Chem firms may vet names in US terrorist database

12 June 2007 23:50  [Source: ICIS news]

FALLS CHURCH, Virginia (ICIS news)--US chemical companies will be able to check the identities of employees and job applicants against the national terrorist database maintained by the federal government, top security officials said on Tuesday.

A Department of Homeland Security official said that as part of the department’s new chemical plant security regulations now being enforced, chemical firms will be able to find out if names of their employees or job applicants are reflected in the database that federal police and intelligence agencies use to track terrorists and terrorist suspects.

Larry Stanton, head of compliance at the department, told some 400 industry executives at the fourth annual chemical security conference that the department will have an online portal available to industry by early 2008 that will allow them to check for possible terrorist connections among employees or prospective new hires.

“The portal will not give you access directly to the national terrorist database because only police and federal security agencies such as our department and the FBI [Federal Bureau of Investigation] can have direct access,” Stanton said.

“However, for background checks of your employees and those seeking employment at your plants, you will be able to provide the employee or applicant name to us through the portal, and we will check the name against the national terrorist database,” Stanton said.

He said the department will give companies a quick response on names they submit.

However, Stanton said the department will not tell a company what to do if an employee or job applicant name comes back as a “yellow” or suspect profile.

“What you do with that information is up to you,” Stanton said, although he also noted that under its new chemical plant security mandate, the department could review what action a company took regarding a suspect applicant or employee and disapprove that action.

The department began enforcement on Friday, 8 June, of its new chemical plant site security regulations that mandate federal standards for antiterrorism countermeasures at high-risk chemical facilities.

The three-day security summit, which is cosponsored by the department and 18 chemical industry trade associations, continues through Wednesday.

ICIS Copyright © Reed Business Information 2009

Author: Joe Kamalick
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