It's almost seven years since the Sept. 11 attacks, and the alphabet soup of government agencies charged with protecting the homeland is still struggling to maintain an accurate and updated list of suspected terrorists.
A report by the Justice Department's inspector general released last week found the Federal Bureau of Investigation and other government agencies failed to coordinate efforts to place terror suspects on the watch list. The report found numerous flaws in determining who should be on the list and who should be taken off.
It can take up to four months before a suspected terrorist gets added to the list. It can be more problematic to remove a name listed by mistake or a name of someone deemed not to pose a threat.
Never mind trying to track down the terrorist. Remember Osama bin Laden? Still on the list.
Some strides have been made. The FBI controls the terrorist watch list, which currently contains more than 8,000 names. The agency consolidates a dozen government watch lists, and uses other sources such as airline passenger data. But the FBI doesn't always update the list with new information on suspects.
And a separate report by the inspector general for the Office of the Director of National Intelligence found the various spy and other agencies have different procedures to determine who gets on the list.
Court documents released last week showed a number of innocent people were on a Treasury Department list of suspected terrorists and drug dealers, including a veteran Navy officer who served in the Persian Gulf.
Inadvertently landing on a watch list can create a variety of problems, from obtaining a credit card to buying a car. The Lawyers Committee for Civil Rights documented at least a dozen people denied services, often because a name was similar to someone who was on the list.
If the government - after seven years - can't maintain an accurate list of possible terror suspects, how much confidence can the public have regarding efforts to secure ports, chemical plants and nuclear facilities?
Complacency is a big enemy.
Just consider the recent case of a security guard at the Peach Bottom nuclear plant who found a number of his coworkers taking regular naps in the "ready room."
He alerted his supervisors at Wackenhut Corp., the company hired to provide security. They told him to be a team player.
So, he went to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, which dropped the matter after the plant said it found no evidence of guards' sleeping on the job.
The guard then sent to a TV station a videotape of the armed guards snoring away. After the tape aired, Exelon, which owns the plant, fired the security firm, and the NRC finally began a review.
Preventing the next terror attack is a high hurdle, even if everyone is doing his job. But if the basics aren't done right, it's hard to imagine major homeland-defense measures are up to snuff. That makes all money and resources spent on the Iraq war seem like a bigger waste.