Reversing course, the Homeland Security Department will now allow state and local officials to participate in a new counterterrorism unit designed to share information about possible terrorist threats, reports the Baltimore Sun. The unit was created to address a long-standing complaint that states and localities do not receive timely threat information from the federal government, leading to the type of confusion that ensued over a possible plot to blow up a tunnel in Baltimore in 2005.
Charles Allen, chief intelligence officer at Homeland Security, told members of Congress that the department supports the participation of state and local representatives on the Interagency Threat Assessment and Coordination Group, which will soon begin operations. The announcement ended a lengthy stalemate between the department and the White House, which had ordered the creation of the group last year.