Terrorism Information Sharing and the Nationwide Suspicious Activity Report Initiative: Background and Issues for Congress

The 2004 National Commission on Terrorist Attacks Upon the US (the 9/11 Commission) cited breakdowns in information sharing and the failure to fuse pertinent intelligence (connecting the dots) as key factors in the failure to prevent the 9/11 attacks.

This report, published in June 2011, describes efforts undertaken since 2001 to tackle the issues, including the Nationwide SAR Initiative (NSI) and the rationale for the sharing of terrorism-related suspicious activity reports (SARs).

The report also examines the privacy and civil liberty concerns raised by the initiative while achieving law enforcement, intelligence objectives and ensuring protection for American citizens.