Fixing a Failure to Identify Intelligence in the Domestic Setting: Aligning Collection and Analysis to Address an All-Hazards Mission

2015 ◽  
Vol 12 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Darren E. Tromblay
Keyword(s):  
Homeland Security ◽  
Interagency Collaboration ◽  
Government Agencies ◽  
Federal Bureau ◽  
Department Of Homeland Security ◽  
Fusion Centers ◽  
Task Forces ◽  
The Us ◽  
State And Local ◽  
Domestic Setting

AbstractThe US’ domestically-oriented, homeland security enterprise lacks a structure that facilitates an all-hazards intelligence mission. An all-hazards mission must account for both positive and negative intelligence information. The primary hubs for interagency collaboration and collection, within the US, are the Department of Homeland Security-funded state and local fusion centers and the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s joint terrorism task forces (JTTFs). Both of these entities focus on negative intelligence. The FBI JTTFs focus on one element of negative intelligence, the DHS fusion centers have unfocused, but still negative, missions, due to bureaucratic realities. Meanwhile, other government agencies, notably the CIA’s National Resources Division and even other elements of the FBI are engaged in uncoordinated collection, an activity that threatens to bring even more disorganization to the homeland-security enterprise. Rather than creating yet another agency, the strengths of both the JTTFs and the fusion centers should be leveraged, in conjunction with other domestically operating collectors, to establish new platforms, using fusion centers as a backbone, staffed with a service of joint duty personnel.

Evidence-Based Patient Decontamination: An Integral Component of Mass Exposure Chemical Incident Planning and Response

2014 ◽  
Vol 8 (3) ◽  
pp. 260-266 ◽  
Author(s):  
Adam D. Leary ◽  
Michael D. Schwartz ◽  
Mark A. Kirk ◽  
Joselito S. Ignacio ◽  
Elaine B. Wencil ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Medical Treatment ◽  
Homeland Security ◽  
Multiple Time ◽  
Chemical Toxicity ◽  
Department Of Homeland Security ◽  
Department Of Health ◽  
The Us ◽  
Patient Health ◽  
Health Support ◽  
Health Demands

AbstractDecontaminating patients who have been exposed to hazardous chemicals can directly benefit the patients’ health by saving lives and reducing the severity of toxicity. While the importance of decontaminating patients to prevent the spread of contamination has long been recognized, its role in improving patient health outcomes has not been as widely appreciated. Acute chemical toxicity may manifest rapidly—often minutes to hours after exposure. Patient decontamination and emergency medical treatment must be initiated as early as possible to terminate further exposure and treat the effects of the dose already absorbed. In a mass exposure chemical incident, responders and receivers are faced with the challenges of determining the type of care that each patient needs (including medical treatment, decontamination, and behavioral health support), providing that care within the effective window of time, and protecting themselves from harm. The US Department of Health and Human Services and Department of Homeland Security have led the development of national planning guidance for mass patient decontamination in a chemical incident to help local communities meet these multiple, time-sensitive health demands. This report summarizes the science on which the guidance is based and the principles that form the core of the updated approach. (Disaster Med Public Health Preparedness. 2014;0:1–7)

Beyond Counterterrorism

2013 ◽  
Vol 4 (3) ◽  
pp. 1-14 ◽  
Author(s):  
Priscilla M. Regan ◽  
Torin Monahan
Keyword(s):  
Qualitative Research ◽  
Information Sharing ◽  
Homeland Security ◽  
Civil Liberties ◽  
Fusion Center ◽  
Department Of Homeland Security ◽  
Fusion Centers ◽  
Mission Creep ◽  
New Challenges

Decentralized organizational approaches to security provision introduce new challenges for controlling information-sharing practices, safeguarding civil liberties, and ensuring accountability. Department of Homeland Security “fusion centers,” and the multiple organizations and databases that are part of fusion centers, engender an environment in which information is migrating beyond original purposes of counterterrorism. Indeed, based on intensive qualitative research, the authors have found that fusion centers that were originally oriented toward “counterterrorism” have quickly broadened their scope to include all crimes, and those that began as “all crimes” have migrated only marginally to terrorism. This is the result of three quite predictable factors: fusion centers have to be valuable to their states, there is too little activity that is clearly terrorism related, and fusion center personnel have to use their time and skills constructively. Nonetheless, even if local policing needs are met through fusion-center funding and support, many of the activities of fusion-center analysts lend themselves to mission creep and violations of civil liberties.

Secondary ensnarement: Surveillance systems in the service of punitive immigration enforcement

2020 ◽  
Vol 22 (4) ◽  
pp. 461-482
Author(s):  
Ana Muñiz
Keyword(s):  
Homeland Security ◽  
Information Collection ◽  
Surveillance Systems ◽  
Immigration Enforcement ◽  
Scholarly Work ◽  
Department Of Homeland Security ◽  
The Us ◽  
Us Government ◽  
Secondary Information ◽  
Mass Surveillance

Relatively little scholarly work explores US interior immigration enforcement through a surveillance lens. This article asks how US immigration authorities have designed and deployed surveillance systems to facilitate enforcement practices, specifically regarding the construction of immigrant subjects and interior apprehension and deportation. Drawing upon a qualitative analysis of 291 Department of Homeland Security documents authored between 1995 and 2017, this paper examines the evolution of a primary immigration enforcement information system currently called the Enforcement Integrated Database. The analysis reveals that over the course of 33 years, the US Government has transformed Enforcement Integrated Database from a case management system into a mass surveillance system. Specifically, I argue that immigration authorities have deployed secondary information collection in the Enforcement Integrated Database to expand (1) the volume of people under surveillance, called ensnarement targets and (2) the opportunities to categorize people as criminal or dangerous, called ensnarement opportunities. As a result, Department of Homeland Security amplifies punitive enforcement against broader populations of noncitizens and potentially, citizens as well.

