Arrow-right Camera
The Spokesman-Review Newspaper
Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

Chertoff to announce key overhaul of intel arm

Associated Press

WASHINGTON – The intelligence arm of the Homeland Security Department is facing a massive overhaul, an admission of shortcomings at what was designed to be the government’s chief center for analyzing information about terrorist threats.

Homeland Security’s directorate for Information Analysis and Infrastructure Protection was a top justification when President Bush and Congress created the department in 2002 – the largest U.S. government reorganization in 50 years.

As part of a department-wide review, Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff has said he will announce changes at the agency by the end of June. Current and former anti-terror officials say a major overhaul will be made at the intelligence unit.

Homeland Security spokeswoman Michelle Petrovich said Friday that Chertoff “has received a variety of recommendations, but no final decisions have been made yet.”

The officials said the changes probably will include focusing the unit’s analysts on identifying terror targets instead of also gathering raw data.

Turf wars and vague congressional mandates have led several current and former counterterror officials to question the effectiveness of Homeland Security’s mission.

Homeland Security’s intelligence unit “was the foundation of why the department was stood up – there’s no doubt about that,” said John Rollins, a former intelligence official at the department who now works at the Congressional Research Service.

But officials realized the intelligence unit “did not have the numbers of people, or anywhere near the expertise required, to fulfill the mission of being the U.S. government’s focal point for threat information related to the homeland,” Rollins said.

Under the leading option, the new office would oversee intelligence analysts from Homeland Security’s disparate agencies – including Customs and Border Protection, Immigration and Customs Enforcement and the Coast Guard.

It would also gather and distribute terror-related data for state and local governments and the private sector.