Critical Releases in Homeland Security: October 1, 2014

From the "Purpose" section: "In support of the National Security Strategy, which sets forth national security priorities, the National Intelligence Strategy (NIS) provides the IC [Intelligence Community] with the mission direction of the Director of National Intelligence (DNI) for the next four to five years. IC activities must be consistent with, and responsive to, national security priorities and must comply with the Constitution, applicable statutes, and Congressional oversight requirements. The NIS should be read along with the National Intelligence Priorities Framework and Unifying Intelligence Strategies to inform and guide mission, as well as planning, programming, and budgeting activities." The NIS outlines organizational framework, mission, vision, and ethics for the IC.

From the Background: "The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) estimates that the annual impact of antibiotic resistant infections on the U.S. economy is $20‐35 billion in excess direct health care costs, with additional costs to society for lost productivity as high as $35 billion per year and 8 million additional days in hospitals. And the problem is worsening. A number of bacterial diseases are almost or entirely untreatable because the causal agents have acquired resistance to all of the antibiotics that can be deployed against them. Resistance is due largely to extensive exposure of bacteria to antibiotics. Antibiotics impose a selection pressure for resistant bacteria -- that is, susceptible bacteria die in the presence of the antibiotic, whereas resistant strains survive and then multiply without competition from the susceptible strains."

"In 2013, the president signed into law the Investigative Assistance for Violent Crimes Act of 2012, which granted the attorney general the authority to assist in the investigation of 'violent acts and shootings occurring in a place of public use' and in the investigation of 'mass killings and attempted mass killings at the request of an appropriate law enforcement official of a state or political subdivision.' To provide further clarity on these threats, the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) in 2014 initiated a study of 'active shooter' incidents . The goal of the FBI study is to provide federal, state, and local law enforcement with data so they can better understand how to prevent, prepare for, respond to, and recover from these incidents."

This is the declassified September 11, 2001, account of former presidential intelligence adviser Michael Morell. This account was released by the Central Intelligence Agency's (CIA) Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) Electronic Reading Room and includes information of President George W. Bush's 8 a.m. intelligence brief prior to the terrorist attacks, his time at the Booker Elementary School in Sarasota, Florida, and his trip back to Washington, D.C. that day.