scholarly journals Introduction

2020 ◽  
Vol 48 (2) ◽  
pp. 391-405
Author(s):  
Nathan K. Hensley
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Homeland Security ◽  
The United States ◽  
National Standards ◽  
Legal Guardian ◽  
Department Of Homeland Security ◽  
The Us ◽  
Mexico Border ◽  
Customs And Border Protection ◽  
Physical Custody

“We saw no issues,” reports the Department of Homeland Security in a self-study of its practices for detaining children at the US–Mexico border, “except one unsanitary bathroom.” The system is working as it should; all is well. “CBP [Customs and Border Protection] facilities we visited,” the report summarizes, “appeared to be operating in compliance with the 2015 National Standards on Transport, Escort, Detention, and Search.” A footnote on page 2 of the September 2018 document defines the prisoners at these facilities, the “unaccompanied alien children,” as “aliens under the age of eighteen with no lawful immigration status in the United States and without a parent or legal guardian in the United States ‘available’ to care and [provide] physical custody for them.” Available is in scare quotes. This tic of punctuation discloses to us that the parents of these children have been arrested and removed. They are not available, and cannot take physical custody of their children, because they themselves are in physical custody. In a further typographical error, the word “provide” has been omitted: the children are without a parent or legal guardian in the United States “available” to care and physical custody for them. The dropped word turns “physical custody” into a verb and sets this new action, to physical custody, in tense relation to “care.”

How the next President of the United States can fix FEMA

2008 ◽  
Vol 6 (5) ◽  
pp. 13 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jane A. Bullock, BA ◽  
George D. Haddow, MURP
Keyword(s):  
Hurricane Katrina ◽  
Homeland Security ◽  
Local Governments ◽  
Current System ◽  
Hazard Mitigation ◽  
The United States ◽  
Federal State ◽  
Economic Damage ◽  
Department Of Homeland Security ◽  
State And Local

Our nation continues to experience increased frequency and severity of weather disasters. All of these risks demand that we look at the current system and assess if this system, which is predicated on strong Federal leadership in partnership with State and local governments and which failed so visibly in Hurricane Katrina, needs to be rebuilt on a new model. We are suggesting a plan of action that, we believe, is practical, achievable, and will reduce the costs in lives, property, environmental and economic damage from future disasters. The next President is the only person who can make this happen.We suggest that the next President undertake the following steps: (1) move FEMA out of the Department of Homeland Security; (2) appoint a FEMA Director, who is a trusted adviser to the President; (3) include the appointment of the FEMA Director in the first round of Presidential appointees to the Cabinet; (4) rebuild the Federal Response Plan; (5) remove the hazard mitigation and long-term recovery functions from FEMA; (6) invest $2.5 billion annually in hazard mitigation; (7) support community disaster resiliency efforts. The next President will have the opportunity to build the new partnership of Federal, State and local governments, voluntary agencies, nonprofits and the private sector that is needed to make our nation resilient. The question is will the next President take advantage of this opportunity?

'Deepfakes' could irreparably damage public trust

2019 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Artificial Intelligence ◽  
National Security ◽  
Homeland Security ◽  
Wide Spectrum ◽  
Department Of Homeland Security ◽  
Digital Videos ◽  
Content Type ◽  
The Past ◽  
The Us ◽  
Us Senate

Subject Deepfake technology. Significance The US Senate on October 24 passed an act that requires the Department of Homeland Security to publish a yearly report on how ‘deepfake’ technology may be used to harm national security. Deepfakes are believable digital videos, audios or photos created using artificial intelligence (AI) to portray a person saying or doing something that the person never said or did, or portraying an event as real that never took place. The level of sophistication of this technology has leapfrogged over the past two years, raising a wide spectrum of concerns. Impacts A market for anti-deepfake verification technologies will emerge. Lawmakers will need to define the lines between art/entertainment and malicious deepfakes. Upcoming elections will be impacted by the existence of this technology.

Surveillance and Public Space

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rachel Hall
Keyword(s):  
Science Fiction ◽  
Public Space ◽  
Homeland Security ◽  
The United States ◽  
Consumer Market ◽  
Department Of Homeland Security ◽  
Ethical Problems ◽  
Fusion Centers ◽  
Peer Monitoring ◽  
Monitoring Applications

Current communications research takes up the political and ethical problems posed by new surveillance technologies in public space, ranging from biometric technologies adopted by state security apparatuses to self- and peer-monitoring applications for the consumer market. In addition to studies that examine new surveillance technologies, scholars are tracking intensive and extensive expansions of surveillance in the name of risk management. Much of the scholarship produced in the last 15 years looks at how the establishment and expansion of the Department of Homeland Security within the United States and its international counterparts have dramatically altered security, military, and legal practices and cultures. Within this context what were once science fiction dystopias have become funded research and development projects and institutionalized practices aimed at remote data collection and processing, including facial recognition technology and a variety of remote sensing devices. Private-public partnerships between companies like Google and Homeland Security fusion centers have made it possible to use GPS technology to network data that promises to help manage a variety of natural and man-made disasters.

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