HLSS302 Final Assignment

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1 Final Assignment Brendan J. Cawthon American Public University System HLSS302 Dr. Brian Blodgett October 22, 2023

2 Abstract Domestic Intelligence is a vast world that very few have access to through clearance level. It is something your typical citizen doesn’t have to worry about on a daily basis of what kind of planning for attacks or crime is happening in an area. The dissemination of information facilitated by Fusion Centers is almost never thought about by your typical American and not only that but what kind of capabilities we have and what limits us on a defense level. Through all the agencies in the Homeland Security Enterprise and the Intelligence Community, in this paper you will take a deep dive into how they operate, what kinds of information disseminate through them and how they are utilized to play to our strength within our capabilities and how we can avoid our weaknesses and limitations by having back up contingencies in place. Keywords: Domestic Intelligence, Capabilities, Limitations, Fusion Center, Homeland Security Enterprise, etc.

3 Overall Concepts of Homeland Security and Homeland Defense There is no doubt that American citizens question our government and what they are doing to protect them, ensure our jobs are secure, and how they manage the economy. In this paper there will be a huge focal point on Fusion Centers and their vast capabilities and how they are doing their part to protect us through agencies involved. Obviously, when there are benefits there are always worries too and those will be addressed in the form of what our limitations are in using Fusion Centers as well as what could happen if there was an effective cyber attack or breach that disabled our communication. Domestic Intelligence is complex and simple at the same time but thankfully us, as citizens, do not have to worry ourselves with such things, which is why there are all sorts of agencies at the local, state, and federal level that cover a wide variety of issues. In determining the capabilities and limitations of Domestic Intelligence Efforts in the Homeland Security Enterprise, we can have a better understanding of how we are protected. Capabilities and Limitations of Domestic Intelligence Efforts in Supporting the Homeland Security Enterprise Within the Homeland Security Enterprise, there are many moving parts. All actions carried out within are to benefit the United States of America and its citizens whether that be security from foreign and domestic threats, stabilizing the economy through trade, or gathering intelligence to deter attacks both from cyber and in person. Domestic intelligence is the combination of receiving investigative tips and other information to combat suspicious behavior and find the purpose of these actions, and who is behind them (Treverton, 2008). Just as the Homeland Security Enterprise is, Domestic Intelligence gathering is happening at all levels of security and law enforcement. Your local city police department is keeping tabs on people in your area who are known criminals and keeping up with their every move. The state level may

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4 not have as many boots on the ground in the area but they are responsible for the transfer of information between local and federal agencies through Fusion Centers. The federal agencies have a wide variety of responsibility as they are responsible for watch list, planning, execution, among many other things in relation to intelligence, security, and infrastructure. Not only is this tips received, but it involves exploratory activities that involve our own investigation and discovery of new leads and tips for future use. The purpose of domestic intelligence is deterring, prevention, mitigation, and response to security threats and is responsible for the protection of privacy, civil rights and civil liberties. With the many strategies implemented to gather intelligence through informants, interviews, investigation, and monitoring movement and purchases of those who have made their way onto some sort of watch list, fusion centers are the catalyst that allows for the operation to move forward. A fusion center is a collaborative effort of two or more agencies that provide resources, expertise and information to the center with the goal of maximizing their ability to detect, prevent, investigate, and respond to criminal and terrorist activity (National Network of Fusion Centers Fact Sheet, 2012). As mentioned before, the state level acts as the messenger between local entities and federal agencies in which fusion centers are responsible for sharing that information back and forth. Once information has been received by either local or federal agencies, it is sent to these fusion centers to be analyzed and distributed to the proper authorities to be handled accordingly. The utilization of Fusion Centers offers a massive advantage in our capabilities of domestic intelligence because they can help provide a landscape of the area when delivering intelligence from a specific area. This is to include the type of area the information is coming from such as urban or rural areas, the demographic involved such as high income or low income, and what critical infrastructure may be affected in the specific area if an attack were to

5 happen. This kind of information is key to formulating a plan of action to offer the best protection and security available to American citizens. During the 2010 National Fusion Center Conference these baseline capabilities for state and Major Urban Area Fusion Centers were put into place for Critical Operational Capabilities: receive, analyze, disseminate, and gather (National Network of Fusion Center Fact Sheet, 2012). Receive is self-explanatory and encompasses the ability to receive classified and unclassified information from federal partners. Analyze is the ability to assess local implications of that threat information through the use of a formal risk assessment process. Disseminate is the ability to further disseminate that threat information to other state, local, tribal, territorial, and private sector entities within their jurisdiction. And gather is the ability to gather locally generated information, aggregate it, analyze it, and share it with federal partners as appropriate. By perfecting these critical capabilities, Fusion Centers offer a massive advantage for us against emerging threats by decoding information, analyzing implications, and distributing the necessary information to proper authorities to eliminate the threats at hand. Despite all the benefits, there are always downsides to everything. One of many limitations of domestic intelligence is obtaining the information in the first place. Much of how we obtain intelligence is through informants, tracking technology and other communications such as phones, radio networking, and social media applications like Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and Youtube. As great as technology can be, we become reliant on it in many cases. Information can go unnoticed and cyberattacks are a possibility deeming technology useless. In the event that this were to happen, a plethora of classified information as well as a plethora of people’s personal information would be at risk. At this point all that can be done is damage control by identifying what information has been stolen and what can be done with it only to

