Domestic Terrorism Related Intelligence.

While the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) is one, centralized agency, securing the homeland involves the cooperation and collaboration of many, different agencies and organizations ranging from local law enforcement to national agencies such as the NSA, CIA, and FBI. Each of these agencies contributes to the development of homeland security intelligence. By carefully analyzing and commenting on the objectives, tasks, strengths, weaknesses, and roles of each agency, a larger picture emerges regarding the capabilities and limitation of intelligence in supporting homeland security efforts.

Domestic terrorism is a real threat to this country. This type of attack is nothing new to this country but until the threat of international terrorism became prominent, there was not a large focus on domestic terrorism. With a look at history, domestic terrorists are a greater threat to security than international terrorists. Some of these threats are easily preventable and others are more difficult to see coming. The Department of Homeland Security needs to focus on domestic terrorist threats with the same effort as they do for

Domestic terrorists are turning into such a bigger threat as there becomes more and more dangerous domestic terrorist groups. For instance, right-wing extremists are becoming more of a danger that we can’t ignore. As said by Kurt Eichenwald, “[Timothy] McVeigh, the infamous anti-government extremist, murdered 168 people in 1995 when he detonated a truck bomb in front of the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City.”Like Timothy McVeigh, many U.S. citizens have had violent disagreements about rights and freedoms with government officials, which has caused many of these antigovernment extremist groups to form. According to Ron Nixon, “Mr. Ellison said, ‘Right-wing extremists have launched an average of 330 attacks a year and killed about 250 people between 2002 and 2011. These are dangerous people.’” Right-wing extremists are becoming a bigger threat to our country. They are attacking and killing more people every year and we need to find a

2). Domestic terrorism is usually committed by citizens of the United States, and documentation of terrorist activities on American soil have dated back to the 1950s. The 1970s heighten domestic terrorism by a “rash of skyjacking”, that is, taking a commercial airline hostage (Sauter & Carafano, 2012). Skyjacking incidents compelled the FBI and CIA to develop undercover strategies to enforce terrorist groups; however, these tactics lead to civil right violations. The federal agencies covert tactics and aggressive intelligence collection, “prompted congressional hearings and led to dramatic restrictions on domestic intelligence operations, including the creation of a bureaucratic wall between intelligence gathering and law enforcement” (Sauter & Carafano, 2012, p. 25). The “wall” that was previously stated halted information sharing between the intelligence community and local law enforcement. Communication and information sharing prevents redundancy in high priority investigations, and it could also provide first responders advance notice in life threatening

On 9/11 the U.S.A. was struck forcefully by terrorism. Since then, many laws, like the U.S.A. PATRIOT Act and the creation of the new Department of Homeland Security (DHS), have been put into place to help fight and prevent future terrorist events from taking place. Coupled with their previous skills and experiences, law enforcement officials have trained and gained new techniques to better equip America for the unexpected and to properly handle the expected as well. Fighting terrorism while also fighting non-terrorist crimes has become a common role for law enforcement officials.

Intelligence in this day in age is a vital component of a countries security. The newest proposal increases intelligence spending between 2 and 3 billion dollars, a total adding to nearly $35 billion. In addition to military enhancement, the FBI and other law enforcement/intelligence agencies will also be included in this proposal. A new system has been proposed by President Bush that all information be shared among all agencies. DoD, FBI, and the Department of Counterterrorist Center have drawn closer together to create a Terrorist Threat Integration Center to evaluate information blended from all sources associated with terrorism and to act upon those findings accordingly.

In 1995, Kevin Jack Riley and Bruce Hoffman published their study Domestic Terrorism: A National Assessment of State and Local Preparedness to examine the issues and problems state and local law enforcement agencies faced while dealing with the threat of terrorism in the United States. More specifically, researchers sought to identify how agencies at those two different levels perceived the terrorist threat in the United States, as well as learning how those agencies manage the threat of terrorism and plan and organize their response to actual incidents (Riley & Hoffman, 1995). In order to collect the data needed, the study was broken down into three separate research phases: (1) a national survey of state and local law enforcement agencies designed to assess how those law enforcement agencies perceive the threat of terrorism in the United States and to identify potential anti- and counter-terrorism programs currently used by those jurisdictions; (2) the selection of ten locations, chosen after completion of survey, as case studies to examine in detail how different jurisdictions have adapted to the threat of terrorism and to explain further the anti- and counter-terrorism programs used by those jurisdictions; and (3) the identification of programs used by state and local law enforcement agencies to counter potential future threats along with the development of a prospective future research agenda (Riley & Hoffman, 1995).

