Advisory panel outlines ideas on homeland security strategy

The president should create an advisory panel for long-term, strategic planning on homeland security, according to a report issued by a congressional advisory panel on Monday.

"The commission believes the [Homeland Security] Department is moving ahead very well, but there is a tremendous managerial distraction from long-term thinking," said former Virginia Gov. James Gilmore, who chairs the Gilmore Commission. He said transferring 22 different agencies and communicating with state and local officials, among its other efforts, puts an enormous managerial burden on the department that distracts officials from thinking forward.

In its fifth and final report to President Bush and Congress, the commission concluded that the overall national strategy for homeland security should be directed by a White House-level board that has authority over budgets and programs for security efforts throughout the government. Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge should play a central role on the board, Gilmore added.

The 17-member commission said the existing White House Homeland Security Council is best equipped to craft a strategic policy that then could be implemented by the department and other federal agencies, as well as state and local officials. The secretaries and heads of federal departments and agencies with responsibilities over security are on the council.

The report also called on the president to create an independent, bipartisan oversight board to provide advice on security efforts that may impact civil liberties. The freedoms guaranteed by the First Amendment could be violated by increased reliance on sophisticated technology that has "vast potential to invade personal privacy," according to the commission's statement.

Gilmore said the board would help ensure that freedom and security co-exist. He denied news reports that the report is a criticism of the Bush administration's stance on civil liberties.

The panel, which has made 144 recommendations and had 125 adopted by Congress and federal agencies since its inception in 1999, suggested that federal law enforcement officials improve their intelligence capabilities.

The commission also recommended that Congress move the Terrorist Threat Integration Center (TTIC) outside of the CIA's purview. Gilmore said that because several agencies need intelligence data, TTIC should be a stand-alone agency. It also needs to have state and local representation in order to improve information sharing among the officials, the panel said.

Other recommendations included developing a comprehensive strategy between the intelligence community and Homeland Security officials for assessing threats, designating authorities to grant security clearance on a federal basis, and developing a process for granting clearance to state and local officials to share information.

The commission also said a key component of security strategy should be to empower state and local officials, who the report found have been drafted inconsistently into security efforts.

The report called for a single grant office to streamline a funding process that now involves several offices and for an interagency mechanism for homeland security grants, as well as for developing guidelines and standards for spending grant funding. It also recommended revising the color-coded Homeland Advisory System to include a regional alert system.