The Bush administration revealed plans last week to launch a master database of "known and suspected terrorists" that would be used in background checks worldwide. The FBI and the Department of Homeland Security will create a Terrorist Screening Center (TSC) and pull information from a dozen existing watch lists in order to avoid a communication breakdown like the one surrounding the 9-11 attacks. The TSC will provide 24/7 support to all officials authorized to use the central watch list. The new database is scheduled to be operational by December 1.

The President's directive can be viewed online at: http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2003/09/20030916-5.html.

More information on the TSC is available online at: http://www.dhs.gov/dhspublic/display?content=1596

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Mexican officials say the arrests of six people last week in connection with a 1,000-foot tunnel crossing from Mexico into Arizona delivered a "serious blow" to a powerful drug cartel. The six men arrested are alleged members of Joaquin Guzman Loera's drug cartel. Loera is a drug kingpin who escaped from a maximum-security prison in Guadalajara in 2001. U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration officials connected Loera to a similar drug-smuggling tunnel discovered in 1990.

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According to an article in the Canadian Press, "Washington wants all Canadians traveling to the U.S. to carry a passport that will eventually include biometric markers such as iris scans as well as digital photos." Homeland Security Director Tom Ridge will meet with Canadian Deputy Prime Minister John Manley next month in order to discuss a proposal calling for passports to be issued after next year to be quickly scanned by border authorities and would include biometric data, officials said. The Bush administration has refused Canada's requests for an exemption from new legislation that requires tracking of every tourist, student and business traveler entering the U.S.

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Federal agents detained two prominent Muslim religious leaders after they arrived at Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport last Thursday. They were released the next day and returned to Canada. The men, Sheikh Ahmed Kutty and Sheikh Abdul Hamid, were traveling to Orlando.

"I feel so sorry for America. It has lost everything that sustained it as a nation. America has turned into a police state," Kutty told reporters.

Officials said the two men were found inadmissible under the Immigration and Nationality Act but that no further details could be given due to privacy reasons. Bureau of Customs and Border Protection spokeswoman Barbara Gonzalez said the two religious leaders voluntarily withdrew their applications for admission and they are not barred from reentering the United States at another time.