that all things have a downside and in this case the bad things that come with the watch list can be overlooked if it means our safety.

You might also like