Homeland Security lacks 'open-source' intelligence

The US Department of Homeland Security has not met requirements to provide 'open source' intelligence — that is, publicly available information — for state and local law enforcement, a new report claims.

The US House of Representatives Committee on Homeland Security released a report on Friday criticising the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) after interviewing more than 350 state, local and tribal law-enforcement officials about the department's open-source intelligence efforts.

While 82 percent of law-enforcement officials surveyed said they use open-source information, 60 percent said the DHS needed to establish a training programme on how to use the department's open-source material. Half of respondents said the DHS's open-source products did not meet their needs.

"The proliferation of internet use and other advanced forms of communication is rapidly leading to an information revolution among terrorists groups," the report states.

"The sooner the Department of Homeland Security recognises the value in this type of unclassified information, the sooner DHS analysts can analyse it and provide useful open-source intelligence to state, local and tribal law partners," adds the report.

The US Homeland Security Act of 2002 requires DHS, whenever possible, to make available unclassified reports and analyses based on open-source information such as newspapers, internet resources or scientific journals. To reinforce that requirement, the House of Representatives in July passed the Homeland Security Open Source Information Enhancement Act, requiring the secretary of homeland security to establish an open-source programme.

Despite this, "DHS's efforts have lagged behind the rest of the federal government", the report states. The director of national intelligence and the CIA have established stronger open-source programmes, even though the DHS is responsible for sharing terrorism-threat information with state and local law-enforcement bodies.

"The department is far behind the rest of the intelligence community in implementing a comprehensive open-source intelligence programme," said Bennie Thompson, chair of the Committee on Homeland Security. "I am convinced that the department must make a concerted effort to understand their intelligence needs and produce intelligence products that provide actionable recommendations for the cop on the beat."