Homeland Security still seeking to consolidate 'watch lists'

Homeland Security Department Deputy Secretary Gordon England said Wednesday that the department has not completed the task of combining a dozen separate "watch lists" of potential terrorists because it is a "technical challenge" to consolidate databases and computers that were not designed to share information.

The lists are intended to prevent suspected terrorists from entering the country. Homeland Security officials previously said the different databases often name the same people under different spellings, birth dates or hometowns.

At a news conference hosted by the Heritage Foundation, England also said the low cost and ready accessibility of technology poses a hurdle to combating terrorism, arguing that in the information age, technology, information and organizations can "move around the world."

In Homeland Security's first six months, England said the department has made "measurable progress" in several areas but has more to do. "It's a marathon, not a sprint," he added.

The accomplishments, England said, include: establishing the counter-terrorism intelligence-analysis office known as the Terrorist Threat Integration Center, which allows different federal agencies to share data; implementing biometric technology such as facial-recognition and iris-scanning applications to track immigrants; and using radiation pagers and non-intrusive inspection machines to scan materials entering the country.

U.S. officials use some scanning devices in foreign port to screen materials before they leave those countries and enter the United States.

England added that the Container Security Initiative, which calls for pre-screening cargo before it reaches U.S. ports, has been expanded to the Middle East, Turkey and Malaysia.

The deputy secretary also called the department's new information analysis organization a "cornerstone capability" for analyzing and prioritizing the department's resources in order to protect the country's infrastructure.