DOJ Inspector General Blasts Terrorist Watch List

Federal judges are not the only ones finding fault with government surveillance programs and databases.

On Thursday, the Office of the Inspector General at the Department of Justice released a critical follow-up audit of the government's master watch list of of known or suspected terrorists.

In a 106-page report, the inspector general's auditors said the three-year-old Terrorism Screening Center, which is run by the FBI and the Department of Homeland Security, still has inaccurate, outdated or duplicate records among its more than 700,000 entries.

The audit also found that 20 names of suspected or known terrorists had not been made available to immigration and customs inspectors, police officers and visa-application officers.

"A single omission of a terrorist identity or an inaccuracy in the identifying information contained in a watchlist record can have enormous consequences," the report states. "Furthermore, inaccurate, incomplete and obsolete watchlist information increases the chances of innocent persons being stopped or detained during an encounter..."

The full report is here.