Unleashing our untapped domestic collection is the key to prevention

• Main Author: Duarte, Nestor.
• Other Authors: Simeral, Robert
• Published: Monterey, California. Naval Postgraduate School 2012
• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/10945/3315

CHDS State/Local === Human intelligence from informants, criminals, good-Samaritans and cooperative individuals is the key to neutralizing major terrorist plots. The need for domestic intelligence collection in the United States is supported by a review of the national strategies and data collected from statements of Federal Bureau of Investigation and Department of Homeland Security officials. Unfortunately, scholarly articles and commentaries point to an inadequate human intelligence program five years after the events of September 11, 2001. This thesis presents a community based exploitation strategy for the expansion of domestic collection through the leveraging of state and local law enforcement, public and private collection. The strategy would take advantage of the significant untapped law enforcement resources available to state and local law enforcement, public and private entities by encouraging sharing and discouraging hoarding. The technology would do the heavy lifting of sifting through the vast amounts of available information to find the key piece of data. Technology can assist analysts by allowing them to exploit the semantic process of the Global Justice Extensible Markup Language (XML), a computer language. Together, this exploitation strategy and technology will become part of new homeland security doctrine that could unleash the full potential of domestic collection and provide the missing pieces of the intelligence puzzle.