Actually, Uncle Dave, I think that Mohamed Atta was on several watch lists at the time his application was submitted. If the folks at the INS had done their jobs and correctly checked those lists in a timely fashion, a lot of people both here in the US and in Afghanistan would still be alive.

Most of the people in government agencies are low-level employees, working boring jobs with essentially a lifetime tenure for mediocre pay with reasonably good benefits (I know - I'm one of them, writing Mudcat while at my government desk in my government job). I don't know what the solution is, but to give those bored and inefficient people in the INS, and Justice, and the IRS, and the new "Office of Homeland Security" the power to make decisions which will affect the lives and liberties of all Americans is a frightening thought.