‘Officials Will Share Information’
St. Louis Post-Dispatch
Attorney General John Ashcroft ordered federal agencies Thursday to link their anti-terrorism databases in an effort to prevent new attacks. The order also requires sharing information more freely with local law enforcement agencies in hopes of removing bureaucratic rivalries that could stand in the way of preventing attacks.
“Information is the best friend of prevention,” Ashcroft said in a statement accompanying the directive. “To meet this continuing threat, law enforcement officials at all levels - federal, state and local - must work together.”
In response to the agencies’ own analyses, the Justice Department directed them to take several steps to better share intelligence and other information. The steps include:
* Adding terrorist information in law enforcement databases. The government maintains several databases that provide real-time information to diplomats and law enforcement personnel. The order directs that more information be shared among them, including names, photographs and other information about known terrorists to prevent them from entering the country. The information will be shared among databases maintained by the State Department, the FBI and U.S. Customs Service, according to the Justice Department.
* Sharing more foreign terrorist information among nations. Ashcroft directed the FBI, through diplomatic means, to create procedures to obtain on a regular basis identifying information on terrorists known to other countries. In addition, the FBI and the Defense Department must share information on terrorists known to the military establishment.