Online extra: Is the data for spies or for cops?
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Some cultural barriers to information sharing for homeland security reflect a fundamental conflict: Intelligence agencies gather secret information for purposes of preventing terrorist acts; law enforcement agencies prosecute offenders.
Some cultural barriers to information sharing for homeland security reflect a fundamental conflict: Intelligence agencies gather secret information for purposes of preventing terrorist acts; law enforcement agencies prosecute offenders.Intelligence gathering is intended to prevent incidents and neutralize opponents, by extralegal or military means if necessary. Evidence gathering for law enforcement must support eventual court proceedings.'An intelligence function is very different from a law enforcement function, and when all is said and done you may not be able to put the round peg in the square hole,' Jim Kane, president and chief executive officer of Federal Sources Inc. of McLean, Va. 'In fact, you really do have a round peg called intelligence where you have to protect sources and share some information and give a little to get a little. Of course, that is information you cannot use in court to protect your sources. It may simply be an area where you accept the fact that you are operating in two separate spheres,' Kane said.David Colton, vice president of the Information Technology Association of America, said many information-sharing barriers between the law enforcement and intelligence arenas have taken on the force of law. The Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act for years has been a line between the counterintelligence information the FBI gathers and its criminal investigative evidence, he said.'It was memorialized in a series of court decisions,' Colton said. The USA Patriot Act of 2001 was meant to end the prohibition on information sharing between the FBI's counterintelligence and criminal investigation arms, but workers maintained the separation until a decision by the Foreign Intelligence Review Court broke it down. 'It was a fascinating case in itself of how stovepipes not only take on cultural, institutional and bureaucratic momentum but can leak out into the legal system irrespective of the original law,' Colton said.One issue that fragments the Homeland Security Department's efforts to achieve information sharing is the varying cultural backgrounds-and information sensibilities-of its component agencies.
Chemical, biological and radiological programs from the Energy and Defense departments and Energy' Nuclear Incident Response Team
Coast Guard's homeland security and overseas military functions
Cybersecurity activities, including the former Commerce Department Critical Infrastructure Assurance Office, General Services Administration's Federal Computer Incident Response Center and FBI National Infrastructure Protection Center
Information Analysis and Infrastructure Protection Directorate
National Communications System
Secret Service
Investigative law enforcement (sensitive)
Bureau of Customs and Border Protection, which includes elements of the former Border Patrol, Customs Service and Immigration and Naturalization Service
Bureau of Immigration and Customs Enforcement, which includes parts of the former Customs, INS and Federal Protective Service
Federal Law Enforcement Training Center
Office of the Inspector General
Transportation Security Administration
Scientific and health (partly classified)
Advanced Scientific Computing Research Program at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory
Homeland Security Advanced Research Projects Agency
Metropolitan Medical Response System, Office of Emergency Preparedness and Strategic National Stockpile from Health and Human Services Department
Plum Island Animal Disease Center, formerly part of the Agriculture Department
Science and Technology Directorate
Civilian (sensitive but unclassified)
Bureau of Citizenship and Immigration Services
Federal Emergency Management Agency
Management Directorate
Office of Private-Sector Liaison
Office of State and Local Government Coordination
Other (varying security levels)
Agricultural Quarantine Inspection Program
Coast Guard's search and rescue, oil spill recovery, and boat safety activities
Emergency Food and Shelter, which may be moved to the Housing and Urban Development Department
FEMA disaster assistance
Flood Map Modernization Fund
National Flood Insurance Fund
Secret Service anticounterfeiting and financial activities
Agencies within HSD, divided into groups by mission and (level of classification)
Military and intelligence (secret)
Investigative law enforcement (sensitive)
Scientific and health (partly classified)
Civilian (sensitive but unclassified)
Other (varying security levels)
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