The attacks of September 11 demonstrate that our adversaries will engage asymmetrically, within and across our borders. They will exploit global systems of commerce, transportation, communications, and other sectors to inflict fear, destruction, and death, to compromise our national security, and to diminish public confidence and weaken our will to fight. Their attacks may be coordinated to counter our offensive activities abroad. Because we are a free, open, and democratic society, we are, and will remain, vulnerable to these dangers. Therefore, as we seek to engage globally, we must ensure a seamless web of defense across the spectrum of engagement to protect our citizens and interests both at home and abroad.
Objective: Implement the National Strategy for Homeland Security. The establishment of the new Department of Homeland Security will help mobilize and organize our Nation to secure the U.S. homeland from terrorist attacks. A key to this task will be the National Strategy for Homeland Security. The recommendations of the National Strategy for Homeland Security and the National Strategy for Combating Terrorism compliment and reinforce each other. From enhancing the analytical capabilities of the FBI and recapitalizing the U.S. Coast Guard, to preventing terrorist use of WMD through better sensors and procedures and integrating information sharing across the federal government, the objectives in these national strategies are vital to our future success in the war on terrorism.
Objective: Attain domain awareness. Today's world is sharply defined by compression of both time and distance. Key to defending our Nation is the effective knowledge of all activities, events, and trends within any specified domain (air, land, sea, cyber) that could threaten the safety, security, or environment of the United States and its populace. This "domain awareness" enables identification of threats as early and as distant from our borders--including territories and overseas installations--as possible, to provide maximum time to determine the optimal course of action.
Domain awareness is dependent upon having access to detailed knowledge of our adversaries distilled through the fusion of intelligence, information, and data across all agencies. It means providing our operating forces--afloat, aloft, and ashore, foreign and domestic--with a single integrated operating matrix of relevant information within their specific domain of responsibility. Domain awareness supports coordinated, integrated, and sustained engagement of the enemy across the full spectrum of U.S. instruments of power.
The President has instructed the leaders of the FBI, Central Intelligence, Homeland Security, and the Department of Defense to develop a Terrorist Threat Integration Center, to merge and analyze all threat information in a single location. The center is being created because our government must have the very best information possible to make sure that the right people are in the right places to protect the American people. The National Strategy for Homeland Security addresses information sharing and technology within the United States. The components of this information sharing apply equally well at home and abroad. Those procedures and systems that facilitate interagency, intergovernmental, and private information sharing will be expanded to allow our overseas agencies to have access and input, as necessary. This initiative will include not only database alignment and the horizontal and vertical information flow; it will also optimize disclosure policy and establish a consistent reporting criteria across agencies and allies. Additionally, implementation of both the domestic and international elements of the National Strategy to Secure Cyberspace and the National Strategy for the Physical Protection of Critical Infrastructures and Key Assets are designed to help ensure that all possible efforts are made to safeguard critical information networks whether located in the United States or abroad.
Objective: Enhance measures to ensure the integrity, reliability, and availability of critical physical and information-based infrastructures at home and abroad. Much of our strength as a nation is built upon expansive and efficient transportation, as well as logistic and information systems permitting unsurpassed participation in global commerce. Infrastructures and systems that support our economy and national interests are fully integrated, often dependent upon those outside of our borders, and span the globe. During times of rapid, prolonged, and large-scale conflict, even our military forces must rely upon portions of the global infrastructure to support sustained operations abroad.
Protection of vital systems is a shared responsibility of the public and private sectors, working collectively with the owners, operators, and users of those systems. The integrity of critical infrastructures, permitting national security mobilization and global engagement during times of both peace and conflict, must be assured. In many cases U.S. enterprises overseas are linked or networked to domestic critical infrastructure, and a terrorist event overseas would have a cascading effect on domestic reliability. To reduce this possibility, the Department of State will take the lead and, in conjunction with appropriate agencies, identify and prioritize critical infrastructure overseas and partner with industry to establish cost-effective best practices and standards to maximize security. Where appropriate, we will coordinate with the host country to ensure its security and response network is adequate.
Sufficient defense is a balance between our need to accommodate the enhanced flow of "low risk, high volume" people and goods essential to our economic vitality, while at the same time focusing energy and resources on the criminal, hostile and fraudulent few. It places a premium on effective domain awareness activities, such as accurate identification of containerized goods before they depart for the United States.
Implementation of the U.S. Smart Borders Initiatives with Canada and Mexico, as well as the Third Border Initiative for the Caribbean Basin, address potential vulnerabilities in the many critical physical and information-based infrastructures shared with our two North American allies. Moreover, the U.S. Government's comprehensive border management strategy will greatly enhance the ability of the U.S. to screen, verify and process the entry of people and goods into the country.
Objective: Integrate measures to protect U.S. citizens abroad. Defense of our economic vitality must be matched by increased security of U.S. citizens abroad. The nature of the threat confronting our citizens has expanded. U.S. citizens living or traveling abroad may now be at greater risk as potential terrorist targets. Protective measures must benefit facilities privately owned by U.S. interests as well as embassies and military installations abroad. Similarly, U.S. travelers and citizens living abroad must be provided meaningful, up-to-date, and coordinated threat information. The Department of State will work to enhance existing programs to inform U.S. citizens traveling or living abroad about the potential terrorist threats.