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CNN Live Today
Terror Watch Lists
Aired August 12, 2003 - 10:16 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
HEIDI COLLINS, CNN ANCHOR: In the days after the September 11 terror attacks, there was a call for a new system to track suspected terrorists. It has now been almost two years since 9/11, and that system is still not yet in place. That has a lot of people worried.
CNN homeland security correspondent Jeanne Meserve joining us now from Washington.
So, Jeanne, why the delay?
JEANNE MESERVE, CNN HOMELAND SECURITY CORRESPONDENT: Well, Heidi, you're right, almost two years after 9/11, there is still no single watch list, and some members of Congress are fed up with this.
Democratic senator and presidential candidate Joe Lieberman has fired off a letter to Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge, calling it an intolerable failure that poses an unacceptable risk to the American people. And Congressman Henry Waxman and Jim Turner are asking Secretary Ridge for a timetable and a plan for fixing the situation.
Why is this such a concern? Well, two of the seven 11 hijackers might have been stopped if CIA information about them had been shared and their names put on a single watch list.
But two years later, the GAO says there are 12 watch lists maintained by nine agencies. Critics say there is no consistency, that there are gaps which might allow terrorists to enter the country and to stay here. The Department of Homeland Security insists some progress is being made, that there is, for instance, more sharing of names among watch lists. And a spokesman says there may never be just one because different agencies need different kinds of information. He says, instead, the goal is to have one database from which different watch lists can be extracted.
The timetable for all of this, well, Heidi, there just isn't one.
COLLINS: Is that because it's so complicated? What exactly is the biggest challenge here?
MESERVE: Well, it is technologically complicated. I'm told that you have different systems, different databases, even different fields. For instance, someone from the Ukraine might be entered in one system as being a citizen of UK. In another system, that would pop up as United Kingdom. But there are other people outside of government who tell me this really isn't all that complicated to do, that it happens in the business world all the time. And critics are saying the real issues are lake of leadership, a lack of funding and also old-fashioned turf wars -- Heidi.
COLLINS: All right, CNN's homeland security correspondent Jeanne Meserve. Thanks so much for that today.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
Aired August 12, 2003 - 10:16 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
HEIDI COLLINS, CNN ANCHOR: In the days after the September 11 terror attacks, there was a call for a new system to track suspected terrorists. It has now been almost two years since 9/11, and that system is still not yet in place. That has a lot of people worried.
CNN homeland security correspondent Jeanne Meserve joining us now from Washington.
So, Jeanne, why the delay?
JEANNE MESERVE, CNN HOMELAND SECURITY CORRESPONDENT: Well, Heidi, you're right, almost two years after 9/11, there is still no single watch list, and some members of Congress are fed up with this.
Democratic senator and presidential candidate Joe Lieberman has fired off a letter to Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge, calling it an intolerable failure that poses an unacceptable risk to the American people. And Congressman Henry Waxman and Jim Turner are asking Secretary Ridge for a timetable and a plan for fixing the situation.
Why is this such a concern? Well, two of the seven 11 hijackers might have been stopped if CIA information about them had been shared and their names put on a single watch list.
But two years later, the GAO says there are 12 watch lists maintained by nine agencies. Critics say there is no consistency, that there are gaps which might allow terrorists to enter the country and to stay here. The Department of Homeland Security insists some progress is being made, that there is, for instance, more sharing of names among watch lists. And a spokesman says there may never be just one because different agencies need different kinds of information. He says, instead, the goal is to have one database from which different watch lists can be extracted.
The timetable for all of this, well, Heidi, there just isn't one.
COLLINS: Is that because it's so complicated? What exactly is the biggest challenge here?
MESERVE: Well, it is technologically complicated. I'm told that you have different systems, different databases, even different fields. For instance, someone from the Ukraine might be entered in one system as being a citizen of UK. In another system, that would pop up as United Kingdom. But there are other people outside of government who tell me this really isn't all that complicated to do, that it happens in the business world all the time. And critics are saying the real issues are lake of leadership, a lack of funding and also old-fashioned turf wars -- Heidi.
COLLINS: All right, CNN's homeland security correspondent Jeanne Meserve. Thanks so much for that today.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
