Counterterrorism and Public Perception Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Counterterrorism and Public Perception - Essay Example Since the September 11 tragedy, the federal government of the U.S. has been on the watch out for any suspicious activities that may be a security threat to the state and the general public at large. This process of ensuring public and national security is sometimes made even harder in cases where the information is leaked or made available to the public. Presently, information sharing is handled by multiple sharing environments that are intended at serving a handful of agencies: defense, intelligence, foreign affairs, law enforcement and homeland security (Homeland Security Council, 2007). The role of the National Counterterrorism Center (NCTC) in the Federal Government is to analyze all information and intelligence related to terror activities and to provide support to the Department of Justice (DOJ) and the Department of Homeland Security (DHS). This includes other agencies in the same field to fulfill their tasks to disseminate information that is related to terrorism (Homeland Security Council, 2007). Through a secure network, NCTC Online, the information is shared by NCTC and the whole federal community by producing comprehensive analytical products that are federally coordinated; thus the information reaches numerous users in the whole Federal Counterterrorism community. The Interagency Threat Assessment and Coordination Group formed within NCTC is aimed at facilitating the production of information related to terrorism that is federally coordinated with intention to disseminate it to the State, local, tribal and the private sector (Magumi, Wood, Mileti, and Bourque, 2008). In order to stop or warn about an impending terror attack, information has to be available about the action. According to Homeland Security Policy (2009), this type of information is usually gathered by the State, local and tribal government officials during their normal law enforcement duties. These governments perform their counterterrorism duties within a broader context