The "IT system used to identify terrorist threats <A HREF="http://blogs.zdnet.com/projectfailures/?p=995&tag=nl.e539">has been crippled by technical flaws</A>," according to a memo from the House of Representatives Committee on Science and Technology. The failed system is part of a "central US government repository of data on international terrorist identities... described by Vice Admiral (Ret.) John Scott Redd as 'the mother of all databases.'"

This enormous database, called the Terrorist Identities Datamart Environment (TIDE), is operated by the National Counterterrorism Center (NCTC) to support the "government's various terrorist screening systems or watchlists."