Following the terrorist attacks on September 11th, 2001, many issues were identified within the Intelligence Community (IC), namely that information had not been shared between agencies or with local law enforcement apparatuses in order to piece together the looming threat. In order to fill this significant gap in security and to strengthen U.S. counterterrorism efforts, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and the Department of Defense (DoD) created numerous organizations to compensate for the lack of information sharing and implemented various strategies to enhance information sharing capabilities. One of the entities created to solve the lack of information sharing was fusion centers, which debuted across the nation in 2003 to act
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Another concern presented by the government is that fusion centers have begun to shift from focusing on larger counterterrorism issues to deal with predominately state and local events to which they are exposed, such as gang violence, petty crime, drug smuggling, and human trafficking. Moreover, there is a perceived threat posed by the centers during the intelligence collection phase to the civil liberties of the American public due to ambiguous lines of authority for …show more content…
Furthermore, the absence of another large-scale event like 9/11 illustrates the successfulness of the information sharing structure within the IC and shows that fusion centers do indeed play a significant role in the discovery, collection, analysis, and dissemination of intelligence regarding counterterrorism efforts. Therefore, it is vital to prove that the contributions made by fusion centers significantly outweigh the inefficiencies outlined by critics. Some of the examples of major success stories involving fusion centers include the foiling of a 2009 plot by Najibullah Zazi, a member of al-Qa’ida, to plant bombs in the New York City subway system on the eighth anniversary of 9/11 , a 2009 plot masterminded by Daniel Patrick Boyd to attack a military base in Quantico with the objective of killing service members , and a 2011 attempt by Rezwan Ferdaus to fly model airplanes loaded with C-4 explosives into both the Capital building and Pentagon. Other notable successes include stopping a 2011 plot crafted by two Islamic extremists to attack a Seattle-based military recruiting center, and foiling a 2008 shooting plot at the University of Illinois by a Virginia citizen.
Currently, there are hundreds of recommendations regarding the establishment and management of fusion centers. However, many are resource dependent and focus on
Another concern presented by the government is that fusion centers have begun to shift from focusing on larger counterterrorism issues to deal with predominately state and local events to which they are exposed, such as gang violence, petty crime, drug smuggling, and human trafficking. Moreover, there is a perceived threat posed by the centers during the intelligence collection phase to the civil liberties of the American public due to ambiguous lines of authority for …show more content…
Furthermore, the absence of another large-scale event like 9/11 illustrates the successfulness of the information sharing structure within the IC and shows that fusion centers do indeed play a significant role in the discovery, collection, analysis, and dissemination of intelligence regarding counterterrorism efforts. Therefore, it is vital to prove that the contributions made by fusion centers significantly outweigh the inefficiencies outlined by critics. Some of the examples of major success stories involving fusion centers include the foiling of a 2009 plot by Najibullah Zazi, a member of al-Qa’ida, to plant bombs in the New York City subway system on the eighth anniversary of 9/11 , a 2009 plot masterminded by Daniel Patrick Boyd to attack a military base in Quantico with the objective of killing service members , and a 2011 attempt by Rezwan Ferdaus to fly model airplanes loaded with C-4 explosives into both the Capital building and Pentagon. Other notable successes include stopping a 2011 plot crafted by two Islamic extremists to attack a Seattle-based military recruiting center, and foiling a 2008 shooting plot at the University of Illinois by a Virginia citizen.
Currently, there are hundreds of recommendations regarding the establishment and management of fusion centers. However, many are resource dependent and focus on