Creation of Terrorist Database Delayed [View All]

WASHINGTON -- An ambitious effort to create a central terror suspect database for use by all U.S. federal and local officials has been struggling for months because of challenges as mundane as merging Microsoft spreadsheets and as sensitive as protecting people's privacy.

Attorney General John Ashcroft said in September that the Terrorist Screening Center -- "one-stop shopping so that every federal terrorist screener is working off the same page" -- would be operational by Dec. 1.

But in December, the FBI launched only a "test phase," while government employees and contractors at the northern Virginia center finish merging the identifying information on all suspected or known terrorists into a single database.

Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge said recently the goal now is to have the work done by midsummer.

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