The stunning disconnect between DHS and law enforcement agencies

June 30, 2006

I know I should be accustomed to a high degree of administration incompetence, especially when it comes to [tag]domestic security[/tag], but this is just stunning.

Nearly five years after the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, [tag]law-enforcement[/tag] authorities around the country say Washington’s efforts to share vital security information with them are in shambles.

While police departments from several big cities have representatives working full time with the [tag]Department of Homeland Security[/tag] to glean sensitive information about terror [tag]threats[/tag], some of these departments say they still are denied access to timely, relevant information about threats and terrorist activity. And often the information they get from federal agencies — if they get any — is confusing, late and little better than what’s on [tag]television[/tag] news channels, they say.

Some police forces have threatened to pull out of the homeland-security department’s information-sharing programs, which cost hundreds of millions of dollars to set up, unless they are given greater access to intelligence data that they can share with their officers.

The Department of Homeland Security created a $337-million “information [tag]network[/tag]” for the sole purpose of sharing [tag]confidential[/tag] information with hundreds of federal, state, and local law enforcement agencies. As the WSJ noted, DHS described it as its “backbone” for dealing with national emergencies and terrorist threats. Sounds great, right? Wrong. The homeland-security department’s inspector general, Richard Skinner, found that officials across the country “are confused and frustrated, without clear guidance on [the network’s] role or how to use the system to share information effectively.”

Best of all, some law-enforcement agencies have refused to provide information on the network because they aren’t convinced it’s secure enough to be trusted.

All of this, of course, comes after recent revelations about the Department of Homeland Security’s revolving door to K Street and its bizarre funding priorities for likely domestic terrorist targets. Which came shortly after a series of fiascos, including the [tag]DHS[/tag]’s handling of Hurricane Katrina, it’s inability to secure its own headquarters, its inability to set up a list serve, and a Washington Post series explaining in alarming detail how the agency has been beset by almost every bureaucratic problem imaginable. House Democrats released a report recently highlighting the fact that DHS set 33 clear goals for itself last year — and failed to meet all of them.

I’m curious — what exactly does [tag]Michael Chertoff[/tag] do all day?

Probably part of it is that there’s just not that much good intelligence to share. I don’t think that the terrorists are that busy. They’re not like hackers (although they might be hackers) constantly attacking networks. I don’t think the Bush people have thwarted any direct threats. There’s just not that many being planned.

  • Terrorist attacks have very long tails. Osama can lie low for ten years while we fumble around in Washington getting “ready” for the next 9/11. Part of that readiness was GW’s gamble in Iraq. The cost of this is equivalent to several 9/11s, so in effect, those 19 suicide attackers on 9/11 just keep on giving. There is a very real possibility that Osama planned to draw us into Iraq from the very get go. And he could not have found a greater sucker than GW to do it.

  • The unfiltered SHARING of info is the hard part for this administration.
    They are much more into information CONTROLLING and doctoing.

    The problem with gathering and disbursing real time information is that it can’t be spun, censored, and cherry picked to fit the projected Bush reality.

  • I thought that Chertoff and Bush rode around all day, thwartin’ terrer ‘tacks, busting heads and taking names, loving the ladies but knowing they can never settle down, pushing the boundries of what the law allows, while the boss (Cheney) sits at his desk in the bunker, shaking his head while he reads their reports, but knowing that they are the best he’s got on the job.

    And who’s got time to study patterns, share information, read …um … anything, when these terrer fighters know that the best way is to grab a marginally sane operative and make him tell what he knows. That’s the way to do some real terrer fightin’.

    No? Is this not what happens? Huh. Then I can’t explain it either.

  • I am also sure that like Bush loyalty, sharing of information only goes one way. Hard to not understand them wanting to bail if they give information and don’t get any back, what information they do get back is less than helpful, it’s expensefor what little they do get. But then I guess I can’t be all that surprised. Bush didn’t really want to create DHS. As with the Prescription Drug Plan, they set up a system guaranteed to fail or at least tick off as many people as possible. Bush and his minions can claim they did something even if that something doesn’t deliver on its promises or come close to meeting it’s expectations/mandates.

  • It’s really simpler than most here seem to believe:

    Those who reflexively hate and denigrate government shouldn’t be expected to show any aptitude in carrying out its functions.

  • “I’m curious — what exactly does Michael Chertoff do all day?”

    Remember Art “Big Guy” Carlson from “WKRP in Cincinnati?”

    Same job, less effectiveness.

  • Lame Man’s comments about Boss Cheney made me think of the Dukes of Hazzard reference. The song certainly fits:

    “Making their way the only way they know how.
    That’s just a little bit more than the law will allow.”

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