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Congress: Terror Threat System Full of Flaws

A U.S. House subcommittee is charging that a $500 million IT project intended to "connect the dots" on terrorists and help prevent another 9/11 is a failure

By Patrick Thibodeau, Computerworld

The project connects dozens of data sources from a variety of agencies, using an XML platform to achieve integration. But the design team behind the effort raised concerns about the use of XML and whether it is viable. One e-mail cited in the staff memo -- from a contractor in August 2007 -- expressed concerns that the XML approach could lead to integration problems. That now seems to be the case, according to Miller's letter.

The National Counterterrorism Center issued a response to Miller's letter that called it "inconsistent with the facts." The NCTC said Miller's "letter implies that there exists a risk to our nation's security related to the implementation of NCTC's information technology program. ... There has been no degradation in the capability to access, manage and share terrorist information during the life of the Railhead program."

Moreover, the NCTC statement implies that Miller's group has been out of the loop. While the intelligence agency has been giving regular updates to intelligence oversight committees, it has not given them to Miller's subcommittee.

A Boeing spokeswoman deferred comment on the matter.

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