Homeland Secretary to reveal security plans: report
WASHINGTON – U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano is expected to reveal on Wednesday the Obama administration's domestic policies to prevent terrorist attacks, the Wall Street Journal said on Tuesday.
In an interview, Napolitano said the new strategy is expected to rely largely on refining and expanding initiatives launched under former President George W. Bush, the paper reported on its website.
The new plans are part of a wider effort to significantly increase the cooperation Napolitano's agency has with state and local governments in the United States, the paper said.
Napolitano is also expected to call for more civic awareness and involvement to prevent attacks, the paper said, adding that she is likely to discuss efforts to work closer with foreign governments, from sharing airline-passenger data to intelligence about potential plots.
We live in a world now where no one department of government can be held to be the sole repository of protecting security, Napolitano told the paper in an interview on Monday. There is a role to be played at every level.
Among the Bush administration programs to be expanded, for instance, is a pilot program to train police to report suspicious behavior such as theft of keys from a facility that keeps radiological waste, the paper said.
In a speech scheduled for Wednesday to the Council on Foreign Relations in New York, Napolitano is likely to also emphasize the President Barack Obama's concern for civil liberties, according to the paper.
(Reporting by Ajay Kamalakaran in Bangalore, editing by Philip Barbara)
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