Federal government moves forward with national fusion centers
New rules will streamline security classifications from 100 to six, removing a major obstacle to the implementation of an effective information sharing environment; new Interagency Threat Assessment Coordination Group to be based at DHS
The federal government took a major step forward last week in clearing up some of the main obstacles standing in the way of the much-needed fusion centers — centers intended to improve intelligence sharing among federal, state, and mucipal authorities. In addition to to creating a Washington, D.C.-based Interagency Threat Assessment Coordination Group to be housed at DHS, the plan, which was signed by President Bush and delivered to Congress, attempts to reduce the more than one hundred levels of “sensitive” information to less than six. This was critical because the inability properly to clear local officials was a major sticking point in preventing the fusion centers’ success. The new fusion centers will rely on an information sharing environment, and the large number of classifications frustrated both local officials and the software companies bidding to take part. Officials face a 120 day deadline to develop the new “sensitive but classified” security classifications.
-read more in Karen DeYoung’s Washington Post report
