Corralling Domestic Intelligence

"The reporting of incidents, who heard what and how it was reported, was unbelievably diverse and would reach the White House by many different paths, many idiosyncratic," Falkenrath said. He said it was "logical" that the NCTC now "should set standards for collecting that information."

Talon is not the only system that contains unverified SARs.

The FBI has a classified system called Guardian that carries urgent, initial reports about suspicious acts, according to one bureau official.

He described it as an automated database used "to track and monitor terrorism threats and suspicious activity from the initial reporting to its final resolution." One example, he said, involved individuals seen taking pictures of a nuclear power plant who jumped in their car when approached for identification.

"In all cases it is up to the reporting agent to follow up on suspicious activities and if a report clears it up, it is taken out of the database," the official said. "There has to be a resolution," which Pentagon officials acknowledged did not happen with Talon reports.

The State Department has a system called the Security Incident Management and Analysis System, which carries reports of suspicious activities from overseas embassies and other diplomatic facilities.

And the Treasury Department has a program for filing SARs related to unusual transfers of funds, which has focused primarily on terrorism threats since 2001.

In June 2004, the acting Treasury inspector general, Dennis S. Schindel, told a House committee that "the SAR database sometimes lacked critical information or included inaccurate data."