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War on Terrorism: Losing Battles
Last month, Dennis Blair announced his intention to step down as Director of National Intelligence. As a government vendor providing information sharing solutions to the intelligence community, this announcement prompted us to wonder whether the announcement was related to the intelligence lapses that occurred on Mr. Blair’s watch. Due to the detrimental results of these and other systematic failures, we believe there is no room for error in agencies’ ability to proactively share relevant information with others.
First up on our radar: the Fort Hood shooting on November 5th, 2009, in which a U.S. Army major is accused of killing 13 people and wounding 30 others. After the incident, investigators found e-mails between the shooter and Anwar al-Awlaki, an Islamic lecturer who purportedly inspires terrorists. On Christmas Day, December 25, 2009, the “underwear bomber,” a member of al-Qaeda tried to set off a plastic explosive that had been sewn into his underwear. Later, it was revealed that information about the suspect had failed to cross agency lines. In fact, an investigation into the lapses revealed a total of 14 failures. The next incident occurred just five days later, in the Afghan city of Khost, at the Forward Operating Base Chapman. A Jordanian doctor and double agent loyal to Islamist Extremists was on a suicide mission that ended in the deaths of seven CIA operatives and the wounding of six others. Despite his history of contributing to online extremist forums and a prior arrest by Jordanian intelligence, he was invited to the CIA base to brief operatives on some information. Inexplicably, he was not subjected to the usual security measures upon entering the base. Fast forward to May 1, 2010, when Faisal Shahzad attempted to detonate a car bomb in busy Times Square. Fortunately, the bomb was “amateurish,” and did not go off. Despite the fact that his name was added to the no-fly list, he was able to purchase airline tickets, pass through security, and board a plane bound for Pakistan before officials arrested him just before take-off.
While there has been substantial improvement since September 11, 2001, it is our hope that the new leadership will continue to improve upon the information software, systems, and processes that contribute to Homeland security.
