"There is nothing in the 9-11 Commission Report - or in the existing Homeland Security program -- that addresses the urgent intelligence and counterintelligence needs of the state & local authorities, with one exception: the Open Source Agency as listed on page 413 of Chapter 13."
"As Lee Hamilton has testified, this is envisioned as a bottom-up information-sharing catalyst, and an essential transformative element in both the national intelligence program and the homeland security program."
"State and local authorities can find a copy of draft legislation at http://www.oss.net/. The Open Source Agency as recommended by the 9-11 Commission has been augmented with a proposal made to General Brent Scowcroft at the beginning of the Bush Administration, and calls for $30M per year for each state at Final Operating Capability, with which to both create and maintain a generic state intelligence center and such city and county intelligence watch teams as are necessary, and also to create and maintain state & local intelligence and counterintelligence specialists subordinate to state sovereignty rather than dependent on federal hand-me-down intelligence."
"Fully one-half to two-thirds of preventive policing and preventive counter-terrorism stems from state and local observation and collection, not from federal secret collection."
"The sooner Governors and Chiefs of Police make this point to their Senators and Representatives, the sooner Congress can move forward with authorization and necessary appropriations for the Open Source Agency and its related Community Intelligence Centers."
The Revolution in Intelligence Affairs must precede victory in the Global War on Terrorism. This 100-year six-front war will not be won without Community Intelligence Centers and the Open Source Agency, the only places where all seven intelligence tribes can come together: national, military, law enforcement, business, academic, non-governmental organizations and media, and citizens-labor-religions. Please focus on this, and call Congress today.