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Anonymous ID: 514d5e March 18, 2021, 5:24 p.m. No.13252327   🗄️.is đź”—kun   >>2331

Part of the Department of Homeland Security, the Office of Intelligence and Analysis (OIA) is responsible for gathering intelligence from other government and non-government sources on potential threats to US domestic security. OIA works with the Intelligence Community (such as the CIA and National Security Agency) as well as state, local, federal and private officials to carry out its mission. Not only does OIA gather information from these sources but it also shares intelligence it has compiled in order to warn other sectors of the government about impending threats to the nation’s security.

 

According to OIA leadership testimony before Congress, the office has created five categories of threats to the US:

 

Threats to Border Security involve air, land and sea borders, and virtual threats via the Internet. OIA examines a range of threats, such as narcotics trafficking, alien and human smuggling, money laundering and other illicit transnational threats. OIA focuses especially on the border with Mexico through the Southwest Border Threat Assessment, which tries to identify terrorists attempting to enter the country. The office’s Intelligence Campaign Plan for Border Security (ICP) has expanded intelligence capabilities along the Mexican border by deploying intelligence officers to key border intelligence centers. In 2008, DHS sent the first Homeland Intelligence Support Team (HIST) to El Paso, Texas, to provide direct intelligence support and “information fusion to front-line operators and agents along the border.” The HIST is staffed with an “integrated team of intelligence professionals.”

 

Threat of Radicalization and Extremism - OIA says the top priority in this threat area is radicalized Islam (Sunni and Shia groups). It also keeps watch on radicalized domestic groups, including white supremacists, black separatists and “fringe environmentalists.” The office, according to officials, does not monitor groups and their activities. Instead, it is “interested in the radicalization process – why and how people are attracted to radical beliefs and cross the line into violence.” However, OIA is developing an “integrated framework for tracking a radical or extremist group’s risk for terrorism and assisting policy makers in developing strategies to deter and prevent it.”

 

Potential Threats from Particular Groups Entering the US involves groups that could be exploited by terrorists or other “bad people” who enter the country legally. This assessment can include threats involving CBRN (chemical, biological, radiological, nuclear) weapons, devices or material. Under this category, OIA focuses on visa programs. It also looks at factors in global instability that drive people to migrate to the US - a phenomenon potentially exploitable by terrorists, according to OIA. The office led an effort in 2007 in developing a security screening program to vet prospective Iraqi refugees entering the US.

 

Threats to Critical Infrastructure involves both private sector and state-owned and operated buildings and facilities. OIA works with the DHS Office of Infrastructure Protection to maintain the Homeland Infrastructure Threat and Risk Assessment Center (HITRAC) to assess terrorist threats to various sites around the country.

 

Chemical, Biological, Radiological, and Nuclear (CBRN) Threats involve improvised nuclear devices (IND) and radiological dispersal devices (RDD) or “dirty bombs.” OIA is developing a program on bioterrorism threat analysis that includes the threat of infectious diseases, such as avian influenza, to support DHS’s role in pandemic preparedness. The office also examines infectious animal diseases that could devastate the US economy.

 

OIA Structure

The organizational structure of OIA is unknown because the intelligence office does not maintain a public presence on the Internet. According to testimony given by OIA officials before Congress, the office maintains a Production Management (PM) division which is responsible for distributing unclassified information to members of the private sector. PM maintains “comprehensive email dissemination lists, specifically designed to serve private sector partners at the unclassified level.” It is said that this email distribution occurs “using the Sector Coordinating Councils (SCCs), and when appropriate, Information Sharing and Analysis Centers (ISACs).”

 

To better manage information distribution, PM segments its audience into 17 sectors, including: Chemical, Commercial Facilities, Dams, Emergency Services, Energy,

Banking and Finance Agriculture and Food, Government Facilities, Public Health and

Healthcare, National Monuments and Icons, Information Technology, Commercial

Nuclear Reactors, Materials and Waste, Postal & Shipping, Telecommunications,

Defense Industrial Base, Drinking Water and Water Treatment Facilities, and

Transportation (including Aviation, Maritime, Railroad, Mass Transit, Highway).

Anonymous ID: 514d5e March 18, 2021, 5:24 p.m. No.13252331   🗄️.is đź”—kun

>>13252327

 

In 2008, OIA established the Interagency Threat Assessment Coordination Group (ITACG) which is under the management of the National Counterterrorism Center (NCTC). ITACG helps provide information to state, local and tribal governments. The group includes two senior OIA officers and two FBI officers.

 

Intelligence Reports

OIA contributes information to the President’s Daily Brief and the National Terrorism Bulletin. It also issues intelligence “products,” such as the Border Security Monitor, CubaGram, Cyber Security Monitor, Infrastructure Intelligence Notes and Chief Intelligence Officer Notes. Some of these materials are provided to the (NICC) which posts unclassified material for receipt by private sector partners. Classified information is posted on the Homeland Secure Data Network (HSDN) - a network that involves the State and Local Fusion Center (SLFC) program. SLFC are used to compile and share intelligence and law enforcement information that helps warn of terrorist threats.

 

OIA produces the DHS Intelligence Enterprise research plan and the Homeland Security Threat Assessment which assess the major threats to the US. The threat assessment projects through 2010 and is updated annually.