Intelligence And Homeland Security

To respond to government leaders’ requirements and questions, the collecting, analyzing, and distributing of intelligence information must occur. However, intelligence is a comprehensive term that involves these following which are, analyzing, collecting, production of sensitive information to support national security leaders, such as policymakers, military commanders and Members of Congress. Specifically, the intelligence community provides insight on the important issues through collecting intelligence, data analyzing context, and providing customers with timely relevant products at all national security level; from the White House down to the military at war. Indeed, it’s true that intelligence is central to everything DHS does; and intelligence

is converted into a product to support a customer through information analyzed. Also, intelligence play’s important role in the warfare throughout history, and it’s diplomacy; then again, it’s process and product. Furthermore, intelligence has equally taken greater importance in this new information age; and it’s more critical to homeland security and homeland defense.

Operating in various countries with the use of multiple forms of intelligence has been extremely useful for the US military intelligence branches (Greenberg, 2009). These multiple forms of intelligence include but not limited to Human Intelligence (HUMINT), Geospatial Intelligence (GEOINT), Measurement and Signature Intelligence (MASINT), Open Source Intelligence (OSINT), Strategic Intelligence (STRATINT), Signals Intelligence (SIGINT), and Technical Intelligence (TECHINT). Equally important, the Department of the homeland security primary mission is to prevent terrorist attacks within the United States, reduce the US vulnerability to terrorism and minimize the damage and recovery from terrorist attacks when it occurs. Notably, since 2003 DHS has had inception intelligence component; for example, the DHS Act of 2002, assigned the intelligence component to the DHS (Carter & Carter, 2009). Also, they have the responsibility to integrate law enforcement, analyze, and provide intelligence information to identify and assess the nature and the level of terrorist threats to the homeland, detect and identify terrorism threats against the

US. Intelligence community equally aids homeland security to understand risks of passing information about the vulnerabilities potential. Another evidence to show that intelligence is central to DHS is when Congress made sharing of information a top priority to the new DHS intelligence organization. Congress requested for information sharing to be disseminated to other departments such as federal, state, the private sector, local government, and homeland security; also with deterring, preventing, and responding to terrorist attacks against the US as part of their responsibilities. Finally, the international and domestic terrors threats have increased in the United States; and the mission of the intelligence community is to supply the homeland security enterprise with timely intelligence information that they need to protect, resilient, safe, and secure the homeland. Undoubtedly, the intelligence community has determined to continue with the efforts to disrupt, detect, and destroy terrorists that are in their overseas networks while protecting America from other terrorist attacks (Murray, 2008).