The 9/11 hijackers were allowed to get into the country, and get on planes, because various federal agencies didn't share their watch lists -- their registers of terrorist suspects.
But 20 months after the 9/11 attacks, ABC News reports, "the U.S. government still lacks a consolidated terrorism watch list that is easily accessible to all law enforcement.
Nine different federal agencies run at least 12 different watch lists, and frustrated local police fear the same sort of information breakdown could happen again.
"I truly believe that we are not getting the information that's needed to protect our community members," said Michael Chitwood, the police chief in Portland, Maine, one of the nation's busiest seaports and the place where Mohamed Atta and another 9/11 hijacker boarded a plane to attack the World Trade Center.
"It's outrageous. It does not make any sense."
