Now nearly seven years since 9/11, not only are state and local law enforcement agencies across the nation questioning the efficacy of anti-terror information sharing pushed by the federal government and intelligence reform measures, but the Government Accountability Office (GAO) reports the government isn’t able to effectively measure whether it has made progress in information sharing, or how effective it’s been in thwarting terrorism.

“Work remains, including defining and communicating the Information Sharing Environment’s (ISE) scope, such as determining all terrorism-related information that should be part of the ISE, and communicating that information to stakeholders involved in the development of the ISE,” GAO reported to Congress this week. “In addition, the desired results to be achieved by the ISE, that is, how information sharing is to be improved, the specific milestones, and the individual projects—or initiatives—to achieve these results have not yet been determined. Defining the scope of a program, desired results, milestones, and projects are essential in providing a road map to effectively implement a program. Without such a road map, the Program Manager and stakeholders risk not being able to effectively manage implementation of the ISE.”

GAO had cautioned lawmakers in January 2005 that information sharing for homeland security purposes was “a high-risk function because the government had continued to face formidable challenges in analyzing and disseminating key terrorism-related information in a timely, accurate, and useful manner.”

GAO reported at the time “that in the absence of comprehensive information-sharing plans, many aspects of homeland security information sharing remained ineffective and fragmented. We noted, as well, that information is a crucial tool in fighting terrorism and that its timely dissemination is absolutely critical to maintaining the security of our nation.”

In March 2006, GAO reported that the information-sharing issues “still lacked the governmentwide policies and processes called for by law to provide a framework for guiding and integrating a myriad of ongoing efforts to share terrorism-related information critical to protecting our homeland.”

In that report, GAO recommended that the Director of National Intelligence assess progress in implementing the ISE and identify barriers to achieving ISE deadlines included in an interim implementation plan.

The Program Manager is in the process of implementing GAO’s recommendations.  Eileen Larence, GAO's director of homeland security issues, said gaps need to be addressed "to provide Congress and the public reassurance that the flaws [in intelligence dissemination] leading to 9/11 have been or are being corrected."

The GAO audit report states that, “to guide ISE design and implementation, the Program Manager has issued an implementation plan, a number of tasks therein have been completed, and other independent and ongoing information sharing initiatives by federal, state, and local stakeholders have been integrated into the ISE, but the plan does not include some important elements needed to implement the ISE.”

ISE has "begun to develop some performance measures, but they focus on counting activities accomplished rather than results achieved,” GAO stated, adding that ISE isn’t able to determine the number of intelligence collection and analysis organizations that have procedures for acquiring and processing reports on suspicious activities, and that ISE does not measure how this information is actually helping prevent terrorist attacks.