DHS will discuss realignment of intelligence office

The Homeland Security Department is expected to tell House lawmakers on Thursday that it has realigned its intelligence office, which came under heavy criticism this year for warning in a report that veterans returning from Iraq and Afghanistan could be recruited and radicalized by right-wing extremists to carry out violent acts.

Changes to the department's Office of Intelligence and Analysis will be the focus of a hearing called by House Homeland Security Intelligence Subcommittee Chairwoman Jane Harman, D-Calif., who also wants to know how the unit's broad goals outlined this year are being implemented.

"Mission statements are only as good as the actions taken to implement them," said Harman, whose panel will hear from Bart Johnson, acting Homeland Security undersecretary for intelligence and analysis.

Johnson and other department officials were called to testify late on Wednesday in a closed hearing before an Intelligence Subcommittee.

Through the realignment, the focus of the intelligence office will be on serving state and local intelligence groups, commonly referred to as fusion centers, a department spokesman said.

Harman said she wants to ensure that the intelligence office is not duplicating the work of other intelligence agencies. "I&A is not a mini-CIA," she said in an interview.

The department's inspector general concluded in a report issued in December that Homeland Security had made improvements in supporting fusion centers, but several problems remained, such as providing them with adequate and timely information and helping them to navigate the department's complex bureaucracy.

Harman said she believes the department is heading in the right direction with its changes to the intelligence office. But she said she wants to learn the department's plan for ensuring timely dissemination of information to fusion centers, especially when it comes to dealing with material that is overly classified.

She also wants to know how the department is facilitating information sharing from the bottom up, or from fusion centers to the federal government.

The IG report also said the department had fallen short in deploying intelligence analysts to the fusion centers. To that end, the department will announce that it plans to provide each of the nation's 72 fusion centers with at least one analyst by October 2010, the Homeland Security spokesman said.

The department so far has sent analysts to 41 centers, along with four regional managers, the spokesman added. It will take another year to cover all the fusion centers due to the process of hiring qualified individuals and giving them security clearances, he added.