[iwar] Report Shows Limited Gains on Terror Info

Updated: December 2nd, 2003 10:11:13 AM
Report Shows Limited Gains on Terror Info
............
LAURENCE ARNOLD
Associated Press

WASHINGTON (AP) -- The federal government has made limited progress in
improving how it gathers, shares and responds to information that could
prevent terrorist attacks, says a new report by technology and intelligence
experts.

In a report released Tuesday by the Markle Foundation, the experts said
``sharing of terrorist-related information between relevant agencies at
different levels of government has been only marginally improved in the
last year.''

They added that sharing ``remains haphazard and still overly dependent on
... personal relations among known colleagues.''

The Markle Task Force on National Security in the Information Age, which
wrote the report, advocates creation of a decentralized information network
to spread information about terror threats while safeguarding against
violations of civil liberties.

The panel is overseen by the Markle Foundation, a private philanthropic
organization. The experts proposed building an information network, called
the Systemwide Homeland Analysis and Response Exchange, or SHARE.

They said the network would be loosely structured, so information would
flow freely. There also would be redundancy, to increase the chances that
important information is acted upon, along with encryption, auditing and
access controls to guarantee security.

The organization said such a system would allow an FBI agent with a hunch
to locate other people at the federal, state or local level, or in the
private sector.

``This is a way of doing business that says the priority for information
should be its distribution, not its control,'' Zoe Baird, president of the
Markle Foundation, said in an interview Monday.

Baird, a former Justice Department and White House attorney, directs the
task force with James Barksdale, co-founder of Netscape Communications.

The panel of academics, civil libertarians and former U.S. intelligence
officials also includes former Gen. Wesley Clark, who is seeking the
Democratic nomination for president, and Philip Zelikow, executive director
of the federal commission studying the Sept. 11 terror attacks.

In its first report, released October 2002, the task force said primary
responsibility for analyzing terrorism threats should move from the FBI to
the Homeland Security Department, which opened in March.

As it turned out, the FBI maintained much of its authority in the revised
intelligence structure. But Baird said which agency is in charge is less
important than how well it shares information.

The government's methods of collecting and disseminating sensitive
information emerged as a key issue after the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks.

The Bush administration created a Terrorist Threat Integration Center to
bring together information gathered by the CIA, FBI and other agencies.

The Markle task force says there is confusion about the respective roles of
the center and Homeland Security Department. And neither entity has put in
place ``the necessary staff or framework for analyzing information and
sharing it broadly,'' the report says.

The report urges President Bush to issue an executive order endorsing a
decentralized information network.

"Never Mistake Motion for Action"
Ernest Hemingway (1899-1961)

[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

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Received on Tue Dec 2 19:26:10 2003