State Department asks firms to create intelligence database
Secretary of State Colin Powell on Monday asked the private firms that make up the President's Council of Advisors on Science and Technology (PCAST) for help in creating an integrated intelligence database that would ensure that the more than 300 U.S. embassies do not grant visas to individuals who mean harm to the United States.
Powell said the State Department needs a system where its overseas officers can enter applicant data and cross-reference it against a network of compatible national security databases to confidently grant visas to the estimated 7 million people a year that apply to enter the country.
"The State Department needs a system that supports them in their assessment of ... applications ... to make sure it is checked against every intelligence database and that those databases are integrated so that they only have to check once," Powell told a PCAST gathering at State. "Maybe you all can help us with ideas for that."
Powell said he recognizes that database integration is a matter of technology and policy, adding that the head of the proposed Homeland Security Department would be responsible for ensuring that the policies smooth the integration of intelligence information.
Powell also said that his department is spending $200 million a year to improve its information technology systems and that he has two computers on his desk - one for external e-mail and the other to access the agency's intranet.
"I keep no reference material, no dictionaries, no encyclopedias in my office anymore ... because all you need is a search engine" on the Internet, he said.
Before Powell spoke, PCAST members discussed a report on federal science and technology research and recommended that the Bush administration consider establishing multiyear engineering fellowships to stem the declining number of students seeking doctorates in that field.
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