Third Annual Report To The President And The Congress Of The Advisory Panel To Assess Domestic Response Capabilities For Terrorism Involving Weapons Of Mass Destruction Iii For Ray Downey Online PDF Download

A terrorist attack on some level inside the borders of the United States is inevitable and America must be ready. Much of the legitimate fear associated with the prospect of a terrorist attack can be substantially reduced. Improving our ability to address the threat and reducing the fear of citizens and government leaders is possible if-and only if-we are willing to take bold action as a nation. Specifically, we must: 1) craft a truly 'national" strategy to address the threat of domestic terrorism-conventional, cyber, chemical, biological, radiological and nuclear-from the perspectives of deterrence, prevention, preparedness and response; 2) empower a senior authority to be in charge of our overall planning and preparation in the Federal Executive Branch, with special emphasis on preserving our civil liberties in a time of emergency; 3) consolidate the Congressional approach to legislation governing domestic preparedness for such attacks; 4) concentrate much more serious attention on state and local concerns and capabilities; and 5) strengthen functional capabilities across all levels of government for intelligence collection and information sharing; planning, training, equipping and exercising; research and development; health and medical; and across all first responder stakeholders-fire, law enforcement, emergency medical services and emergency management. These five imperatives represent the major themes in this report.