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By Root 667 0

organizations participate in national-level intelligence processes and products, providing indications and warning of impending attack (see chap. 6) and intelligence support for military operations at all levels—from theater (broad regional commands) down to tactical (small units engaged in operations or combat). The Department of Homeland Security (DHS), created in 2002, has several components that are part of the intelligence community, such as the Coast Guard, which has its own intelligence unit, and the Office of Intelligence and Analysis. The attorney general has control over the FBI and now has an assistant attorney general for national security in the Justice Department who oversees intelligence policy, counterintelligence, and counterespionage. Some see this as a move that could lead to an entity like Britain’s MI5 (the British Security Service), which would constitute a major change for the United States, a country that has always kept domestic and foreign intelligence separate. The FBI now has a National Security Branch, under an executive assistant director. The new branch combines the intelligence, counterintelligence, and counterterrorism elements of the FBI and adds an office focusing on WMD. The Department of Energy has a small intelligence office devoted to its specific concerns and to coordinating the intelligence activities of the various national laboratories; and the Department of Commerce controls the commercial attaches, who are assigned to embassies and serve an overt intelligence function. The DCIA is manager of the CIA. The Department of Treasury has an Office of Terrorism and Financial Intelligence, which is increasingly important in stopping illicit international financial transactions that support terrorism, crime, and narcotics.

The IRTPA also created a Joint Intelligence Community Council (JICC) to assist the DNI. Under DNI McConnell the JICC has been by-passed in favor of the Executive Committee (EXCOM) that he created. The EXCOM consists of the DNI and the heads of the intelligence components, plus senior policy makers, usually at the undersecretary level. McConnell’s stated goal is to bring together policy customers and senior intelligence officers at the highest level to ensure that the intelligence community is providing the support that is needed. Interestingly, a similar EXCOM existed during the tenure of DCI Robert Gates (1991- 1993); Gates became secretary of defense, replacing Donald Rumsfeld, in December 2006.

At the next level down are the builders of technical collection systems. The main one is the NRO, which is responsible for the design, building, and (via the Air Force or the National Aeronautics and Space Administration) the launch of satellite collection systems. DOD also has an airborne reconnaissance responsibility for “air breathing” systems such as unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) or drones, which are of increasing importance on the battlefield for tactical collection and, in the Afghanistan campaign and the war on terrorism, for air attack as well. Finally, the CIA Directorate of Science and Technology (DS&T) has a role in some technical collection programs.

A variety of offices is responsible for the collection (including processing and exploitation) of intelligence. Within DOD are NSA, which collects signals intelligence (SIGINT), the interception of various types of communication; NGA, which processes and exploits what was known as imagery intelligence (IMINT)—that is, photos—and is now known as geospatial intelligence (GEOINT); DOD airborne systems; and the Defense HUMINT service (DH) of DIA, whose duties are reflected in its name. The CIA is responsible for espionage (HUMINT) collection via the National Clandestine Services (NCS), formerly known as the Directorate of Operations (DO). (Types of intelligence are discussed in detail in chap. 5.) The State Department collects for itself and for others via its array of embassies and Foreign Service officers, although its activities most often are not “tasked intelligence”—that is, they are not undertaken in response