The 9/11 Report unambiguously confirms that name-recognition technology is a key element in the Department of Homeland Security's mission to prevent further terrorist attacks. The notes for Chapter 12, "What To Do? A Global Strategy" (Footnote 40, Page 565) express the security failure as follows:
"Among the more important problems to address is that of varying transliterations of the same name. For example, the current lack of a single convention for transliterating Arabic names enabled the 19 hijackers to vary the spelling of their names to defeat name-based watch list systems and confuse any potential efforts to locate them." (emphasis added)
As a specific example of this little-noted but pernicious border protection failure, LAS points out that Waleed Al-Shehri, one of the hijackers on American Airlines Flight 11, could have legitimately Romanized his name as Oualid Chihri. To anyone unfamiliar with Arabic transliteration variations, these would certainly appear to be two different names. What is more, only the most sophisticated name recognition software would find these kinds of matches.
"The Commission hits the nail on the head by identifying the lack of a single transliteration method for names. There will never be a single standard for name transliteration. Technology aside, it's just too political. There is no country I can think of that would allow us to dictate how their names must be romanized. And, just within the U.S., it is very unlikely that such a standard could be forced on Americans with romanized names," said Jack Hermansen, CEO of LAS.
"Even in Communist China, where such things are much more easily mandated, we have seen over a dozen ways in which the name Osama Bin Laden has been written in Chinese. Everyone, everywhere would like to make this problem more tractable, but it is simply too complex for a solution by edict. The only effective and useful approach is to use linguistically-smart software that understands all of these transliteration standards at once. After many years of work, that is now possible."
Over the past 20 years, LAS research findings have revealed:
-- The problem of transliterating names is universal
-- The problem exists not only with Arabic names, but also with many other types of names (Korean, Indonesian, Russian, etc.)
-- The U.S. cannot "fix" the core problem, any more than the U.S. could require all the world to speak a single form of English
-- The U.S. can address the problem effectively with advanced linguistics-based software
"We are gratified to see that the 9/11 Commission Report has recognized and highlighted one of the key challenges in dealing with the names of individuals," Hermansen said. "The chronic problem of missing name matches at our consulates where visas are issued, at our borders where travel documents are inspected, and at local law enforcement checkpoints where names of individuals are vetted against lists of known criminals means that linking different instances of the same name requires carefully collected data, highly-refined matching algorithms and exceptional user support."
In early 2002, Congress recognized these name-related issues and mandated in the Enhanced Border Security and Visa Reform Act of 2002 that relevant agencies implement technologies that address multi-cultural name search problems. This new breed of technology, known as advanced name recognition technology, allows users to compensate for transliteration issues while educating and sensitizing them to the underlying causes for these cultural differences.
LAS whole-heartedly supports the 9/11 Commission's recommendation that we must improve the way names are linked and matched across federal and local anti-terrorism systems. We must now improve the accuracy and consistency with which we collect and enter name data. And, we must provide our visa-issuing, border-protection, and local law enforcement personnel with the best technology available to protect the country.