What to do? A global strategy Root out terrorist sanctuaries, with "realistic country or regional strategies for each".
Strengthen long-term U.S. and international commitments "to the future of Pakistan and Afghanistan".
Confront problems with Saudi Arabia in the open and build a relationship beyond oil, which both sides can defend to citizens and which includes a shared commitment to reform.
Communicate and defend American ideals in the Islamic world, through much stronger public diplomacy and comparable to efforts against closed societies during the Cold War.
Offer an agenda of opportunity that includes support for public education and economic openness.
Develop a comprehensive strategy against Islamist terrorism, using a flexible contact group of leading coalition governments and fashioning a common coalition approach on issues such as the treatment of captured terrorists.
Devote maximum effort to the parallel task of countering the proliferation of WMD.
Expect less from trying to dry up terrorist money and more from following the money for intelligence, as a tool to hunt terrorists, understand their networks and disrupt their operations.
Target terrorist travel by designing a comprehensive screening system that addresses common problems and sets common standards across agencies and governments.
Quickly complete a biometric entry-exit screening system which takes digital photos and fingerprints of most foreigners, and that also speeds qualified travellers.
Set standards for the issuance of birth certificates and sources of identification, such as driving licenses.
Develop strategies for neglected parts of the US transportation security system. (The commission noted that 90 per cent of the $5 billion set aside for transportation security went to aviation "to fight the last war".)
In aviation, make vital improvements to "no fly" and "automatic selectee" lists, and give priority to improvement of checkpoint screening, where passengers and bags are screened at airport security checkpoints for weapons and explosives.
Determine guidelines for gathering and sharing information that integrate safeguards for privacy and other essential liberties. A new board should oversee these guidelines.
Base federal funding for emergency preparedness solely on risks and responsibilities, putting New York City and Washington D.C. at the top of the list.
Make homeland security funding contingent on the adoption of an incident command system to strengthen teamwork in a crisis, including a regional approach. Allocate more radio spectrum and improve connectivity for public safety communications and encourage widespread adoption of new standards for private-sector emergency preparedness.
How to do it? A different way of organising government
Establish a National Counterterrorism Centre to unify strategic intelligence and operational planning against Islamist terrorists.
Name a national intelligence director to oversee existing agencies including the Central Intelligence Agency, the Defence Intelligence Agency, the National Security Agency, the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the Department of Homeland Security and others. The intelligence director's three deputies should focus specifically on foreign intelligence, defence intelligence and homeland intelligence.
Share intelligence information across old boundaries set by various agencies. The president should lead a government-wide effort to "bring the major national security institutions into the information revolution".
Set up a joint congressional committee to oversee intelligence or a committee in both the Senate and House (of Representatives) combining the functions of appropriations and authorisation of funds.
Set up a single, principal point of oversight in both houses of Congress for homeland security.
Establish an integrated national security work force at the FBI, "consisting of agents, analysts, linguists and surveillance specialists who are recruited, trained, rewarded and retained to ensure the development of an institutional culture imbued with a deep expertise in intelligence and national security."