Domestic Security Recommendations

Domestic Security

The Terorrist Organization, lead by Abu Bakr al-Bagdadi, hereby referred to as ABTO, presents a direct threat to the United States of America, our allies, its friends and partners. Leadership and history have brought the United States of America to a position of global leadership and prevalence as the world's only super-power. It is our responsibility to continue providing the leadership, the world expects and address the very real security risks presented by ABTO. Part of providing for security however, includes an effective direction of our domestic security apparatus. These are directives that the federal government bureacracies can implement to advance the interests of domestic security. As a Master of Science in Homeland Security I recommend the following actions to bolster domestic security:

The Secret Service – The US secret service's first priority is to provide security for the POTUS. This is going to require increased vigililance by agents. Tightening access to the President is going to become an increasing neccessity. Continued adhearence to protocols ensuring that the chain of command is not accumulated in one location is going to become increasingly important.

The Secret Service is also charged with the responsibilty of providing for the security of other heads of states and there is particular threat to the heads of state of coalilition partners, most notibly the Queen of England, the Royal Family, their business holdings and propeties. This also of course includes all of our the leaders of the European Nations and all of the cooperating partners of the Arab League and any other heads of state visiting the United States of America. A top secret state of emergency authorization for the Secret Service and in coordination with the NSA and Computer Emergency Readiness Team, all technological means available to idenity threats of violence directed towards heads of state will be employed and all leads will then be passed to either the FBI, DHS, state police, the local sheriff or police chief to investigate. When each lead is sent from the Secret Service the receiving officer will be notified that they have 4 hours to assign a team of officers, agents or deputies to the case and that they will be required to report on their progress in 4 hours time. When such suspects are not located within 24 hours of the lead being issued, the lead would be handed over to the FBI. Either an emergency bill providing for more Secret Service budgetary dollars or alternatively an executive order re-allocating other Homeland Security Assets to Secret Service is appropriate.

The Computer Emergency Readiness Team is going to need to be bolstered to identify and address threats at US service members, their families and directed to target ISIS and al-Qaeda networks to cull actionable intelligence, identify threats and route them to the appropriate policing agency or department for further action.

The Federal Emergency Management Agency should organize and conduct a number of drills geared towards prepping for a catastrophic terrorist attack while bolsering supplies of medical treatments for possible biological, chemical or even nuclear weapons. There needs to be a focus on databasing key personell that could be employed or called in to act as emergency managers and calling them as neccessary.

FEMA Disaster Assistance should continue its focus on weather and climate related disasters.

The Federal Law Enforcement Training Center needs to implement training programs and author materials on the various terrorist groups including information on the ethnic, national and religious sects from which they originate or are based, while balancing information with religious sensitivity training. As the Islamic State is predominately an offshoot of the Sunni Salafi tradition, federal police, sheriffs and police should be trained to ask questions to identify if a suspect may be salafi, harbor stong anti-american sentiments, or have sympathies with the Islamic State. It is important to note that while Iraqi and Syria are the current center points of the Islamic State that it is a pan-Sunni movement. It is also important to understand the strong possibility of an attack against Iranian Nuclear Reactors and the prevalence of Al-Quds, an Iranian Shi'ite Clandestine Intelligence organization that has aggressively funded and armed anyone willing to fight USA and American interests, whether Al-Qaeda, Mexican Cartels, the Socialist Venezuelan government and Hezbollah, a Shi'ite Lebanese terrorist group. Training on identifying surveillance activities is key, as they are likely to conduct surveillance for potential terrorist attacks on US and Coalilition partner embassies, Jewish Community Centers, Synagogues, Cultural Centers and Holocaust memorials, military recruitment centers and an increasing volume of threats surrounding the families of US military service members.

The TSA is going to need be extra vigilent in its inspections and surveillance of transportation and individuals using such transportation. As its been a long time since there has been an attack, guards may be lowered, managers need to stress the very real threat USA is currently facing and TSA should be instructed to investigate any and all suspicious activity, keep cars moving and immediately contain unattended packages into blast shells that can be investigated by bomb sniffing dogs. While previous attacks have focused on airways, it is important not to neglect subways, trains and busses.

US Citizenship and Immigration Services need to be extra discerning in granting student, education and travel visas, refugee status or assylum. Understandably as a result of the crisis in the Middle East, North Africa and now with Ebola in West Africa there is going to be individuals looking to flee and fly to the US. While some will be good people looking and needing protection, the US cannot accept them at this time, they need to stay in their respective regions where UN refugee camps and hosting governments training for operations are being conducted. Middle or upper-middle class status is not in any way immunity from terrorist recruitment, there are numerous terrorist actors that come from wealth and many others that have presented very magnaminous intentions on their student visa applications that have then bragged about how learning English and studying in the US will help them advance their Jihad in intercepted social network coorespondances.

