The New York Times > Washington > Disarray Thwarts Terrorist List, Inquiry Finds: "Efforts to create a master terrorist 'watch list,' a priority for the Bush administration, are lagging badly because of a lack of leadership at the Department of Homeland Security and other bureaucratic problems, the department's inspector general said in a report released Friday.
The highly critical report found that the effort, which seeks to combine 10 watch lists now in use by agencies across the federal government, suffers from poor coordination, staffing problems and technical hurdles. The problems reflect a 'pattern of ad hoc approaches to counterterrorism' throughout the government, it said.
It was the second government report in less than a week that found serious cracks in what are seen as cornerstones in the administration's efforts to bolster counterterrorism operations and domestic defense.
In a separate report issued on Monday, the Justice Department's inspector general faulted the Federal Bureau of Investigation for continuing problems in its ability to translate terrorism-related material, with a backlog of more than 120,000 hours of audio material. Computer storage problems may have also led the F.B.I. to systematically erase some recordings in investigating Al Qaeda, the department said. "
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