GAO to investigate gaps in terrorist watch lists

In the wake of the failed bombing of a U.S. airliner on Christmas Day, the chairman of a key House oversight panel has called on the Government Accountability Office to probe potential shortcomings of the terrorist watch list.

Rep. Edolphus Towns, D-N.Y., chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, announced Wednesday that he has asked GAO to update its October 2007 investigation of the Terrorist Screening Database, a central watch list the FBI's Terrorist Screening Center maintains.

The government's system of multiple watch lists has come under intense scrutiny since Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab tried to bring down Northwest Flight 253 from Amsterdam to Detroit.

Officials said Abdulmutallab was on the National Counterterrorism Center's Terrorist Identities Datamart Environment database of about 550,00 suspected terrorists. But he was not in the FBI's more stringent Terrorist Screening Database or on the government's separate no-fly list. The Terrorist Screening Database has more than 400,000 names, while the no-fly list includes about 4,000 names, officials said.

"Given the critical importance of this issue, I asked GAO to expedite their review of the terrorist watch list and report back to the committee as soon as possible," Towns said. "We need be sure that the system is adequately prepared to prevent any future attack."

The watchdog will identify major changes the government has made to address previously noted vulnerabilities, the impact of those changes, and what recommendations, if any, have not been fully implemented, Towns said. He added he is particularly concerned by the lack of integration of lists and failure of agencies to share information.

But, the top Republican on the Oversight Committee is not satisfied with Towns' response to the attempted attack. In a Jan. 5 letter to Towns, Rep. Darrell Issa, R-Calif., said the panel should be holding oversight hearings on the incident.

Issa noted that since 2001, the committee has held more than 35 hearings on homeland security readiness, border security and interagency communication.

"The communication and information breakdown that exposed staggering vulnerabilities in our nation's security has brought to light the urgent need for our committee to reassert our oversight prerogatives," Issa said.

Towns responded in a letter to Issa on Wednesday, noting that the oversight committee's role as the lead homeland security watchdog has changed in recent years.

"A key recommendation of the 9/11 commission was that Congress consolidate oversight of the Department of Homeland Security," Towns wrote. "The House of Representatives implemented this recommendation by establishing the Committee on Homeland Security as a permanent standing committee of the House. Accordingly, I will coordinate our committee's review of this incident with the Committee on Homeland Security, along with other committees such as the Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, to ensure a thorough review without unnecessary duplication that could distract DHS from its important mission."

The chairman announced he would hold hearings in the coming months on other homeland security issues, including cybersecurity and the deployment of secure ID cards under REAL ID programs.

This response, however, led to even more sniping between the normally collegial panel leaders.

"When two morons decided to breach White House security [during a White House state dinner], Chairman Towns was one of the first people out of the gate to call for an investigation that included the Oversight Committee," Issa spokesman Kurt Bardella said. "Now, when we've had an attempted terrorist attack over American soil, Ed Towns is silent. It's nice to see that coming into 2010 we can expect the same rigorous oversight Chairman Towns spearheaded in 2009."

President Obama has directed homeland security adviser John Brennan to lead a review of the terrorist watch-listing system. Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano, meanwhile, is to review aviation screening, technology and procedures. Following a meeting on Tuesday with his top national security officials, the president said intelligence agencies had enough information to disrupt the terrorist plot but failed to connect the dots.

"This was not a failure to collect intelligence; it was a failure to integrate and understand the intelligence that we already had," Obama said. "The information was there. Agencies and analysts who needed it had access to it. And our professionals were trained to look for it and to bring it all together."