The US Coast Guard is going to increase its efforts to interdict and investigate the inflow of ships that may be carrying terrorist actors and weapons for an attack along with common human and drug smuggling operations.

There is going to need to be an amplified effort to update Border Patrol with names and faces of potential terrorist infiltrators, intel on plots and searches for weapons, conventional, chemical, biological or even nuclear. Border crossings close to major cities are of particular concern, there is a possiblity of terrorist groups entering into Mexico, purchasing assistance in smuggling or even purchases of stolen cobalt to be utilized in dirty bombs. It is imortant to keep in mind, that Afghanistan is the leading producer of opium and the Taliban allowed for Al-Qaeda to establish sophisticated smuggling networks that would provide products, Mexican drug cartels, particulalry the Zetas, Knights Templar (not to be confused with the Knights Templar of the Crusades or any modern reinventions) and Sinoloan Cartels would be interested in acquiring and protecting. The smuggling routes could take a number of paths, from Afghanistan to Indonesia to Latin America, Afghanistan to Vietnam to Mexico, Afghanistan to Malaysia to Latin America, Afghanistan to North African Countries to Latin America. In proximity to the Southern border I am more focused on it, but terrorist plots have also involved entering in to the US from the Canadian border. The Islamic State and Al-Qaeda are directly linked, Boko Haram and Ansar al-Sharia are closely linked. Combined with their proxies, they have had active terrorist attacks in Belgium, France, London, Spain, Germany, USA and Australia. These groups have engaged in open warfare in Nigeria, Mali, Central Africa, North and South Sudan, Egpyt, Tunisia, Libya, Cameroon, Algeria, Yemen, Syria, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Palestine and Iraq, Somalia and Kenya, with common financial backing from private citizens from Saudi Arabia, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates. They have been excited by the military successes of the Islamic State, particularly their propaganda film, “Flames of War,” and many individually inspired acts to behead infidels in public executions have been popular.

US Immigration and Customs Services is going to take every suspicious activities report seriously. Prior to the September 11^th attacks there were several reports on the Al-Qaeda hijackers were brushed off as Islamophobic reports. If people are calling about them it is very possible that it is not because they are Muslims peacefuly practicing their religion but because they are terrorists planning attacks and therefore, no longer Muslim.

The Anti-Trust Division of the DOJ can be used to investigate financial handling of companies with high volumes of financing from countries with active terrorist groups. There needs to be care in the conduct of these actions, but there may be patterns of financial movement that can help predict attacks or interdict financing operations by the Islamic State and Al-Qaeda.

The ATF can play an active role investigating suspicious gun purchases, working to form programs with gun suppliers and shooting ranges to encourage reporting on suspicious persons. As we saw with the Al-Shabaab mall shootings in Kenya, conventional weapons can become equally effective weapons of terror. A small cell of four or five terrorists can do substantial damage with a few machine guns or semi-automatic weapons legally purchased and illegally modified by internet purchased kits. Established non-human monitoring of suspicious combinations of purchases, or web visits, such as gun purchaes, large ammo purchases and frequent visits to either jihadi websites or even right wing extremist websites, that are then automated into reports that can be used to garner warrants for the ATF to investigate or make arrests can significantly help prevent terrorism.

The Bureau of Justice Statistics can look at data for patterns of Islamic Radicalism and closely monitor individuals that may have been radicalized in prison soon to be, or recently released as potential culprits to be activated by the way of the internet and extensive ABTO and its proxies recruitment.

Community Oriented Policing Services need to include increasingly sophisticated strategies towards protecting peacefully practicing Muslims while identifying potential members of terrorist sleep cells and investigating appropriately.

In targeting heroine and opium sales, the DEA may find valuable leads relating to Al-Qaeda heroine smuggling routes and key persons.

The Executive Office of Immigration Review is going to have an active role in reviewing student and other visas, particularly as it relates to visas given to guests from nations with terrorist activities, many of whom may have gone AWOL, deciding not to go home to their war torn countries rather hide and wait in the USA, perhaps with funding and direction from terrorist handlers.

The Federal Bureau of Investigation will continue to have the lead on terrorist investigations and will need to have increasing resources to vigilently conduct their investigations, penetrate operational cells, prevent terrorism and when possible make arrests.

The Marshalls service is going to be on active call from the various agencies, as actionable leads are uncovered and warrants awarded, then US Marshalls will have an active role in making arrests and transporting alleged terrorists to the various courts and jurisdictions. US Air Marshalls will also have an active role in protecting flights.

Special Office of Justic Programs will need to be drafted and implemented to assist in carrying out anti-terrorism justice.

The Parole commission is going to need to be extra mindful of potential paroles that may adhere to radical interpretations of Islam and vulnerable to terrorist recruitment. The Parole Commissions should use what administrative leeway they have to deny such suspicious inmates Parole.

