WASHINGTON — Three years after the lack of coordination among federal security agencies contributed to the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, the Department of Homeland Security has failed in its effort to create a single, comprehensive "watch list" of suspected terrorists, according to a government report released Friday.
"DHS is not fulfilling its responsibility under the Homeland Security Act," said Clark Kent Ervin, inspector general of the Homeland Security Department, whose office conducted the study.
The department's failure to produce a viable terrorist watch list stemmed primarily from a lack of leadership and intelligence agencies' continued failure to coordinate information, the report said.
Without a central database containing the latest information about possible terrorists, border guards and other security personnel are hard-pressed to do their jobs, experts say. The absence of the watch list and information-sharing among agencies has been cited as a major factor in the Sept. 11 attacks.
The inspector general's report comes at a critical time.
The administration's handling of the war on terrorism has become a central issue in an unusually hard-fought presidential campaign. In the first presidential debate Thursday night, Democratic challenger Sen. John F. Kerry repeatedly accused President Bush of taking his eye off the ball and mismanaging the fight against terrorism, both at home and abroad.
Bush insisted that he had made difficult but correct decisions, both in launching the Iraq war and in his efforts to bolster domestic security.
And Congress is in the midst of a controversial effort to define the authority of a new national director of intelligence as part of a broad reform of the country's defenses against terrorism.
Advocates of a strong national director saw Friday's report as vindication of their position. It "underscores the need for a strong intelligence director," said Leslie Phillips, spokeswoman for Sen. Joe Lieberman (D-Conn.). Lieberman and Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine) are co-authors of an intelligence reform bill that provides for creation of a Cabinet-level director with far-reaching power over all intelligence agencies.
The Pentagon and other agencies, which would lose autonomy under such a system, have lobbied for a director with more limited authority.
What makes the new report unusually difficult for the administration to criticize or dismiss is that it was prepared by Homeland Security analysts, not an outside group.
