A core finding of the 9/11 Commission was that “the president should lead the government-wide effort to bring the major national security institutions into the information revolution.” Presidential leadership was considered essential because “the policy and legal issues are harder than the technical ones.”
From its beginning in 2003, the Terrorist Screening Center (TSC) has been the keystone to the effective implementation of the 9/11 Commission’s recommendation. The TSC is the most effective and sophisticated, but also the least studied and most poorly understood, of the new institutions of the post-9/11 national security state. It curates records on hundreds of thousands of individuals and has become the go-to expert in the U.S. Government for creating watchlists that affect the ability of many people (including United States citizens) to travel, work, and obtain government benefits.
What are the limits of government watchlists and the Terrorist Screening Center? On the eve of potentially game-changing rulings in several lawsuits and in the wake of a stream of leaked documents, this panel examines the legal effect of this information revolution on national security and individual liberty. Can watchlisting operations, which many consider essential for national security, satisfy constitutional requirements without destroying their essential value?