WASHINGTON -- The Federal Bureau of Investigation is sometimes dangerously slow to add suspects to the nation's terrorist watch list, and even slower to remove those cleared of suspicion, an internal audit found.
The report issued Wednesday by the Justice Department's inspector general, Glenn Fine, found lapses in the way the FBI managed its Terrorist Screening Center.
Among the lapses: Some subjects of terror probes entered and left the U.S. during the time they should have been on watch lists; and the FBI doesn't know the total number of names it has put on the list, because it only started keeping count in 2005.
The Terrorist Screening Center, created in 2003, is responsible for consolidating lists of potential terrorists compiled by federal and local authorities.
The report adds to criticism leveled in recent years about the inaccuracies in the government's watch-list system, which sometimes causes travel tie-ups for innocent people, including infants, trying to fly into the U.S. Last year, after intervention by members of Congress, the U.S. dropped Nelson Mandela and his family from the terrorism watch list.
The FBI said Wednesday it has implemented changes to address all 16 recommendations from the audit. It said the issues "are all now resolved."
However, the audit report says, "we believe that weaknesses continue to exist [and] significant improvements are still necessary."
At the end of 2008, the watch list contained more than 1.1 million names, with some people listed multiple times under different spellings, according to the report. Last September, the screening center estimated there were 400,000 individuals on the list.
Mr. Fine, the inspector general, said the FBI takes too long to add the names of potentially dangerous individuals to the watch list. Auditors reviewed 216 FBI terror investigations and found that the FBI failed to put the names of 35 terrorism suspects in those probes on the list. Others were added too slowly to meet the FBI's own standards, an issue that "can have significant consequences for public safety," Mr. Fine said in his report.
Twelve terrorism suspects who either weren't listed or were added late may have traveled into or out of the U.S. during the time they weren't on the list, according to the audit. Auditors said the FBI noted many of those lapses were mitigated because the suspects were on separate backup lists.
The FBI, in a statement, said: "An FBI audit of all field offices for January and February 2009 reflects significant improvements in the timeliness of the FBI's watch list submissions."
Nearly 35% of the names attributed to the FBI on the watch list came from old or nonterrorism investigations. In one case, a person who was the subject of an investigation remained on the watch list for nearly five years after the probe was closed
The report issued Wednesday by the Justice Department's inspector general, Glenn Fine, found lapses in the way the FBI managed its Terrorist Screening Center.
Among the lapses: Some subjects of terror probes entered and left the U.S. during the time they should have been on watch lists; and the FBI doesn't know the total number of names it has put on the list, because it only started keeping count in 2005.
The Terrorist Screening Center, created in 2003, is responsible for consolidating lists of potential terrorists compiled by federal and local authorities.
The report adds to criticism leveled in recent years about the inaccuracies in the government's watch-list system, which sometimes causes travel tie-ups for innocent people, including infants, trying to fly into the U.S. Last year, after intervention by members of Congress, the U.S. dropped Nelson Mandela and his family from the terrorism watch list.
The FBI said Wednesday it has implemented changes to address all 16 recommendations from the audit. It said the issues "are all now resolved."
However, the audit report says, "we believe that weaknesses continue to exist [and] significant improvements are still necessary."
At the end of 2008, the watch list contained more than 1.1 million names, with some people listed multiple times under different spellings, according to the report. Last September, the screening center estimated there were 400,000 individuals on the list.
Mr. Fine, the inspector general, said the FBI takes too long to add the names of potentially dangerous individuals to the watch list. Auditors reviewed 216 FBI terror investigations and found that the FBI failed to put the names of 35 terrorism suspects in those probes on the list. Others were added too slowly to meet the FBI's own standards, an issue that "can have significant consequences for public safety," Mr. Fine said in his report.
Twelve terrorism suspects who either weren't listed or were added late may have traveled into or out of the U.S. during the time they weren't on the list, according to the audit. Auditors said the FBI noted many of those lapses were mitigated because the suspects were on separate backup lists.
The FBI, in a statement, said: "An FBI audit of all field offices for January and February 2009 reflects significant improvements in the timeliness of the FBI's watch list submissions."
Nearly 35% of the names attributed to the FBI on the watch list came from old or nonterrorism investigations. In one case, a person who was the subject of an investigation remained on the watch list for nearly five years after the probe was closed
