Since the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks the environment of the United States has changed dramatically.  The country has had to come to grips with the reality that we are not immortal, our boundaries are penetrable.  The idea of national security is very different from what it was thirteen months ago.  In light of findings in intelligence collection and dissemination lapses in the government, the United States must rethink its information collection and analysis capabilities and methods if the country wants to improve homeland security.  As the Markle Report points out, “Information analysis is the brain of homeland security.”

 The federal government is proposing nearly $40 billion a year in expenditures to protect the homeland, with the centerpiece being the Department of Homeland Security (DHS).  However, only a very small sum is earmarked for building the infrastructure for sharing information and integrating the way it is analyzed, transferring information collection to knowledge.  While the Task Force supports the U.S. government’s proposed Department of Homeland Security, it uses its report to outline ways in which the government can create the department and use it to its fullest capacity.

 The Task Force sees the DHS as a “central hub” for decisions regarding what information needs to be collected and stored, in government and private sectors, and where information should be analyzed and how.  It would also be a valuable tool in ensuring and protecting our civil liberties with respect to information collection and use and in research and development efforts.  The DHS should be the lead agency in creating a new national framework for information and information technology with a focus on improving national security.  

 The three working groups within the Task Force focused their efforts on answering three questions: 1) what information and which analytic methods are needed to protect the homeland; 2) how can government employ private sector experts in managing information and developing technology; and 3) how should the federal government charge its agencies to more effectively collect, analyze and use national security information and how to maintain civil liberties within the new boundaries?

 The working group put forth the following recommendations at the conclusion of their six-month fact-finding mission:

§ DHS should promote substantive strategic analyses and form a virtual analytic community;
§ Improve and ensure efficient procurement procedures for the DHS, while allowing for joint ventures with private companies and generate employer-employee relationships with outside experts unavailable under civil service requirements;
§ Create within DHS a Center for Technology and IT Support, with the possibility of a non-governmental technology institute;
§ Structure DHS and revamp the FBI, foreign intelligence agencies (including the CIA), the President/National Security Council, state and local governments to effectively utilize the strengths of each to create a capable domestic intelligence structure;
§ Create a system of oversight consisting of three levels of protection: environmental, structural and transactional.

For more information, the Markle Foundation Task Force Report, “Protecting America’s Freedom in the Information Age,” can be downloaded at http://www.markletaskforce.org/.