"Protecting America's Freedom in an Information Age," is a 173 page bipartisan report scheduled to be released today, "by some of the nation's leading information technology and national security experts" that recommends information sharing among intelligence and state and local law enforcement agencies.

The report "recommends that the Bush administration develop a system to share intelligence gathered in the United States and abroad among local, state and federal agencies while developing guidelines to protect against abuses."

The Report calls for all such information to be analyzed by a "new domestic intelligence center inside President Bush's planned Department of Homeland Security" instead of the F.B.I.

"The study also calls upon President Bush to devise new guidelines on what information federal agencies may and may not collect about individuals in the United States and with whom, and under what circumstances, such data may be shared."

The task force that drafted the report was co-chaired by Zoë Baird, now the president of the New York-based Markle Foundation, and James L. Barksdale, a businessman and former chief executive of Netscape.

The Republicans are pleased with the report. We're don't know enough about it yet to give an opinion. But we are pleased with at least two reported findings: first, that the report affirms the need for the "fundamental separation " of criminal investigation and domestic counterintelligence activities.

And second, that "the people running criminal investigations should not be seeking all kinds of information from businesses, state and local officials all over the country."