Posted on 01/20/2010 5:42:56 PM PST by NormsRevenge
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – A senior counterterrorism official said on Wednesday his agency lacks "Google-like" search capability that could have identified the suspect in the attempted Christmas Day airline bombing.
The National Counterterrorism Center, the agency charged with reviewing disparate data to protect against attacks, does not have a computer search engine that could have checked for various spellings of the alleged bomber's name and his birthplace in Nigeria, the center's chief told a Senate hearing on security reform.
"We do not have that exact capacity," said Michael Leiter, adding that the agency is working on solutions that could be in place within weeks.
The State Department has acknowledged it misspelling attacker's name, Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, when sending an advisory out about him after his father warned the U.S. embassy in Nigeria his son had been attracted by militant ideology.
Google and other common Internet search engines routinely offer alternative spellings for searches, particularly with names. Abdulmutallab had been flagged beforehand by U.S. embassy staff in Nigeria, but not under his full name.
National Intelligence Director Dennis Blair acknowledged that current search tools used by U.S. spy and counterterror agencies have "blind spots that don't allow the sort of Google-like" searches civilians can do on their personal computers.
(Excerpt) Read more at news.yahoo.com ...
Where's Chloe when ya need her?
Billions and Billions of dollars on national defense, and STILL no unified “Google-able” database between the FBI, CIA, NSA, and Homeland security, and TSA, and BATF, and ...
... did I forget anyone?
Maybe they could just acquire Bing. The rest of their operation is already crap, so it would fit right in.
I want to say that it’s unbelievable, but I CAN believe. I hate how much money gets wasted by government clowns.
Close enough.
Yeah but when one thinks of all the different networks and stuff and all the connections and fingers and cable going god know where and databases running on different operating systems.. it’s enough to give DB hacks an upset tummy .. ya need a farm of Crays to keep up with all the info.. merging it with bell and whistles attached is no easy task.
I need to watch closer on 24, does Jack Bauer use a Blackberry?
Maybe if they offered free email?
Name: Umar Abdulmutalab
Did you mean Umar Abdulmutallab?
Um I think Google desktop search is free.
Leave it to the government. I am sure they need to go out to bid for a multi-million dollar contract to do the same thing.
If this was not so serious it would be laughable and something only our Gubmint could manage to (not) accomplish!
What was the name of that program that mined open data sources for military intelligence? You know, the one that we destroyed.......
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.