US Department of Homeland Security | intelNews.org

Comment: Post-9/11 Intelligence Turf Wars Continue

March 13, 2009 by intelNews 1 Comment

Rod Beckstrom

By IAN ALLEN* | intelNews.org |
The stern assurances given to Americans after 9/11, that destructive turf wars between US intelligence agencies would stop, appear to be evaporating. Earlier this week, Rod Beckstrom, who headed the National Cyber Security Center (NCSC) at the US Department of Homeland Security (DHS), announced his resignation amidst a bitter row between the DHS and the National Security Agency (NSA) over the oversight of American cybersecurity. In a letter (.pdf) addressed to DHS Secretary Janet Napolitano, and carbon-copied to nearly every senior US intelligence and defense official, Beckstrom blasted the lack of “appropriate support [for NCSC] during the last administration”, as well as having to wrestle with “various roadblocks engineered within [DHS] by the Office of Management and Budget”. Most of all, Beckstrom, an industry entrepreneur who remained in his NCSC post for less than a year, accused the NSA of subverting NCSC’s cybersecurity role by trying to “subjugate” and “control” NCSC.

FBI probed Obama inauguration threats by Somali militant group

January 21, 2009 by intelNews Leave a comment

By JOSEPH FITSANAKIS | intelNews.org |
In late 2006, the US approved and assisted Ethiopia’s invasion of Somalia in what is in fact America’s most recent covert war. The operational aim of the invasion was to terminate the local grass roots leadership of the Islamic Courts Union (ICU) and prevent the solidification of its rule in the country. Soon after the Ethiopian invasion, which also received Kenyan support, rank-and-file members of the ICU went underground in an attempt to organize a guerilla war against the Ethiopian troops. The most militant segment of the new underground movement is arguably al-Shabaab (The Party of Youth), which used to be the youth organization of the pre-invasion ICU. Al-Shabaab shares the ICU’s mission of turning Somalia into an Islamic khalifat. Read more of this post