As a result of the terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001, most Americans have a general knowledge about terrorism. The U.S. military has been at war for around a decade, continuing the concentration of the media and politicians on Middle Eastern countries and terrorist groups. Consequently, the focus of the nation tends to remain on international terrorist groups rather than domestic terrorist groups. There is a vast amount of terrorism groups in America, including the Army of God, the Aryan Nations, and the Animal Liberation Front, who possess extreme ideals and exist for different reasons. The fact that there are numerous terrorist groups that are composed of American citizens performing tremendous acts of violence within the U.S. seems to go somewhat unnoticed by the general public.

In preparation for my debate on the topics of intelligence-led policing and Compstat policing, I have discovered the many advantages and disadvantages of using intelligence-led policing and Compstat policing. According to Carter & Carter (2009), intelligence-led policing is the collection of and analysis of data relating to crime, used by law enforcement in “developing tactical responses to threats and/or strategic planning related to emerging changing threats” (p. 317). When applied correctly, intelligence-led policing is a tool used for information sharing in identifying threats and developing responses to prevent those threats from reaching fruition (Carter, 2011). One of the advantages of using intelligence-led policing is its incorporation of data analysts. The role of the data analyst in the context of intelligence-led policing allows them to take specially trained analysts to take raw data from information found in reports and translate it into useful information for the officers, allowing the police to deploy resources more effectively and efficiently (Griffiths, 2016). Another advantage is its application through preventative and predictive policing (proactive policing), in which law enforcement take data and identify crucial variables such as terrorism or the emergence of criminal organizations, in hopes of stopping the problem at its roots (Carter, 2011). Terrorism is especially important and emphasized after the 9/11 terrorist attack on the World Trade Centers in

Intelligence-led policing is the new standard of information sharing among law enforcement agencies across the country at all levels. Before intelligence-led policing gained popularity most law enforcement agencies did not freely share information amongst each other, which lead to huge gaps in the functioning of law enforcement agencies. Many believe that this laps in sharing is what lead to the 9/11 disaster. All police agencies must form a cohesive approach to a central system of intelligence gathering and information dissemination. By doing so, they may better achieve a common goal for the unified approach to policing. This process of intelligence-led police may seem like a simple concept, but it involve the many departments working together which can cause confusion and angst among them.

In the State of New York, fusion center is a perfect example of information technology optimizing their performance in reducing crime within their police departments. The New York/New Jersey High Intensity Drug Trafficking Center serves as an information hub for law enforcement. According to (Johnson, 2008), the mass of intelligence data in the central location has proved to be a key factor in identifying individuals and organizations that are facilitating or carrying out terrorist activity in New York City.

An intelligence gathering network is a system through which information about a entity is collected for the benefit of another through the use of more than one, inter-related source. Such information may be gathered by a military intelligence, government intelligence, or commercial intelligence network (Loftus, 2011). An example intelligence gathering is the government monitoring certain activities, gathering and sharing different kind of information.

A terrorist organization operating in a territory of a host country without its knowledge attacks that country's drinking water supply with a view to causing widespread illnesses, deaths, and panic (Burrows & Renner, 1999). The country's intelligence services issues a warning system. This prompts bodies concerned with supply of water to come up with strategies of protecting that country's drinking water supply. They delineate the sources of water and do an inventory of the potential sources of contamination in those areas. The water catchment area is also subsequently mapped. The mapping enables them to conduct quantitative tracer testing where a known quantity of material is released into a source water location and the tracer recovered at a downstream location. This body also uses Efficient Hydrological Tracer-test Design to facilitate tracer testing. Security agencies are eventually posted at every water installation to avert chances of further attacks. That country's intelligence service later manages to locate the base from where these terrorists operate. Because the host country's counterterrorism policy does not allow them to make concession with terrorists, they are left with no choice but to bring them (terrorists) to justice for attempting to murder innocent civilians. A specialized force is charged with responsibility of tracking them down and apprehending them with no

Terrorism can be executed or presented in a variety of forms. For example, bioterrorism, cyberterrorism, nuclear terrorism, domestic terrorism, etc. It is important to highlight that terrorism can strike not just large cities, but in any community of any size. Domestic terrorism in the United States is not a new

Terrorism is a growing threat to America and other Countries that is causing more deaths, injuries, and destruction to property and infrastructures. There are ways to reduce the effects of terrorist incidents by using intelligence, communication, and planning. The use of intelligence is one of the most effective approaches to counteract terrorist incidents. Communication amongst all levels of the government and all agencies is the key element in preventing terrorist incidents. Planning before terrorist incidents is a