Facts For The Good Fight
ONE – WHAT WE HAVE HERE IS A FAILURE TO COMMUNICATE
One of the largest problems pinpointed by the 9/11 Commission was a lack of communication between different agencies. Here we are, almost five years after the attacks, and agency computer systems *still* can’t talk to one another. Intelligence officials say desks at the central hub, the National Counterterrorism Center, have “most desks are stacked high with half a dozen or more computer processing units connected to various intelligence agencies that still cannot, or will not, communicate with one another electronically.” [Washington Post; Washington Post]
TWO – HEY! WHERE’D EVERYBODY GO?
It’s hard to get things finished when everybody keeps leaving! Example one: “DHS’s cybersecurity division has been run by an acting director since the last full-time appointee — the third person to leave the post in a year — resigned in October 2004.” Example 2: “In April, the FBI’s sixth counterterrorism chief since 2001 tendered his resignation after 10 months on the job.” In all, 2/3 of the upper management of DHS have left the agency since its creation, many taking their expertise to the more lucrative private sector. (Yes, former secretary, TomRidge; former deputy secretary, Adm. James M. Loy; and former under secretary, Asa Hutchinson, we’re talking to you.) [NY Times, Washington Post]
THREE — DUPLICATION
Nearly every agency in the federal government has its very own counterterrorism unit. The NCTC will have 400 analysts by 2008. The FBI has 2,700. The DIA has over 8,000. The CIA has 16,000. (Whew.) But when you have so many different units – and they’re not communicating — you’re going to get a LOT of wasted efforts and duplication. Example: Before the 2006 Winter Olympics, 8 different agencies worked to put out 8 different terror assessments (all with similar conclusions). Each agency sent each of its invidual terror assessments out to the global community. Whatta waste. [Washington Post]
FOUR – DISCONNECT BETWEEN STATE AND FEDERAL LEVELS
There’s a huge disconnect between Washington and state/local governments. The DHS has yet to put together a good blueprint for intel sharing between the federal and state governments. There’s been little oversight of how terror funds are spent (which is where we get stories like the town in Texas who spent terror funds on lawnmower races.) And the governors all complain they can’t decipher all of the federal buraucracy surrounding the information they are able to get. (Did you know there are 90 categories of “sensitive but unclassified” information?) [Washington Post]
FIVE — MONEY SPENT
It takes a lot of money to create this much chaos. Overseas counterterrorism: $430 billion. Domestic counterterrorism efforts: $50 billion to $60 billion this year. State and local money: Billions. Billions. [Washington Post]
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