National Terrorism Advisory System

National Terrorism Advisory System
Name	National Terrorism Advisory System
Formed	2011
Preceding1	Color-coded terror alert system
Jurisdiction	United States
Headquarters	Washington, D.C.
Parent agency	Department of Homeland Security

Contents

National Terrorism Advisory System

The National Terrorism Advisory System was a United States Department of Homeland Security framework for communicating terrorism-related information to the public and partners. It provided time-limited alerts about specific threats involving federal agencies such as the Federal Bureau of Investigation, Central Intelligence Agency, and Federal Emergency Management Agency, and engaged state and local entities including the New York Police Department and Los Angeles Police Department. The system interfaced with elected officials from the United States Senate and the United States House of Representatives and with international partners including INTERPOL and the North Atlantic Treaty Organization.

Overview

NTAS issued alerts coordinating officials like the Secretary of Homeland Security with intelligence from the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, analytic products from the National Counterterrorism Center, and law enforcement reporting from the Drug Enforcement Administration, Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, and United States Marshals Service. Advisories informed first responders such as firefighters from the United States Fire Administration and emergency medical technicians associated with the American Red Cross and National Association of Emergency Medical Technicians. The system meshed with resilience planning by entities like the Federal Emergency Management Agency and continuity guidance from the Office of Personnel Management.

NTAS was introduced under Secretary Janet Napolitano during the Barack Obama administration after critique of the earlier color-coded system created under President George W. Bush and implemented during the tenure of Secretary Tom Ridge. Its evolution drew on lessons from events such as the September 11 attacks, the Madrid train bombings, the London bombings, and the Boston Marathon bombing, and on policy debates in the United States Congress and hearings before the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee and the House Committee on Homeland Security. Technical design involved collaboration with agencies including the National Security Council, the Defense Intelligence Agency, and private-sector partners like Google, Facebook, Twitter, AT&T, and Verizon Communications.

NTAS produced "Alerts" that were either "Elevated" or "Imminent" and included bulletins modeled on guidance used by the Transportation Security Administration, Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, and Metropolitan Transportation Authority. It provided situational awareness to critical infrastructure owners such as Pacific Gas and Electric Company, Con Edison, Amtrak, and BNSF Railway, and to federal institutions including the United States Capitol Police and Supreme Court of the United States security. The taxonomy resembled threat notice structures used by the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency and the National Institute of Standards and Technology.

Advisory decisions involved leaders across the Department of Homeland Security, consultations with the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, and inputs from the National Counterterrorism Center and the Joint Terrorism Task Force. Criteria referenced specific intelligence reporting, threat streams tied to actors like Al-Qaeda, Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant, and other transnational groups, and indicators similar to reporting used by the Defense Intelligence Agency and National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency. Legal oversight invoked statutes administered by the Department of Justice and congressional oversight by the House Judiciary Committee.

NTAS used press briefings by officials such as the Secretary of Homeland Security and the Attorney General and coordinated messaging with municipal leaders including the Mayor of New York City and the Mayor of Los Angeles. Communications leveraged partnerships with media outlets like The New York Times, The Washington Post, CNN, Fox News, MSNBC, Reuters, Associated Press, BBC News, and Al Jazeera and with broadcast regulators such as the Federal Communications Commission. Outreach included multilingual materials for communities represented by organizations like the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund, National Urban League, Anti-Defamation League, and Council on American-Islamic Relations.

Critics from civil liberties advocates such as the American Civil Liberties Union and scholars at institutions like Harvard University, Stanford University, Columbia University, and University of California, Berkeley raised concerns about clarity, alert fatigue noted in studies by the RAND Corporation and Pew Research Center, and potential civil liberties implications examined by panels convened at the Brookings Institution and the CATO Institute. Lawmakers including members of the Senate Judiciary Committee and the House Oversight Committee debated transparency after incidents involving coordination failures cited in reports by the Government Accountability Office and the Office of Inspector General.

Analyses by think tanks such as the Center for Strategic and International Studies, Heritage Foundation, Council on Foreign Relations, Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, and academic studies from Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Johns Hopkins University produced mixed findings on NTAS's efficacy in preventing attacks while noting improvements in information sharing among agencies like the Federal Bureau of Investigation and Department of Homeland Security. Case studies referencing responses to events tied to networks like Hezbollah, Al-Shabaab, and lone-actor incidents influenced reforms in protocols used by the Transportation Security Administration and municipal agencies including the Chicago Police Department and the Boston Police Department.

Category:United States Department of Homeland Security