The idea seems simple enough. Get all arms of the U.S. Intelligence System to share information with each other, all to better root out terrorist plots against America. So why is it so difficult to do?
What do you think of when you hear the phrase "U.S. Intelligence"?
I would bet most Americans would answer with the CIA - the Central Intelligence Agency.
But the CIA is just one of many pieces of turf in the intelligence community, and it isn't at the top of the heap.
Who is? The Director of National Intelligence is the chief intelligence official, an operation that was created in the wake of 9-11 to better coordinate U.S. intelligence efforts.
I'm sure most people in Washington, D.C. could name the CIA Director (Leon Panetta), but would have absolutely no idea what the name of the DNI is.
Bzzzzt. Admiral Dennis Blair is your correct answer for who is the DNI.
"The Director of National Intelligence oversees the 16 federal organizations that make up the intelligence community," it says on the DNI's web site. "Additionally, the DNI serves as the principal adviser to the president, the National Security Council and the Homeland Security Council on intelligence issues related to national security."
16 different organizations make up the "intelligence community" - that should give you a feeling right away on why there might be communication issues.
Another group created after the 9-11 Commission report is the National Counter Terrorism Center, which has the job of fusing together intelligence from its various stakeholders (what a great government word) to prevent attacks on the homeland.
If you fish around on the internet, you will find repeated stories that say the NCTC is located in a "Northern Virginia suburb" of Washington, D.C., with no specific address.
Also in that same building is the CIA Counterterrorism Center and the Pentagon's Joint Intelligence Task Force-Counterterrorism.
The Pentagon is home to a group of intelligence agencies, most notably the Defense Intelligence Agency or DIA.
You also have the National Reconnaissance Office, which provides satellite information to the CIA and Pentagon, and is staffed by their personnel as part of the National Foreign Intelligence Program.
Most of those agencies are located in various places on the Virginia side of the Potomac River, but not in the same locations by any means.
Then you go up towards Baltimore, and you have the National Security Agency, which is the chief eavesdropping unit of U.S. Intelligence.
Someone I know who works there told me about how he has to shuttle between the Pentagon and NSA for various meetings, a drive that on a good day can take over an hour - much longer, if there is bad traffic. (It's one reason a lot of helicopters fly various big wigs between the two facilities.)
Also in Maryland, but nowhere near the NSA is the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency, which provides map-based intelligence.
So the four major military intelligence groups are the NSA (near Baltimore), the NRO (out in Virginia towards Dulles Airport, the NGA (in Bethesda, Maryland) and the DIA (HQ at the Pentagon, analysis at Boling AFB in Washington, D.C).
Are you seeing now how "U.S. Intelligence" is not a single operation?
Here is a web page for you to look at, to see how the U.S. Intelligence system is set up.
Let me know what you think - http://www.intelligence.gov/1-members.shtml
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