By Ex Umbra:
Because of the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria’s (ISIS) demonstrated capability to project its radical Islamic terrorism (RIT) across the globe or inspire home-grown terrorism in its name, defending our homeland in the US is a life or death matter for us all.
One needs only to reflect upon the horrific acts of terrorism in the US over the past few years:
- Fort Hood, Texas: shooting massacre
- Waltham, Massachusettes: throat slashings
- Boston, Massachusettes: marathon bombings
- San Bernardino, California: Christmas shooting
- Chattanooga, Tennessee: military recruiting station shooting
- Orlando, Florida: night club shooting
- Ohio State University: car attack and stabbings
These occurred during the past five years.
In each of the four articles in this series, one of the four fundamental components of the proposed “Defeat ISIS and RIT” framework will be addressed:
- Attack and defeat ISIS and RIT.
- Defend and protect the US homeland and interests.
- Counter the combative ideology and illegitimacy of RIT.
- Influence Islam to reform itself, from within itself, regarding RIT.
OpsLens’ goal is to jump-start and provoke meaningful and constructive discussions among the notable subject-matter experts on these vital RIT matters. Central among OpsLens’ operating ethos is providing “experience-driven” commentary from writers who “have been there, done that, and got the T-shirt.”
This is the second part of a series of articles addressing a potential strategic framework for defeating ISIS and RIT. For background, please read previous OpsLens pieces: Defeating ISIS and Radical Islamic Terrorism (RIT): Series Overview; Defeating ISIS and Radical Islamic Terrorism: Part I (A) – The Attack Component; and Defeating ISIS and Radical Islamic Terrorism: Part 1 (B) – The Attack Component.
Having devoted two days reviewing the Department of Homeland Security’s (DHS) website and links, I was stunned at how complex the third largest department in the US government (USG) had become. I served in the Department of Defense (DoD) for a career and had only a cursory understanding of DHS’ broad scope of important activities.
I studied the Heritage Foundation’s thorough assessment of the DHS’s effectiveness by David Inserra, entitled: “Congress Must Re-Set Department of Homeland Security Priorities: American Lives Depend on It”. The Heritage Foundation is a large, highly regarded, conservative “think tank” in Washington, D.C.
Heritage’s findings are characterized in its executive summary, as follows:
Needs substantial reform and improvement in order to fulfill its important roles in the areas of security, emergency preparedness and response, and enforcement of immigration laws. This will require changes in nearly every part of DHS, as well as a better prioritization of resources within each of the components and between the components.
The Obama Administration requested $66.8 billion for Fiscal Year-17 (which is in execution now). Heritage’s analytic team recommends major reforms that can greatly enhance the DHS’ operations and coordination—and save $2 billion in the process. The Trump administration inherits a “blueprint” that they can trust. Heritage provided significant support to then-President-Elect Trump before he was inaugurated.
The DHS has, among many other roles, the task of operating fusion centers to link states’ and major cities’ law enforcement operations with the federal government. Collecting information on terrorist activities within the US is another sensitive area that bangs against civil liberties and privacy concerns. This deserves a stand-alone piece in the future.
A better DHS alone does not solve the POTUS’ problem of “defeating ISIS” and protecting America. There are major synchronization tasks between the Departments of Defense, State, Treasury, Energy, and Justice/FBI and the Intelligence Community/CIA. There are so many overlapping activities. There are “terrorist transiting” issues from overseas to the US and from inside the US to foreign countries. The average US citizen does not understand the magnitude and complexity of these undertakings to keep the public safe.
Above the USG departments and agencies, there is an assistant to the president for homeland security and counterterrorism who administers the president’s Homeland Security Council. Tom Bossert has only the US domestic half of the ISIS problem. The assistant to the president for national security affairs administers the president’s National Security Council. Lt. General-retired Keith Kellogg (acting NSA) has the other half of the ISIS problem—foreign countries.
In addition, there is a counter-ISIS ideology problem. The DHS has its “Counter Violent Extremism” (CVE) office executing outreach within the American Muslim community. There is the State Department’s Global Engagement Center engaging ISIS overseas and on social media platforms. There is the Department of Defense, which has its own information operations and military information support operations. All of these are working in the key component of countering ISIS’ RIT ideology (which will be covered in more detail in my forthcoming Part III piece).
