Of Note: Is There Room in the Intelligence Community for HSINT?

Of Note:Is There Room in the Intelligence Community for HSINT? Jennifer Murray After September 11th, it was clear there was an information sharing problem within the Intelligence Community (IC), although it was unclear how to solve the problem. In the minds of many observers, the creation of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and its intelligence components only muddied the waters. Was 'homeland security' a mission or an agency? Could it be both, and if so, who would take the lead? The early turf battles after DHS's creation led one senior DHS official to quip that the DHS intelligence enterprise was largely "on the outside of the Intelligence Community with its nose pressed against the glass."1 The new department struggled with both the CIA and the FBI in "getting answers to 'hot questions.'"2 Following Secretary Michael Chertoff's Second Stage Review, the intelligence component of DHS headquarters became its own office, the Office of Intelligence & Analysis (OIA). With the feted former CIA veteran Charles Allen as its Chief of Intelligence, OIA set out to ditch its image as "an infant intelligence operation" without a "full-fledged role in the U.S. Intelligence Community."3 Despite these changes and some important departmental successes, such as DHS' being designated to serve as the facilitator of requests from civilian agencies and law enforcement for classified satellite images,4 DHS' role in the Intelligence Community is not without problems. From the perspective of some IC insiders, bureaucratic overlap and infighting remain chief among these problems. The ramping up of the DHS intelligence enterprise might be seen as part of the government's larger response to put more 'players' into the game of counterterrorism, resulting in "more and bigger bureaucratic squad members [and] adding to the tussles over who is responsible for covering which part of the intelligence terrain."5 So the question remains, is there room in the IC for Homeland Security Intelligence (HSINT)? The answer lies in some unique contributions that the DHS intelligence enterprise can bring to the IC. First, DHS and its intelligence enterprise have important connections to state, local, and tribal law enforcement. Fundamentally, DHS operates at the ground level, with customs and immigration agents out in the field and with first responder communities spread across the nation. Also, DHS has established 'fusion centers' to facilitate [End Page 141] information sharing. DHS headquarters is actively dispatching intelligence analysts to State and Local Fusion Centers, thus strengthening the bond between the national and sub-national levels. It is doing this to "maximize [cross tier] ability to detect, prevent, investigate, and respond to criminal and terrorist activity."6 Second, DHS is currently studying the process of radicalization and measures to prevent and counter the radicalization of extremists in the United States.7 In conducting a national assessment of radicalization, DHS is partnering with the academic and scientific communities to take a long-term strategic view of the problems of radicalization and terrorism.8 One only has to look at the July 7, 2005 bombings in London and Great Britain's problem with 'homegrown' terrorists to understand American interest in the process of radicalization. Indeed, the recently passed House Resolution 1955, the "Violent Radicalization and Homegrown Terrorism Prevention Act of 2007," cites the "significant experience" of Great Britain, Australia, and Canada with homegrown terrorism as an important precipitating cause for DHS' focus on radicalization within the United States.9 In HR 1955, Congress finds that traditional law enforcement and intelligence efforts to combat terrorism are not independently sufficient and must be coupled with study of the "motivational factors" leading to radicalization and ideologically based violence.10 Congress gave DHS the lead in establishing academic Centers of Excellence, such as the START Center at the University of Maryland, to study the problems of radicalization.11 Third, DHS' Office of Civil Rights and Civil Liberties is reaching out to local communities to spark dialogue to counter radicalization and to develop better relationships between minority communities and DHS.12 Community outreach to counter radicalization has become a "critical element of the [counterterrorism] strategy," and DHS representatives from the Office of Civil Rights and Civil Liberties have engaged community leaders in Los...

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