White House chastised for use of security technology

The Bush administration has failed to effectively use information technology in the war on terrorism, according to officials at the Markle Foundation, who on Tuesday proposed creating a homeland security information network.

"They have not yet taken advantage of technological expertise" available in this country, said Zoe Baird, president of the New York-based foundation. "The government can set up a network that improves our ability to prevent terrorism and protect civil liberties."

After articulating nearly a dozen perceived weaknesses in current information-sharing systems, the group suggested the creation of a System-wide Homeland Analysis and Resource Exchange (SHARE) Network designed to couple Silicon Valley know-how with low-tech law enforcement and intelligence databases.

Markle also urged greater clarity from the administration about the proper delineation of responsibilities between the Terrorist Threat Integration Center (TTIC) overseen by the director of intelligence and the Homeland Security Department, and the foundation said privacy principles must be incorporated into any new intelligence network.

The recommendations came from a report issued Tuesday by the foundation's task force on national security, which Baird co-chaired with James Barksdale, a venture capitalist and former CEO of Netscape. An October 2002 report from the task force said better information sharing is necessary to fight terrorism.

The second report was more critical of the administration. It recommended how to change course on distributing intelligence information, implementing computer systems and reorienting the nation's approach to privacy. The members of the task force also said that President Bush should issue an executive order establishing their proposed network as a way to better share information within the federal government and with state and local governments.

"There is a deep belief [in the tech community] that [technology] can be enormously valuable" in combating terrorism, said Eric Benhamou, chairman of 3Com and Palm.

But for the concept of the SHARE network to work, "there has to be strategic implementation from the top," he added. Even more important are "a sense of urgency and a set of clearly stated values that help the rest of the strategy be implemented more crisply."

The report repeatedly contrasted the "Cold War intelligence architecture" or the world of computer mainframes with the decentralized and distributed model for information handling that has been seen on the Internet. Baird said the new homeland security model "needs to be decentralized, with information to and from" intelligence-collection agencies.

"Centralized analysis of information alone is inadequate," said Baird, who was President Clinton's first choice for attorney general.

"We really need to have the right organizational construct that requires sharing to take place where it is not taking place today," said Michael Vatis, executive director of the task force and a Clinton administration cyber-security official. He criticized Bush's decision to create the TTIC and said it created confusion among state government officials.

"Who has responsibility for developing actionable intelligence?" he asked. "That confusion between [Homeland Security] and TTIC and their roles needs to be clarified."