ABSTRACT
From its earliest conception, the authors of a national Department of Homeland Security (DHS) envisioned the widespread participation of states and localities as the programs and policies of homeland security were implemented. Intelligence, in order to have any significant meaning in homeland defense (HD), must be naturally and continuously shared rather than protected or hidden due to bureaucratic layers of multiple agencies. Relevant departments and agencies of the federal government must take the lead in implementing this system, while state and local governments must implement and adopt homeland policies consistent with DHS policy. State homeland security entities were created to ensure that states were prepared at the frontlines for terrorist attacks. By its essential nature, the Coast Guard protects the natural borders of the entire nation as well as its ports, harbors, bays, rivers, and points of entry where terror always remains a possibility.