The US National Cenral Bureau – Interpol is going to be increasing coordiation with European partners relating to the travel of jihadi suspects to Syria and other parts of the Middle East and North Africa more so than ever. There have been serious failures of communication and coordination, with Jihadi suspects for example, flying from Istanbol to France, where the suspects were able to walk off the plane without arrest, and in fact, after finding one police station empty, had to go to another town's police station to turn themselves in. With a serious immigration crises surrounding Syria, Iraq and Libya, many at risk individuals will be making efforts to fly to the United States of America to garner amnesty. Some will be well-intentioned, but others will cary with them a very high risk of terrorist recruitment. Jordani refugee camps and increasingly Turkish refugee camps are hotbeds for jihadist activities. In the chaos of civil wars many prisoners from these countries were released or escaped from prison in the chaos of the civil war, administrative offices could have been used to issue authentic, fake documents. The US needs to tightly monitor all flights to these regions, and flights from these regions, monitoring saeble and other airline databasis and cross refrencing them with terrorist watch lists, financial transactions with known or suspected terrorist front groups and when possible, Internet Protocol Addresses or other communications, then coordinating or relaying this information via Interpol to pertinent partner countries where they may be traveling.

The Department of State is going to have an active role via its Visa Services, US Mission to the United Nations, National Passport Informaiton Center and American Citizens Services and crisis Management to help US Citizens vulnerable to terrorist attack or kidnapping, providing relevent information and travel warnings about the risks, what to be weary of and how best to stay safe in countries where terrorist networks exist. The State Department is going to play a vital cooridnating and diplomatic role, helping to build prosecutory and security against terror, while simultaneously lobbying and providing for the safety of all US personel traveling abroad.

The Department of Treasury will be able to increase their efforts to montior financial transactions for potential terrorist financing and funding. It will also have role in holding various departments, agency's and agent accountable to their jobs.

Bulletins on potential suspects, on how to report suspicious activities and identify certain patterns suggestive of terrorist activities should be distributed to the Department of Transporation, the Department of Housing and Urban Development, the Department of Interior, Department of Commerce, Department of Education, Department of Agriculture, Department of Energy and Department of Health and Human Services. I want every employ of goverrment, at all levels, from the Department of Defense to School Teachers to have rudimentry understanding of the geography of the Middle East and North Africa, an understanding of Islam's division between Sunni and Shi'ite, the main terrorist groups, their regional origin and basic goals. The Civil Rights Act will be followed without exception; however, citizens and employees of the government will be encouraged to use their first amendment rights at free speech to ask questions, to engage suspicious individuals in conversation and flush out intentions and sypathies to identify potential terrorist suspects. Respect for Islam, Muslim beliefs and practice will be maintained at all times, particularly relating to prayer, dress and dietary expectations. It is important not to stereotype Muslims as terrorists, be open to learning about a different culture and learning about their country's of origin, understanding of history and approach to life. Many Muslims are of exceptional character, have refreshing understanding of God and care for humanity. Women will be permitted to cover their hair according to the Qu'aran; however, cultural practices of covering the full face and body will be met with the utmost suspicion and officers of the law are permitted to initiate investigations on such grounds alone, as excessively warm clothes on warm days have long been established as grounds of suspicious activity to warrant further investigation. Such practices of full body garments are not rooted in the Qu'aran rather primariliy a cultural practice that developed in regions where sandstorms are prevalent.

The Department of Energy's National Nuclear Security Administration is going to be of increasing importance. Security surrounding Power plants, nuclear, natural gas and oil, particularly is going to require increasing vigilence and the hiring of additional security personel is highly recommended.

Security around medical laboratories and science labs using contageous biological or dangerous chemical agents is also going to need to be increased.

Calling local law enforcement, the County Sheriff and requesting regular patrols is appropriate. As is requesting the DOJ and DHS to investigate the backgrounds of individuals who you may find suspicious.

Increasing security around the Department of Defense and families of the DoD is going to be required, with the Inspector General, NSA and National Geospatial Intelligence Agency increasing efforts to secure the families of the DoD from targeting.

The heads of all of the above mentioned departments should establish clear quantifiable goals, attached to time lines, that relate to increasing our countries efforts to prevent terrorism.

The FBI may set a goal according to the number of terrorist investigations, or arrests, or prosecutions, or thwarted terrorist acts. All of these goals will be broken down into incremental time/quota basesis, with each agent assigned a goal that they will be held accountable towards attaining. Contract renewals and bonuses will be awarded according to performance, discretion provided and disciplinary action to erroneous or irresponsible actions made as an effort to reach quotas. The goal is not to harass and arrest innocent people, the goal is to responsibily investigate terrorism related crime, identify terrorists and prevent acts of terrorism.

The heads of each department are going to have a better idea as to what type of goals they can realistically meet, and choose whether or not they want to designate goals or allow for their agents to set their own goals and then tally them together for a department wide goal. I prefer the ladder method, as it allows agents to set their pace that they are comfortable with while providing for department wide goal that encourages team efforts and fellowship.