Passports to terrorism; Why is U.S. ignoring database of stolen travel documents?(A SECTION)(Editorial)

Interpol, the international police organization, has a potentially valuable weapon in the war against terrorism.

Yet, disturbingly, the United States and more than 100 other countries have let it gather dust.

Paris-based Interpol maintains a database on some 1.7 million stolen passports and other travel documents. But the vast majority of the agency's 181 member nations, including the United States, aren't using the resource to screen people arriving in their countries.

It's a frightening lapse in security that terrorists are undoubtedly exploiting, Interpol Secretary-General Ronald K. Nobel recently told The New York Times.

Al-Qaida and …