Homeland Security cedes intelligence role

Despite expectations that the new Homeland Security Department would become the government's clearinghouse for analyzing intelligence about terrorist threats, the fledgling department will play only a minor role in one of the most significant parts of the government's war on terrorism.

In testimony before the Senate Governmental Affairs Committee Wednesday, Homeland Security Deputy Secretary Gordon England said the new department would not have its own intelligence analysis group, even though the law establishing the department gives it broad authority to receive and analyze information from across the government in order to protect the nation from terrorist attacks.

England said he didn't support giving Homeland Security those analysis duties. "That's not our responsibility," he said. "That would be a very large organizational step for us to take…[and] I certainly do not feel like we could manage that operation."

Instead, the new Terrorist Threat Integration Center will become the terrorism intelligence hub, said Winston Wiley, the CIA's associate director for homeland security. The center will be made up of the FBI's counterterrorism division, the CIA's counterterrorism center and intelligence units from numerous Defense Department agencies.

England said that Homeland Security would be a "partner" in the new center, but would act mainly as a consumer of the intelligence it produces. That intelligence would be used to determine threats to critical infrastructures, such as power plants and dams. Homeland Security officials, as well as state and local agencies, would take steps to protect those assets.

The center will receive raw data and so-called "finished" intelligence, which has been analyzed, from agencies across the government. However, it will not use its own personnel to collect information, Wiley said. Analysts at the center would create intelligence reports for other government agencies. Initially, the center will be housed at the CIA compound in Langley, Va., but later it will move to different quarters.

While a yet-to-be named senior government official will manage the center's daily operations, CIA Director George Tenet will have oversight authority over the organization and will choose its head.

Wiley defended the close alignment with the CIA, saying that the agency possesses the most analysis expertise. He said handing over the task to Homeland Security wouldn't be practical. "[That] is asking it to do more than it needs to," Wiley said.

The analysis of terrorist-related data is a massive undertaking. The CIA and other agencies receive tens of thousands of intelligence leads and pieces of data each week, and employ hundreds of analysts to turn unrelated, sometimes seemingly insignificant information into finished reports for the president and senior policy-makers at the National Security Council and a variety of agencies.

Senators at the Wednesday hearing expressed concern that the center's proximity to the CIA, both physically and organizationally, could turn it into an organ of the nation's foreign intelligence operations, which are prohibited by law from conducting their work within the United States. Committee Chairwoman Susan Collins, R-Maine, and Democratic Michigan Sen. Carl Levin asked that the CIA, the FBI and Homeland Security define in writing what the responsibilities of the new center will be, and to differentiate its mission from that of the CIA's counterterrorism center, which operates abroad.

"The goal is fusion, not confusion," Collins said. The center's patchwork design of personnel from across government has concerned lawmakers, as does its affiliation with the CIA.

That CIA counterterrorism center is mainly an operational unit that supports U.S. intelligence activities overseas, said Gregory Treverton, a senior analyst with the nonprofit think tank RAND in Santa Monica, Calif. The CIA has always employed well-trained analysts, but they've been mostly scattered around the globe at agency stations. Analysis hasn't been the counterterrorism center's primary focus, he said.

Sen. Levin expressed concern that the missions of the CIA and the new terrorism intelligence center might become blurred. He also remained skeptical that the new center could successfully be established. "We'll be lucky if we do this well," he said.

Wiley said the center will aim to distribute useful intelligence and warnings to federal agencies, as well as state and local governments. The FBI would provide information to state and local law enforcement agencies through its more than 60 joint terrorism task forces located in field offices across the country, said Pasquale D'Amuro, the bureau's senior counterterrorism official. Senators admonished the FBI to ensure that flow of information goes both ways.

Lawmakers questioned whether intelligence would flow freely out of the center, since it's so closely linked to the CIA. Legally, the CIA has long been prohibited from sharing information or cooperating with law enforcement agencies. Putting the center at CIA headquarters means it will "not be in a good position to reach out," Treverton said.