The individuals may have only tenuous links to known or suspected terrorists. The names were identified when authorities rechecked phone numbers, email addresses, fingerprints, iris scans and other data in immigration files of Iraqis given asylum since the war began in 2003.There are a few interesting angles to this story from an ID management point of view but I want to draw specific attention to the benefits to be gained by integrating ID management systems. Avoidable mistakes were made because the decision maker didn't have access to data the organization possessed that was critical to an adequate decision-making process. All bad decisions aren't permanent, though.
They checked the data against military, law enforcement and intelligence databases that were not available or were not utilized during the initial screening process, or were not searched using sufficient Arabic spelling and name variations.
It addition to the Iraqis, authorities have rescreened a smaller number of refugees from Yemen, Somalia and other countries where terrorist groups are active.
It is possible to correct (some) mistakes and gain efficiency through the integration of existing biometric systems. That's what we do.
