The Defense Department is working on a comprehensive homeland defense strategy
that will detail the Pentagon’s emerging role in protecting the United
States from terrorist attack.
The study, which is scheduled to be completed late this month, “is going
very well,” said Paul McHale, assistant secretary of defense for homeland
defense. “I have attended nine working group briefings within the past
24 hours,” he told National Defense.
The document will outline how the department cooperates with the Department
of Homeland Security to safeguard U.S. territory, residents and critical infrastructure
against external threats, McHale said. DHS is responsible for securing the nation’s
borders; protecting air, land and sea transportation, and enforcing immigration
laws and regulations.
The Pentagon’s role is to stop terrorists in their home bases, such as
Afghanistan, or in the air or at sea, before they reach the United States, McHale
said. Within U.S. territory, he said, the Federal Posse Comitatus Act prohibits
military personnel from engaging in law enforcement activities. As a result,
the Defense Department’s role is limited to providing support to DHS and
other civil authorities, when requested.
Since 9/11, McHale said, the department has implemented “a substantial
number of improvements” in its ability to perform these missions.
In 2002, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld recommended—and Congress approved—appointment
of an assistant secretary to provide overall supervision of its homeland defense
activities. McHale, a former Democrat congressman from Pennsylvania and a colonel
in the Marine Corps Reserves, got the job.
During that same year, he explained, the Pentagon activated the U.S. Northern
Command, the first combatant command ever assigned to defend the land, sea and
air approaches to the United States. In 2003, NORTHCOM achieved full operational
capability.
Also in 2003, McHale was assigned responsibility for protecting infrastructure
that is considered critical for national defense. “We consolidated critical-infrastructure
protection funding within the office of the secretary of defense into a single
program, managed by the newly-established defense program office for mission
assurance,” he said.
The office concentrates upon essential defense-related facilities, including
transportation, logistics, financial services, public works, personnel, defense
information, space, and intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance. Most
of these are owned by the private sector or by state or local governments, but
a sudden, unexpected failure of one or more could cause serious damage to the
country as a whole, McHale said.
“This office conducts focused research and development programs, using
a systems approach for critical infrastructure protection activities supporting
Defense Department missions,” he said. “We also have taken steps
to protect critical defense installations and facilities from chemical, biological,
radiological and nuclear threats.”
McHale said the Pentagon is working on department-wide installation-protection
standards and requirements that will be applied at 200 key installations over
the next several years.
McHale works with Stephen A. Cambone, undersecretary of defense for intelligence,
on all intelligence matters related to homeland defense. Cambone’s office,
created by Congress in 2003, is charged with ensuring that the Pentagon leadership
receives all warnings, actionable intelligence and counter-intelligence support
necessary for national defense.
Cambone oversees the Defense Intelligence Agency, National Geospatial Intelligence
Agency, National Reconnaissance Office and National Security Agency, as well
as the military intelligence organizations. He also serves as a single point
of contact between defense-related intelligence activities and those of the
Central Intelligence Agency, Federal Bureau of Investigation, the State Department
and DHS.
The Pentagon is a full partner in the terrorist threat integration center,
a joint venture of these agencies launched in 2003, McHale said. The center
collects terror-related information from all intelligence organizations in an
effort to form a comprehensive, seamless picture of any threats.
McHale is the Pentagon’s principal representative to the staff of the
Homeland Security Council, which was established after 9/11 to play a role in
homeland security similar to that of the National Security Council in international
crises. The HSC includes the president, vice president, defense secretary, homeland
security secretary, attorney general and other cabinet officials.
“From personal experience,” McHale said, “I can attest that
the HSC has become an effective forum for interagency communication on homeland
security and homeland defense matters, including evaluation of terrorist threats
and the development of responses in a crisis environment.”
For example, he noted, the HSC functioned effectively throughout several weeks
of Code Orange Alert during the December 2003 holiday season.
McHale said he is working hard to build relationships between his department
and DHS. “We have nearly completed a memorandum of agreement with DHS,
under which [the Defense Department] will continue to provide, on a detail basis,
64 personnel to DHS to fill critical specialties, primarily in the areas of
communications and intelligence,” he explained. “We also have established
a 24/7 [defense] presence in the DHS homeland security operations center with
direct connectivity back to [this department] for rapid response.”
In addition, McHale said, the Pentagon organized planning teams to assist the
DHS interagency incident management group, composed of senior officials from
several agencies to respond to emergencies. “This year, we are enhancing
our partnership with DHS by establishing a [Pentagon] advisory and liaison office—called
the homeland defense coordination office—within DHS headquarters.”
McHale coordinates all Pentagon efforts to transfer military technology to
federal, state and local first responders. As recent examples, he cited:
- Information-sharing systems, such as disaster-management interoperability
services.
- Biometrics identification technologies.
- Ground sensors for border security.
- Unmanned aerial vehicles.
The Pentagon also is conducting new advanced concept technology demonstrations
that could have applications for homeland defense and DHS missions, McHale said.
The high-altitude airship, for example, is a prototype, untethered platform
that could provide wide-area surveillance and communications capabilities. The
air-transportable cargo screening demonstrator is designed to detect explosives
in pallet cargo loads moving through military transportation systems.
In all, McHale noted, the Defense Department invests nearly $100 million a
year in the technical support working group. The group is a Pentagon-led joint
venture that seeks to rapidly develop technologies and equipment to meet the
high-priority needs of the anti-terrorist community. It brings together more
than 85 federal agencies to identify, prioritize, and coordinate interagency
and international research and development requirements for combating terrorism.