Secretary focuses on collaboration with fusion centers, international agreements in her approach to counter-terrorism

In a key policy speech in New York City on Thursday, Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano emphasized information sharing in her approach to combating terrorism, calling upon US citizens, law enforcement, federal agencies, and international allies to pool resources to break up terrorist activities.

Terrorists are increasingly mobile and networked, enabling them to collaborate from multiple locations globally, Napolitano warned, so US authorities and allies must make best use of their own capabilities to network in order to stay ahead of them.

"We cannot forget that the 9/11 attackers conceived of their plans in the Philippines, planned in Malaysia and Germany, recruited from Yemen and Saudi Arabia, trained in Pakistan and Afghanistan, and carried them out in the United States," she stated.

Indeed, terrorists continue to target Americans overseas. As recently as two weeks ago, a suspected al Qaeda cell in Jakarta attacked American hotels, killing eight people and injuring six Americans, Napolitano recalled.

So as terrorists make use of new technologies and communications tools, so must the United States through resources such as fusion centers, she added.

"Fusion centers are and will be a critical part of our nation's homeland security capabilities," Napolitano declared. "I intend to make them a top priority for this department to support them, build them, improve them and work with them."

The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) will make use of the information shared by intelligence analysts working in fusion centers to stop high-priority terrorist threats such as attacks with nuclear or radiological devices, improvised explosive devices, and cyber attacks from international and homegrown terrorists, the secretary specified.

Fusion centers play a key role in mitigating such threats by piecing together pieces of information from various sources, examining emerging trends, and analyzing the meaning of certain events, she added.

"I think the fact that I as the secretary of Homeland receive a daily intel brief-not just from members of the Department of Homeland Security, but also, for example, from a CIA briefer-helps make sure or ensure that critical intelligence is being shared," Napolitano said of breaking down barriers to information. "And in this administration we're very intent on exercising how we handle intel and how we respond. Indeed, right now there's a national-level exercise under way that will test some of this sharing capacity, whether things are being shared and whether responses are being correctly calibrated."

International Intelligence

Napolitano echoed a predecessor, former Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge, in framing the physical borders of the United States as a last line of defense and not a first.

"DHS, together with the Department of Justice, State and others, is brokering agreements with our allies in Europe and around the world to share information on air travelers in advance of their travel, to gather critical biometric information so we know who is in our country, to scan baggage and cargo effectively while still facilitating legal trade and commerce," Napolitano remarked.

Stewart Baker, former assistant secretary of Policy for Homeland Security, applauded Napolitano's international outreach as one of her departments most impressive accomplishments to date.

Baker noted that DHS signed 56 international agreements during his tenure there, which was an impressive accomplishment.

"I thought that was a big deal and I was surprised and proud and pleased with the guys who did it,"Baker told HSToday.us. "But I am in awe of what the department has done since then. It's career people who were there when I was there but they have picked up the pace and the Secretary has come in and said, 'I like that, I like that, don't do that, and we are going to go forward and execute these agreements.' "

DHS has signed important information-sharing agreements on criminal matters with international partners this year, Baker observed. And Napolitano has been active internationally in ways that will pay dividends in the future when the United States requires information about terrorist activity in foreign countries.

"Cops are cops all the way up," Baker commented. "They exchange information with people that they trust. They trust people that they know. There is no substitute for having that kind of personal relationship. And she is building it as well as executing some very important agreements. Keeping that up and continuing to execute that is going to be important.

"We have some tough negotiations ahead with some European countries still. I think it's quite doable and it will be a real contribution to the unity of the department," he added.