Homeland Intelligence Chief Lists Risks

12/30/2006

The Associated Press
Saturday, December 30, 2006; 2:51 AM


WASHINGTON (AP) -- After 47 years spent gathering and analyzing foreign intelligence at the CIA, Charles Allen is facing perhaps his biggest career challenge in developing a homeland intelligence capability. He now must gain the respect of the U.S. intelligence community for the Homeland Security Department, where he has spent just over a year as chief intelligence officer.

Allen said in an interview with The Associated Press that he already has improved the quality of intelligence coming out of the department, and has in fact expanded the definition of homeland security intelligence.

While his officers attend daily meetings and participate in projects with analysts from other intelligence agencies, particularly the FBI and the CIA's National Counterterrorism Center, Allen said: "We are different. I've been given the freedom and authority to develop a strong intelligence capability, to realize what was really intended" when Homeland Security was created.

One of Allen's innovations is to send intelligence officers to state and local "fusion centers," created in 43 locations around the country to blend law enforcement information and intelligence analysis collected at the local level.

Allen now has officers stationed in 12 of the fusion centers, following visits by assessment teams that determined whether each center was advanced enough and was interested in having a federal intelligence officer on staff.

The intelligence chief said his people are interested in collecting information beyond normal criminal activity _ for example, anomalous events, such as strangers photographing pieces of critical infrastructure, like bridges or dams.

Allen also has established a new initiative on the nation's southwest border, with a team of intelligence officers sent to El Paso, Texas, to offer support not only to border and customs agents, but also to local law enforcement agencies.

He wants his people to understand that the threat to the homeland is broader now. It includes not just "special interest aliens" from countries that harbor terrorists, but also narcotics dealers, gangs and alien smugglers.

Allen said one area about which he has broad concerns is what he calls "self-radicalizing types."

Because of new technology and the ease of global travel, along with the proliferation of jihadist Web sites, there is a real problem of young people becoming "self-radicalized," he explained.

He considers this a major challenge to the West, and it is a subject of conversation and concern when he meets with his counterparts in Europe. Allen said he has also formed a radicalization group to look at extremism of all types, and to consider the level of threat different types might represent.

Other challenges include the growth of "extremist nationalism," which, when combined with alienation and ethnic segregation, leads to a fervor that overrides identification with the nation-state.

Allen believes this is less of a factor in the U.S., where polls indicate that most American Muslims strongly identify with the United States.

The homeland security intelligence boss said he has been invited by Director of National Intelligence John Negroponte to attend his program managers' meetings, which Allen said "reflects (Negroponte's) belief that we bring value to the table."

But Allen acknowledged that one of his biggest challenges is to recruit and train new officers and hang onto them in the face of similar recruitment efforts by other intelligence agencies. He has 35 positions open at the entry level and is recruiting on college campuses. However, he recently lost one prospect to the CIA, and noted that it can take as long as five years to recruit, mentor, train and develop the talents of a good intelligence officer.

He still has more than a hundred intelligence officers who don't have their own desks, Allen said, adding that he's "broken a lot of china" just to get his people moved into a new building.