Intelligence_ From Secrets to Policy - Mark M. Lowenthal [192]
LESSONS LEARNED. For each of the nations that have been attacked, the degree to which they have learned the lessons that led to their earlier vulnerability is an important question. For the United States, however, the “lessons” of September 11 are not necessarily clear or agreed upon. There does seem to be agreement that information sharing, especially between the CIA and the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), was highly flawed, although it does not necessarily follow that the numerous improvements made in information sharing will foil the next attack. Better sharing techniques and technologies are hollow if the necessary information or intelligence is not available. The 9/11 Commission and some other analysts have catalogued several missed opportunities in the period before the September 11 attack that they believe might have disrupted the plot. The problem, analytically, is that almost all of these missed opportunities would have had to fall into place, and even then the outcome would be uncertain. We know, for example, that the attackers had substitutes in case some were denied entry into the United States, as did happen. No critic, including the 9/11 Commission, has shown how the missed opportunities would have led to the tactical intelligence necessary to identify the specific four flights on September 11. It is also important to keep in mind that many of the security practices that we now take for granted did not exist on the day of the attack. Part of the problem in assessing the causes of the attack is also political. It is more comforting for the public and for officials to believe that we can identify and remedy the several factors that made us vulnerable in 2001 because then we can return to some greater sense of safety. But if the flaws are more subtle than some believe or if the remedies appear to be more difficult to implement, then we must live with a continuing sense of vulnerability.
The September 2001 attacks raised new questions about intelligence-law enforcement organization, coordination and cooperation. The Department of Homeland Security (DHS), the National Counterterrorism Center (NCTC), and the FBI’s new National Security Branch are all efforts to deal with this issue. The 2004 intelligence reform law puts a major emphasis on information sharing, which is an important aspect of all intelligence. There have been recurrent discussions about whether the United States needs to create an MI5, referring to Britain’s Security Service, which is responsible for domestic security and is part of the Home Office (see chap. 15 for details). The FBI is not quite analogous to MI5 and has limits on what it can do beyond those activities that are considered federal crimes. The FBI has had difficulty making the transition to greater emphasis on terrorism and also had difficulty making the shift from a largely law enforcement agency to more of an intelligence agency. The legal difficulty encountered in the United States is inherent in the federal system, which places responsibility for local law enforcement on the states and their cities or counties. As a means of improving liaison between the federal and local levels, a series of fusion centers, called Joint Terrorism Task Forces (JTTFs), have been formed, although the majority of them tend to be staffed by state law enforcement personnel. These are in a rather early state