Perspective: Defense of the homelandThe Senate Examines Threats to the Homeland

On Tuesday, Nov. 5, the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee held a hearing on the evolving threats facing the United States. The committee heard testimony from several senior government officials: Christopher Wray, the director of the FBI; Russell Travers, the director of the National Counterterrorism Center (NCTC); and David Glawe, the undersecretary of homeland security for intelligence and analysis.

William Ford writes for Lawfare that in their written and opening remarks, the witnesses outlined a dizzyingly broad array of threats—from domestic and international terrorism to transnational organized crime, cyber and economic espionage, election interference, data insecurity, and potential chemical and biological attacks on the homeland.

Ford continues:

But as the hearing wore on, senators’ questions and witness testimony narrowed in scope, focusing primarily on three aspects of America’s security challenges: how to optimize information sharing to combat domestic terrorism; how to counter Chinese cyber and counterintelligence operations; and how to address the growing problems posed by new technologies, namely, ransomware, cryptocurrency and unmanned aerial systems (UASs). Wray testified repeatedly that homegrown violent extremists (HVEs)—individuals inspired by the virulent ideology of the Islamic State and al-Qaeda but not formally affiliated with the groups (the bureau uses HVE to describe Islamist terrorism, not white nationalist violence)—pose the single greatest threat to Americans’ lives, but HVEs received less attention in the hearing than the aforementioned policy concerns.

With the mass shootings of the summer and the recent arrest of a man plotting to bomb a Colorado synagogue in mind, senators seemed intent on ensuring that the senior officials before them were coordinating an all-of-government response to domestic terrorism. Sen. Kyrsten Sinema asked the witnesses how they planned to enhance information sharing between federal, state, and local law enforcement to ensure that entities across government have appropriate access to information on threats and trends in domestic terrorist suspects’ behavior. Wray testified that the FBI engages daily with state and local law enforcement, most significantly through its joint terrorism task forces (JTTFs). He explained that 200 JTTFs exist across the country. And in many cases, task force officers are state and local law enforcement officials who work full or part time on the FBI task forces. The director also noted that the FBI and the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) regularly disseminate bulletins to state and local law enforcement with granular detail on the agencies’ perception of the threats Americans face, including domestic terrorism threats. Glawe added that his office hosts the Homeland Security Information Network, which facilitates the sharing of “sensitive but unclassified” information compiled by FBI, DHS, state and local partners, and the private sector on the threats facing American communities. The undersecretary testified that overall engagement with the network has risen substantially in the past two years, jumping from 17,000 views in 2017 to more than 90,000 in 2019. He attributed this to DHS’s efforts to draw attention to the detailed resource.

The witnesses recognized, however, that domestic terrorism, a term often used to refer to white supremacist violence, is hardly a purely domestic phenomenon. Indeed, Travers described the concept of “domestic terrorism” as “a bit of a misnomer” given the transnational links between these violent extremists. As Wray explained, white supremacists and neo-Nazis in the U.S. frequently connect with like-minded individuals from other countries online, and some have even traveled abroad to train. Accordingly, Wray said, the U.S. is working extensively with its partners in the Five Eyes Alliance—Australia, Canada, the U.K. and New Zealand—and with other countries to tackle this threat. Travers added that NCTC brings both “analytic horsepower” and extensive collection capabilities to bear on the international side of the problem, complementing the FBI’s work.

Ford writes that senators were also acutely concerned with the threat China poses to American national and economic security. Senators highlighted the practice of U.S. companies storing large amounts of consumer and corporate data in China., and raised issue of Chinese counterintelligence operations and theft of American intellectual property.

Senators also pressed the witnesses to elaborate on the threat of UAS attacks on critical infrastructure and large public gatherings.

One issue which is going to continue to be a bone of contention between legislators and law enforcement is that of encryption. Travers noted that “looking out five years, we are particularly concerned with the growing adverse impact encryption will have on our counterterrorism efforts.”