Congressmen Have Doubts About FBI's New Terrorist Computer System

The FBI wants to compile a massive computer database and analyze it for clues to unmask terrorist sleeper cells.^[1] However U.S. House Representatives Brad Miller, and James Sensenbrenner have their doubts and have asked the Government Accountability Office to investigate the proposal, asking for the GAO to determine what records will be acquired, from which agencies or commercial entities, who will be granted access to them and under what restrictions.^[2] The two congressmen are worried about whether the bureau will protect the privacy of U.S. citizens. Miller and Sensenbrenner have questions as to both the FBI's ability to properly manage such a large cache of data and whether or not predictive data-mining even works.^[3]

The FBI is seeking $12 million in the fiscal year beginning Oct. 1 for its Foreign Terrorist Tracking Task Force to set up a National Security Branch Analysis Center, with 59 employees, including 23 contractors and five FBI agents.^[4] The center will mostly likely hold 6 billion records by 2012 and the universe of subjects will expand exponentially, equaling around 20 separate 'records' for each man, woman and child in the United States," the congressmen wrote.^[5]

Jeff Jonas, a data-mining expert and IBM Distinguished Engineer, was quoted by Miller and Sensenbrenner after asserting that "data-mining for terrorism discovery ... would waste taxpayer dollars, needlessly infringe on privacy and civil liberties and misdirect the valuable time and energy of the men and women in the national security Community......[and because there are so few known terrorist patterns of behavior, this kind of search would] flood the national security system with false positives - suspects who are truly innocent."^[6]

The two congressmen added that the FBI's history suggests "the agency may have difficulty developing and operating [such a center because]..the FBI has historically been unable to develop information systems in a reliable cost-effective and technically proficient manner," they wrote.^[7]

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^[1] Michael J. Sniffin, FBI plans huge anti-terror data-mining, Associated Press Newswire, June 12, 2007, available at LEXIS, News Library, Wire News Services.
^[2] Id.
^[3] Id.
^[4] Id.
^[5] Id.
^[6] Id.
^[7] They noted: 1)The FBI junked its Virtual Case File computerized records system in 2005 after spending $170 million without solving technical troubles. The replacement is reportedly running behind schedule; 2) an FBI consultant was able to hack into classified bureau computers last year and access counterespionage and witness protection files and 38,000 FBI passwords, including Director Robert Mueller's; 3) in March, Justice's inspector general found that FBI agents using National Security Letters "had demanded personal data without proper authorization, improperly obtained personal telephone records and banking records and underreported to Congress how often it used national security letters to obtain information on thousands of U.S. citizens." The inspector general found 48 violations of law and estimated there were 3,000 violations between 2003 and 2005; and 4) the GAO found in 2005 that the Foreign Terrorist Tracking Task Force did not comply with all privacy and security laws and rules for handling sensitive information. Id.