President George W. Bush, joined by Frances Fragos Townsend, Assistant to the President for Homeland Security and Counterterrorism and other officials, addresses participants at a meeting on National Strategy for Information Sharing at the White House, Wednesday, Oct. 31, 2007.

On October 31, 2007, President Bush issued the first National Strategy for Information Sharing: Success and Challenges in Improving Terrorism-Related Information Sharing to prioritize and unify our Nation's efforts to advance the sharing of terrorism-related information. The Strategy sets forth a plan to build upon the progress we have made in improving information sharing since the September 11, 2001 attacks and establish an integrated National information sharing capability.

Through the National Strategy for Information Sharing and the use of the ISE we will:

• Enable greater coordination at the Federal level, so that strategic and time-sensitive threat information gets into the hands of those who need it to protect our local communities and our Nation's interests at home and abroad;
• Facilitate the exchange of coordinated sets of requirements and information needs across the Federal and non-Federal domains to help guide the targeting, selection, and reporting of terrorism-related information;
• Make certain that intelligence products can be easily shared, as appropriate, with those outside the Intelligence Community, such as other Federal entities, State, local, tribal, and foreign governments, and the private sector;
• Enable State, local, and tribal government efforts to gather, process, analyze, and share information and intelligence;
• Establish a network of State and local information fusion centers operating in a manner that safeguards information privacy rights and other legal rights of Americans;
• Ensure our efforts to prevent future terrorist attacks are risk-based, information-driven, and supported by a greater understanding of our adversaries' motivations, intentions, and plans; and
• Change government culture to one in which information is regularly and responsibly shared and only withheld by exception.

For additional information, the entire text of the National Strategy for Information Sharing (NSIS) and a summary fact sheet are available.