Terrorism-related
intelligence sharing
The war on terrorism presents several new and distinct
challenges to coordination
- how to handle terrorism-related intelligence and how to manage the
foreign-domestic intelligence divide.
Е very country that suffered
large-scale attack in recent years has faced problems in co-ordinating
the way the secret services and law-enforcement agencies gathered and analysed information about the preparation of attacks. After
September 11, U.S.
intelligence faced particularly strong criticism for the uneven sharing of
information among foreign and domestic intelligence agencies. Solving this
problem is nearly impossible without the creation of a dedicated co-ordination
structure.
As a result
in some countries new special services were formed which have included
independent structures (such as the Department of Homeland Security in USA ).
And all these countries have created special coordinating centers. In United
Kingdom - Joint Terrorism Analysis Centre, in the USA - Terrorist Threat
Integration Center which later was replaced by National Counterterrorism Center
(NCTC), in Australia - National Threat Assessment Centre (NTAC), in Canada
- The Integrated Threat Assessment Centre (ITAC), in New Zealand - The Combined
Threat Assessment Group (CTAG), in Spain - Centro Nacional
de Coordinacion Antiterrorista.
These small
structures included officers of all low enforcement and security structures of
country responsible for combating terrorism and these centers are responsible
to assemble and analyze foreign and domestic intelligence on the terrorist
threat. The same centers are responsible for information exchange with special
services of other countries.
And this is something that has not happened in Russia. In
October 2004, Nikolay Patrushev,
FSB director, told the Duma that a new co-ordinated centre should be created to help bring together
the different departments for the war on terrorism. This plan has yet to be realised.
It seems where
is no government which is ready to develop global sharing system of
terrorism-related intelligence/information. As example, the U.S., Great
Britain , Canada,
Australia and New Zealand
have a long established system of intelligence sharing and exchange, but where
is no access to this system for European countries. In fact these ECHELON
countries just adopt the old structure, created for global
SIGINT, for new target - international terrorism.
This section
at Agentura.Ru is dedicated to the problem of terrorism-related
intelligence sharing and exchange.
Expert commentaries:
Sharing of information among domestic intelligence agencies:
- Federal Initiatives for
Homeland Security Information Sharing / 08 November 2005 - House Committee
on Homeland Security Subcommittee on Intelligence / Statement
of John A. Russack, Office of the Director of National Intelligence
- Russian experience / Agentura.Ru Studies and Research Centre Research /
Sharing of information among foreign
intelligence agencies:
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