Dept. of Homeland Security

[BLUEHAWK]

There are Senate hearings this week in DC about this new Department (up since March 1st this year).

I'll try to report on their business to this forum from time to time, though not many readers come to it... surprisingly, considering that we are at war with Terrorism, they say.

This week there is a lot of going back and forth between senators and civilian heads of DHS (Dept. of Homeland Security) bureaus involved specifically with intelligence gathering duties which were to have been consolidated under the new secretariat.

The problem as it has repeatedly been stated, vis a vis 9/11, is failure of intel sharing coordination between major security agencies and down the line to local police.

The obvious:
- CIA nor FBI are included under DHS.
- DHS has created another bureau, called TTIC ("TeeTik", is how they say it), i.e. "Terrorism Threat Integration Center", with a staff made up (for now) primarily of other DHS employees from various offices under DHS authority, but not CIA nor FBI.

So apparently, in order to coordinate all (except CIA and FBI) intel on terrorism, the DHS has created another agency.

Might it not have worked better if the Secretary had simply ordered the department's intel groups to come together and coordinate?

Supposedly the role of TTIC is a) coordination, b) oversight of all DHS intel bureaus to get the word out faster/clearer about domestic (and ONLY domestic) threats, while gathering intel from all available international and domestic resources (except CIA and FBI), and c) get the word out so we can prevent, if possible, any more terrorist attacks here at home.

Where do the CIA and FBI come into this again was it? Anywhere?

Aren't we back where we were in September 2001 so far as intel sharing is concerned, basically, except for having a new department and a new agency within it?