Homeland Security Strategies
Bald Touts Patriot Act at NIST Conference
Any significant retrenchment from the flexibilities granted law enforcement and homeland security agencies under the USA Patriot Act will undermine the ability of nation to meaningfully fight the war on terrorism, said Gary Bald, the FBI's special agent in charge of the Maryland Joint Terrorism Task Force.
The sometimes controversial law, passed in the immediate aftermath of the 9/11 terror attacks, not only has given law enforcement new investigative tools in helping prevent terror attacks before they occur, Bald said, but has also facilitated vital Information Sharing methods that continue to evolve and formalize across agencies and levels of government, to even include the private sector.
Addressing the recent "Securing the Homeland" conference at the National Institute of Standards and Technology, Bald noted that new powers under the Patriot Act have made it easier for the many terrorism task forces and other law enforcement agencies to do simple things like secure a one-time warrant for monitoring a suspect's cell phone that can not be obviated "if the suspect decides to merely switch phones or service providers."
Likewise, FBI, Secret Service and other law enforcement agents have noted that without the Patriot Act suspected cyber crimes and cyber terrorism investigations would still be shackled by the pre-9/11 need to obtain search warrants in every state in which an electronic device is compromised by a hacker or a worm - a stunningly cumbersome bureaucratic necessity in an age when the electronic missives of Black Hats bounce willy-nilly across a global infrastructure.
Bald said the Patriot Act was used by the Maryland task force to launch the first post-9/11 arrest of an al Qaeda operative, who had performed reconnaissance in advance of a plot to blow up underground gas storage tanks in the US. The operative was traced to Pakistan by the task force, and was thought to be reporting to Khalid Sheik Mohammad, the 9/11 mastermind, then still at large.
Bald said he believes the biggest Patriot Act-related aid to the US counter-terror mission comes with the creation of more formal lines of info sharing, encompassed in new activities like the planned Maryland Coordination and Analysis Center (MCAC).
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"We were able to tell the CIA about this person," Bald said, noting a major distinction that pre-9/11 could have put the task force's information off-limits to the intelligence service. Bald said he was also able to use new legal processes mandated under the law to inform the oil and gas industry here about the general threat to gas stations and facilities.
Bald said he believes the biggest Patriot Act-related aid to the US counter-terror mission comes with the creation of more formal lines of info sharing, encompassed in new activities like the planned Maryland Coordination and Analysis Center (MCAC). This will help formalize FBI director Robert Mueller's belief that "prevention teams" are a law enforcement necessity in the war on terror, Bald said.
Tom Lockwood, the Maryland state homeland security advisor, told the conference MCAC would be operating "soon," and will create a permanent base from which information gleaned from other systems and sensors can be better analyzed for "patterns or trends that can help us catch the snipers quicker."
Lockwood said Maryland examined similar efforts in New York and Florida before planning MCAC. It is also believed that state officials looked for best practices employed overseas, such as in Israel and several other middle eastern nations, where anti-terror experience is more deeply entrenched in the law enforcement mission.
JTTFs follow up on specific "suspicious activity" leads but has also help do root analysis work too. Bald said the Maryland JTTF has identified 4,800 specific locations and activities in the state that might have vulnerabilities to a terror attack or be considered targets of value by al Qaeda and other terror groups.
Bald said that, overall, as many as 2,700 FBI personnel are working in the war on terrorism every day, and that as many as 6,000 FBI agents participated in the 9/11 investigation. The JTTF model (combining federal, state and local law enforcement and other subject-matter expert agencies) now numbers more than 50 around the nation. It has often been reported that there were about 30 FBI agents dedicated to US counter-terrorism activities pre-9/11.
Article by PSI Senior Editor Robert Green. Contact him at robertgreen@pubsector.net.
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