GAO questions progress in informaiton sharing

Information Sharing Effectiveness Questioned by GAO

Now nearly seven years since 9/11, not only are state and local law enforcement agencies across the nation questioning the efficacy of anti-terror information sharing pushed by the federal government and intelligence reform measures, but the Government Accountability Office (GAO) reports the government isn’t able to effectively measure whether it has made progress in information sharing, or how effective it’s been in thwarting terrorism.

“Work remains, including defining and communicating the Information Sharing Environment’s (ISE) scope, such as determining all terrorism-related information that should be part of the ISE, and communicating that information to stakeholders involved in the development of the ISE,” GAO reported to Congress this week.

Information sharing isn't just about exposing terrorist plots, it is also about catching money laudering, gun running, drug dealing, fencing operations and other sorts of crime.

Homeland Security accountability

Bruce Schneier recommends The Quixotic Quest for Invulnerability: Assessing the Costs, Benefits, and Probabilities of Protecting the Homeland, which concludes amongst other things, that we abandon any effort to imagine a terrorist target list.

Maybe, but it seems likely that targets that have been hit in the past will be targeted in the future. It is difficult to imagine that our adversaries would ignore possible targets such as the White House, Capitol, and Pentagon. But then maybe he is correct. Once you start thinking of likely targets in the Greater Washington area you will never stop.

Way to go Walmart

Kyl vote helps sink port scanning bill

Arizona Sen. Jon Kyl joined other Senate Republicans, a few Democrats and the business lobby in defeating a plan that would have required security scans of all imports at U.S. ports.

Business groups opposed a proposal favored by New York Sen. Charles Schumer that would have a required all shipping containers coming into U.S. ports be scanned. ...

... Obama, Clinton and other Democrats wrote to Wal-Mart Stores Inc. (NYSE: WMT - News), the world's largest retailer and Arizona's largest private employer, asking the chain not to oppose the scanning bill.

Because bad things always happen to someone else and you are never going to be at the wrong place at the wrong time. Question for Edleman, if we get hit again from something brought in on a container, how are you going to explain that?

Edit -
Homeland Security Special Report: The cargo challenge

New Profiling Program Raises Privacy Concerns

Ellen Nakashima and Alec Klein, The Washington Post

The Department of Homeland Security is testing a data-mining program that would attempt to spot terrorists by combing vast amounts of information about average Americans, such as flight and hotel reservations. Similar to a Pentagon program killed by Congress in 2003 over concerns about civil liberties, the new program could take effect as soon as next year.

I can't be the only one to notice that this administration is far more interested in tracking people than cargo.

First responders and the Dept. of Homeland Security

Chuck Archer, PJ Doyle and Thomas Reinhardt

State and local law enforcement officials, through the statutorily established FBI Advisory Policy Board (APB), inform the federal government of their information needs to accomplish their mission. The states are broken into regions, with regional representation on the board. Believe it or not, the FBI generally delivers, without “inclusiveness” issues. Everyone in the policing community knows who is in charge of establishing the information requirements, and it is not the FBI.

Most people do not put much thought into the information and communications infrastructure that enables a police officer on the side of the road to enter into his mobile computer either a driver’s license number or a vehicle license plate number and determine if he is dealing with a wanted person or a stolen vehicle. The information, drawn from both federal and state and local databases, is returned to the officer generally in less than two seconds. One of the reasons that it has worked well for so long is that the users own and operate the infrastructure, and the Feds make their databases available to that infrastructure.

This article is seventeen months old and reflects something that Paul Garrett addressed in his presentation to NCC AIIM. Our current system of sharing arouse out of frustration with the federal government.