6 prepare for what comes next. In wartime, this could be extremely detrimental for future plans of attack, defense plans, and classified technology in our possession would no longer be a secret. A cyber breach in this situation not only puts the homeland at risk, but those actively in a combat zone are at even more risk than normal given that their attack and defense plans are now public knowledge to the enemy. One of the most important aspects of the Homeland Security Enterprise and what makes Fusion Centers so effective is communication. Something that we take for granted is the ease of communication in today’s society. Unfortunately, it is not entirely difficult to hack into someone’s cell phone communication and track call logs and messages both in your text messages and in social media platforms. Given most of the communication between Fusion Centers and outside agencies is done through secure phone lines or emails is a bit comforting, but in the event that someone were to hack into their lines of communication would be quite concerning. When communication goes, so does any form of communication that goes into planning a response for a crisis, attack, and deterrence of an attack. Situations as such we can only hope never happen and there are contingencies in place to respond properly. My Beliefs on if the U.S. is Appropriately Structured and Resourced The United States has done a tremendous job of creating and putting systems in place to avoid catastrophe. The Homeland Security Enterprise being composed of U.S. Customs and Border Protection, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, U.S. Secret Service, U.S. Coast Guard, Transportation Security Agency, Federal Protective Service, Federal Law Enforcement Training Centers’ Office of Security and Professional Responsibility, Office of the Chief Security Officer, and Federal Emergency Management Agency’s Mount Weather Police Department are able to cover all areas of security on their own and still have the support of the Department of Defense agencies including military branches making the United States seemingly impenetrable. All of

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7 this paired with state and local departments makes for a well oiled machine when utilizing the Fusion Centers properly. As mentioned previously, communication is the Homeland Security Enterprise’s biggest advantage and disadvantage. Thankfully by using secure lines of communication, my information, your information, and our nation's information regarding classified information, preparation and planning for various contingencies involving attacks and technology are all safeguarded at the highest level. Facilitating the defense at all levels is made possible by these same Fusion Centers. By passing down information from the federal level of agencies to state and local police departments we can get eyes on individuals on watch lists that could potentially be dangerous. Deploying personnel in areas as needed is a result of Fusion Centers. Technical assistance and exercise support in certain scenarios are also a result of fusion centers by contacting federal agencies and entities and potentially the Coast Guard going back to the deployment of personnel. This system is a two way street though. By having those boots on the ground with state and local departments, they are able to obtain information in the area not possible by the larger federal agencies and allows for a more complete picture of intelligence to utilize. One example from the North Carolina Information Sharing and Analysis Center in July 2013 were two individuals acting suspicious near the staging areas for an Independence Day celebration in the area. The Morehead Police Department reported these two individuals to the North Carolina Information Sharing and Analysis Center who notified Immigration and Customs Enforcement as well as Customs and Border Protection and the U.S. Coast Guard. The two individuals were caught in the act, detained and escorted back to their vessels, forced to depart the country and had their VISAs revoked indefinitely. A great example of fusion centers at work is in June of 2013. This included the Central Florida Intelligence Exchange, Tennessee Fusion Center and Georgia Information Sharing and Analysis Center. This exchange of information

8 involved several phone calls across the Southeastern part of the United States from an individual wanted for child pornography by an Immigration and Customs Enforcement office in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. Details were provided to the Central Florida Intelligence Exchange and disseminated the information accordingly. Suspecting the individual may be located in certain areas, the Tennessee Fusion center along with the Georgia Information Sharing and Analysis. Through this information sharing they notified relevant law enforcement agencies and the suspect was located by Georgia State Patrol. Obviously, both of these examples are relatively low-scale in comparison to attacks such as the Oklahoma City Bombings that devastated the Alfred P. Murrah Building, or the attacks on September 11, 2001 that put the world on notice as the Twin Towers crumbled but it demonstrates the abilities of Fusion Centers and their effectiveness in distributing information to prevent and avoid what could be larger problems by stopping them early on in the process making the United States more than capable to utilize its resources effectively in the Homeland Security Enterprise. Summary Now that there is no reason and no doubt for American citizens to question what the Department of Homeland Security is doing to protect us and our neighbors, let’s take a look at how. As we saw, Fusion Centers are what makes the Domestic Intelligence world go round and in doing so, they facilitate a whole lot of great information that is truly making a difference in deterrence, prevention, planning, and response. Fast communication through secure networking allows for numerous agencies to be notified and act accordingly with effective results. In this situation the benefits heavily outweigh the worries and there are contingencies set in place to allow for us to recover and operate at a normal level even during times of disaster. Domestic Intelligence has its complexities and with the fusion centers in place, it will never have to cross

9 our minds if information is being dealt with accordingly to the right agencies and people needed. Through how fusion centers operate and the distribution of Domestic Intelligence Efforts in the Homeland Security Enterprise and determining the capabilities and limitations of them, we no longer have the need to question what is being done for us at all levels of protection to include, local, state, and federal departments.

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10 References Treverton, G. F. (2008, August 21). Should the United States Establish a Dedicated Domestic Intelligence Agency for Counterterrorism? Www.rand.org. https://www.rand.org/pubs/research_briefs/RB9369.html#:~:text=Like%20law %20enforcement%2C%20domestic%20intelligence Office of the Director of National Intelligence. (2016). Domestic Approach to National Intelligence . https://www.dni.gov/files/documents/Newsroom/DomesticApproachtoNationalIntelligen ce.PDF National Network of Fusion Centers Fact Sheet . (2012, August 10). Department of Homeland Security. https://www.dhs.gov/national-network-fusion-centers-fact- sheet#:~:text=%22A%20fusion%20center%20is%20a Cyber Incidents . (2018, February 26). Department of Homeland Security. https://www.dhs.gov/cyber-incidents 2013 Fusion Center Success Stories . (2013, March 8). Department of Homeland Security. https://www.dhs.gov/2013-fusion-center-success-stories

HLSS302 Final Assignment

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