Back To The Future

Twenty-five years ago, can seem like a long time because of how fast time goes by due in part to technology. Saying that 25 years ago is a quarter of a century makes it seem like like a long time ago. I put it these terms because it was 25 years ago on September 11, 2001, that the United States suffered its biggest and most deadly attack from a foreign source on the mainland, killing nearly 3,000 people. Think about this for a moment. If a person in the U.S. was born after 2001, the September 11 attacks had to be learned about in history book or old news accounts. This includes people who were toddlers at the time. For the rest of us, we lived it. We saw it in real time. Time stood still. We could not believe that this actually happened here in America. In the aftermath, many politicians promised, never again. The result of that never again mantra led to changes in the way we viewed homeland security.

Federal government officials including politicians did what they usually do in a crisis. They over react and over correct never taking the time to do something meaningful. They convened what was called the 9-11 Commission to study what failed and what corrective measures needed to be put in place to prevent this from ever happening again even though many more have occurred but not on the scale of 9-11. The focus centered on intelligence failures. These failures were not something that had not happened in U.S. history in fact the failures have happened despite the attempts by the U.S. intelligence community to give advance warning to prevent an attack.

Certain words and phrases became common not only in the intelligence and law enforcement community but in the media. We heard about fusion centers, sleeper cells, lone wolfs, on-line radicalization and steps were put into place to counter these things before another terror attack could occur. That is the goal of intelligence-to prevent and disrupt by the collection, collating, analyzing and dissemination of information prior to an attack. One of the weaknesses discovered in our intelligence operation is that stove pipes prevented information to be disseminated up down and across the spectrum to people who play a role in preventing attacks. Important information was hoarded by the entity that produced it. After the 9-11 attacks, it was learned that local law enforcement was not receiving critical information even though they were in position on the front lines to prevent, disrupt or respond to an attack. Fusion centers were established to improve exchanges of information down to the local level.

Recall that before the 9-11 attacks the perpetrators were freely and openly moving about. They were on no-fly lists but continued to fly in and out of the U.S. planning their attack. They were known to the federal agencies but not local law enforcement agencies. Recall that a Maryland State Trooper stopped several of the high jackers in a traffic stop several days before the attacks. He did not have any information about the hijackers. So that gap in the exchange of information was supposed to have been filled by the creation of the Department of Homeland Security. Fusion centers were created.

Since 9-11 however, numerous terrorist attacks have occurred by home grown terrorists. Most of the attacks were committed by perpetrators who were radicalized on-line. In nearly every incident, the FBI indicated that the actor was known to them and “on their radar screen.” If that was the case, then why were they not able to disrupt the attack? Government seems to have taken their eye off the ball in the 25 years since the 9-11 attacks. In fact, since the election of Donald Trump as President in 2016, many of the key agencies responsible for homeland security turned away from this important role and identified what they believed to be more important threats to the homeland. They called moms attending school board meeting, MAGA supporters and white supremacy to be the biggest threats facing the homeland and began monitoring them instead of terror sleeper cells or people spewing  radical Islam rhetoric on open social media sources. One story reported that the CIA tied homemaking and traditional mothers as indicative of violent extremism. That is why they miss so many people committing acts of terror like the recent ones at Old Dominion University and the Synagogue in Michigan.

If you look at most of the terror incidents that have happened since 9-11, the actors were posting their intention in open sources yet none of the agencies responsible for counterterrorism at the federal level took any substantial action that could have interrupted the act.

So here is where we are at, just like we were pre-9-11, 2001. Our intel agencies remain one step behind the terrorist who are hiding in plain sight. Taxpayers spend hundreds of million if not billions for counterterrorism efforts. We need more of a return on investment. I have no concern whatsoever that moms, MAGA supporters or even white supremacist are serious threats to the homeland. The Iran military operation should serve as a reminder that terrorism threats have not gone away nor will they ever again.

Sheriff David A. Clarke Jr. is former Sheriff of Milwaukee Co, Wisconsin, President of America’s Sheriff LLC, President of Rise Up Wisconsin INC, Board member of the Crime Research Center, author of the book Cop Under Fire: Beyond Hashtags of Race Crime and Politics for a Better America. To learn more visit www.americassheriff.com