User talk:Claude Callaghan/kamplagob

Terrorism Screening Database may be source of SWIFT queries

According to official reports, copies of the Terrorist Screening Database are sent to federal, state, and local law enforcement agencies as well as international airports. Suspected terrorists entered into the database are assigned a handling code based on severity and types of offenses, with 4 being the least dangerous and lowest priority, and 1 being the greatest. Minimal personally identifying information required to be entered into the database includes name and birthdate.

Handling code 4 entries are suspected to be members of terrorist groups, but may not have broken any federal, state, or local statutes. "The person queried through this search may be an individual identified by intelligence information as having possible ties with terrorism. DO NOT ARREST THIS INDIVIDUAL UNLESS THERE IS EVIDENCE OF A VIOLATION OF FEDERAL, STATE OR LOCAL STATUTES. Attempt to obtain sufficient identification information to positively identify this individual in a manner consistent with the techniques authorized in you jurisdiction. You may be contacted at a later date and asked to forward this information," read the instructions for handling code 4 in part.

Handling code descriptions were later updated by the Terrorist Screening Center in October 2005. The update clarifies, for handling code 1 entries, at least, whether or not the terrorism suspect has an arrest warrant.

New names are submitted to the Terrorist Screening Center by the National Counterterrorism Center and the Terrorist Watch and Warning Unit of the Federal Bureau of Investigation. When an organization with a copy of the database, such as the United States Customs and Border Patrol, encounters a person with an entry in the database, the organization calls the Terrorist Screening Center. The Center then instructs the organization on what to do based on the handling code, and how to handle the individual once the individual is safely secured. According to comments by Terrorist Screening Center officials in a February 2006 The Washington Post story, only a small number of names in the database are that of American citizens.

Names are usually removed from the Terrorism Screening Database through an automatic update. When an update file is sent to the Terrorism Screening Center by the National Counterterrorism Center, the Terrorism Screening Center will accept an electronic indicator that asks the user to check boxes next to the words "yes" or "no," in order to delete a record from the update file. When the Terrorism Screening Center exports the update file from the Terrorism Screening Center to other agencies' copies of the database, the copies receive the same indicator. Between June 2004 and August 2005, at least 3,673 records were removed. An October 2004 figure gave a total of 237,615 entries in the database.