White House releases security strategy

WASHINGTON, Oct. 10 (UPI) -- The Bush administration said it hopes to create a “culture of preparedness” in the United States as it released a new report Tuesday on homeland security.

“This strategy is a national strategy and not simply a federal strategy," Frances Townsend, President George Bush’s homeland security adviser, said at a press briefing on the National Strategy for Homeland Security.

Townsend said the report builds on earlier documents and reflects the knowledge that has come since the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001. She said the plan aims to make individual citizens and community organizations part of the security effort.

The administration also called on Congress to cooperate.

“We must make additional reforms to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act and ensure that the statute is permanently amended so that our intelligence professionals continue to have the legal tools they need to gather information about the intentions of our enemies while protecting the civil liberties of Americans,” the administration said in a statement.