An effort to share counter-terrorism intelligence across federal and local law enforcement has turned out to be a useless and expensive exercise that also put Americans' civil liberties at risk, a newly-released Senate subcommittee report (pdf) finds.

The scathing nature of the report is perhaps best summed up by the testimony of Harold "Skip" Vandover, who headed the reporting branch of the Department of Homeland Security.

Very bluntly Vandover told ...