US to reveal anti-terrorism policies

Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano is expected to reveal today the Obama administration's domestic policies to prevent…

Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano is expected to reveal today the Obama administration's domestic policies to prevent terrorist attacks.

In a newspaper interview, Ms Napolitano said the new strategy is expected to rely largely on refining and expanding initiatives launched under former president George W Bush, the Wall Street Journalreported on its website.

The new plans are part of a wider effort to significantly increase the cooperation Ms Napolitano's agency has with state and local governments in the United States, the paper said.

Ms 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," Ms Napolitano told the paper in an interview. "There is a role to be played at every level."

Among the Bush administration programmes 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 today to the Council on Foreign Relations in New York, Ms Napolitano is likely to also emphasise President Barack Obama's concern for civil liberties, according to the paper.

Reuters