On top of all these is the president’s new SIG (Strategic Initiatives Group). The president’s chief strategy adviser, Steve Bannon, is leading this grand strategy effort (supported by presidential son-in-law, Jared Kushner, and Dr. Sebastian Gorka, a counterterrorism expert). This array of potentially overlapping efforts across the USG’s sprawling bureaucracy presents significant coordination, deconfliction, integration, and synchronization issues.
This is a bureaucratic twist on the “whole of government” approach to problem-solving. This problem set is stretching the inviolable business principle of “unity of effort and command.”
Finally, there is the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) that funds all this and conducts performance reviews of all USG programs. My questions are: who is really in charge of defending the homeland? Where is the “single belly button” in the USG where all efforts to “defeat ISIS” and “protect the American homeland” get coordinated, deconflicted, integrated, and synchronized for efficient success for the American people?
The president cannot do all that is required by himself. There must be an entity in the USG that is the “grand integrator.” It might be a better first step to realign the roles and missions of each department/agency to ensure there is no overlap among them. Each organizational part of the counterterrorism effort in the USG must have clearly defined and complementary roles—without overlap, but with integration points as required.
It is worth considering that the president’s “Strategic Initiatives Group” (the Stephen Bannon Group; SIG) works the enduring long-term vital and major interests and grand strategy across the USG portfolio. The SIG works closely with the OMB management team to match ideas and strategy with the reality of funding/national debt. The assistant to the president for homeland security and counterterrorism (and the Homeland Security Council) drives policy and mid-term strategy. The secretary of the DHS drives the execution and short-term strategy for defending the homeland. The secretary of the DHS employs an integrated “task force” approach. The TF approach enables focusing resources on a singular but vital objective: defeating ISIS and the RIT ideology.
In parallel, the assistant to the president for national security affairs works the mainstream foreign affairs issues, such as threats from Russia, China, Iraq, and North Korea, nuclear non-proliferation, etc. He works the attack component policy and strategy of defeating ISIS and RIT.
One of the major issues that requires immediate deliberation is countering ISIS’s radicalization of youth in America. This problem has a social media component that requires new approaches in the USG’s partnership with social media companies. No company’s business interests should supersede the USG’s mandate to keep Americans safe. The second component requires addressing the radical mosques that are spewing the hatred of RIT to their respective congregations. Saudi Arabia funds most of these mosques. That will be addressed within Part IV of this “Defeating ISIS and RIT” series.
The DHS’ current outreach to the American Muslim community through its CVE efforts has been infiltrated by many Muslim “political components” (like CAIR and the Muslim Brotherhood) that subtly condone the RIT ideology. So-called moderate/peaceful American Muslim communities should be embracing “assimilation”—not separate Sharia Law, which directly undermines the US “Rule of Law” and violates the “separation of church and state” principle that we impose on all other religions in the US.
Inclusion and assimilation into the American “melting pot” is prior and superior to celebrating another ethnic/religious minority’s disruptive demand for “special treatment” at the expense of the majority and centuries of American history, culture, and values. For example, Irish and Italian Americans have proudly become just good ‘ole “Americans.” Diversity is acknowledged, but it does not replace the more important “assimilation and inclusion” process.
Scrutinizing our education system is a major priority. So much of the angst created among our youth against American history, culture, and values has developed (wrongly) because of liberal teachers preaching Saul Alinsky’s rules for radicals. This anarchy exacerbates our traditional assimilation process. This factor will be discussed later in a separate, standalone piece.
Moreover, ISIS is mastering several modern techniques of asymmetric warfare. I won’t elaborate in detail for security purposes. We must stop/crack ISIS’ fund transfers via “cellphone to cellphone” and “server to server” hawala networks (money laundering operational funds to sleeper cells in the US). Finally, the USG must raise its intensity and know-how regarding cracking ISIS’ command and control via 512-bit encryption applications.
This will require, among other initiatives, a dedicated counterterrorism task force approach that includes, but is not limited to, the following: specialized intelligence operations and analytics, a mathematics- and logic-based approach to the old profiling techniques against a new terrorist threat, counter-cyber operations, and specialized law enforcement organizations and techniques.
Folks, there is so much to do to keep us safe.
Ex Umbra is a pen name used for the security of an experienced senior counterterrorist operative currently working outside of the US government.
