Panelists revisit inability to share anti-terrorism data

Three years after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, intelligence officers at agencies like the CIA and FBI still do not have open access to each other's databases.

Former New Jersey Republican Gov. Thomas Kean, the chairman of an independent commission that investigated the attacks, simply replied "no" on Tuesday when asked if intelligence agencies have computer interface capability. He added that intelligence officials have not provided a timeline for such action but said, "They're working on it."

Kean and Vice Chairman Lee Hamilton, a former Democratic House member from Indiana, testified before the House Homeland Security Committee on the so-called 9/11 Commission's recommendations to bolster information sharing.

Hamilton said the core focus of a new national intelligence director would be enforcing information sharing across the 15 agencies that collect intelligence. Naming such a director, who would oversee a counter-terrorism center to fuse, analyze and share intelligence data, is the top recommendation of the commission.

"It is a critically important role," Hamilton said of enforcing information sharing.

Lawmakers on the Homeland Security panel questioned how the new organization structure would affect the existing Terrorist Threat Integration Center (TTIC), which was established after the Sept. 11 tragedy to share information.

"We think TTIC is the right concept, but it needs to be strengthened," Hamilton said. He added that TTIC's governing agency at the Homeland Security Department, the information analysis and infrastructure protection division, would continue to exist but would lose its overall analysis authority to a national counter-terrorism center.

To provide better information to consular officers and customs inspectors, who are responsible for stopping terrorists from entering the country with fraudulent travel documents, the commissioners called for Congress to provide more funds to complete the current immigrant-tracking computer system known as US-VISIT.

Texas Democrat Jim Turner, ranking member of the Homeland Security panel, on Tuesday criticized the system. Before the hearing, Turner released a statement saying a review of the system by his office found that the department deployed an antiquated computer system that cannot share information among key agencies. He sent a letter to the Homeland Security Department requesting information about plans to complete the system.

The commissioners also weighed into the debate over making the temporary House Homeland Security Committee a permanent standing panel. House leaders must decide in January whether to make the panel permanent.

One of their recommendations included assigning congressional oversight of the new Homeland Security Department to one panel each in both the House and Senate, rather than forcing Homeland Security officials to answer to more than 88 committees and subcommittees. "It's not fair to the executive branch," argued Hamilton, saying officials must spend time protecting the homeland, not testifying before the numerous committees that share jurisdiction over the issues.

He also expressed sympathy for the inevitable fight that would happen over taking jurisdiction from committees. "When you're talking about reform of Congress, you're talking about reform of power," he said. "And power is the name of the game."