Terrorism
Introduction
Creation of the Department of Homeland Security was initiated by the 9/11 terrorist attack that occurred in 2001, causing massive loss of lives (Painter, 2019). This occurrence revealed lack of synchronization and intelligence allotment among diverse government agencies. Lack of this coordination created a principal concern that resulted in the creation of a cabinet Department of Homeland Security. This department’s initial mission included preventing terrorist attacks in the U.S. and minimize United States ‘vulnerability to terrorism. Research indicates a mission creep by this department’s senior leadership whose focus has shifted in the wrong direction (Beck, 2017). Immigrant enforcement has become a central initiative of the Department of Homeland Security as expounded by its huge financial plan request for securing borders in 2020. The department made a request of $4.75 billion for its 2020 operations. It provided the securing of borders and enforcement of immigration law as their first and second items in their priority list (Bickelman, 2020). This information presents a mission creep resulting from focus alteration due to replacement of commissioner in U.S. Customs and Border Protection because immigrants do not present a terrorism threat. However, DHS’s functions undertaken by its diverse agencies help the department to remain at its mission’s scope. The Department of Homeland Security’s functions performed by FEMA and CISA departments primarily support counterterrorism and minimize the country’s vulnerability to terrorism, helping the department to stick to its core mission.
Role of CISA and FEMA in Accomplishment of DHS’s Primary Mission
CISA (the cybersecurity and infrastructure security agency) works with cohorts as the States’ advisor to shield against current threats and to cooperate to construct more resilient, safe, and secure infrastructure for the impending period (Perlroth, 2017). This agency’s core mission constitutes building the national capability to secure against cyber-attacks. Also, it works in a cohort with the federal government to offer cybersecurity evaluation capabilities, tools, and incident response facilities to protect government network systems that support the vital processes of cohort agencies and departments. On the other hand, FEMA operates to fulfil its role as the primary component of DHS by undertaking its responsibility to prepare local and state governments to avert, defend against, retort to, and recuperate from terrorism incidents and other catastrophic occurrences (Smith, 2019). This department’s mission is to help folks afore, during and after terrorist attacks and other disasters with the help of its guiding principles (O’Neil, 2018). These two departments help the Department of Homeland Security to stick to its mission of countering terrorism and minimizing vulnerability in diverse ways as expounded in this paper.
Preventing terrorist attacks in the United States of America is a primary component of DHS’s mission (Beck, 2017). This department operates to improve the States’ counter-IED competences and minimize the peril of explosive terrorist attack against vital infrastructure, territorials, private sector, tribal, local. State and federal entities. CISA supports this section of DHS’s primary mission by building the state capability to secure against cyber-attacks and working in cohort with the federal government to offer cybersecurity evaluation capabilities. It also offers tools and incident response facilities to protect government network systems that support the vital processes of cohort agencies and departments. CISA also synchronize resilience and security efforts through reliable alliances across the public and private sectors and offer technical aid, assistance, and evaluations to federal stakeholders, owners of infrastructure, and national infrastructure operators (Cybersecurity, 2020). The department also provides insights on these evaluations related to existing capabilities to recognize infrastructure gaps that can be used by terrorists and examine emerging technologies to determine future demand for capabilities to keep infrastructure safe.
FEMA helps in prevention of terrorist attacks by providing appropriate guidance to nonprofit and private sectors, federal, local, territorial, metropolitan, tribal, regional, and state governments, and faith-based establishments to thwart, avoid, and prevent actual and threatened act of terrorism (Sadiq et al., 2020). FEMA provides this guidance by describing the primary practices required to thwart an impending terrorism act and aligning its primary responsibilities and roles to provide these preclusion capabilities in time-delicate circumstances (Federal Emergency Management Agency, 2017). This department also describes the synchronization structures that sanction all stakeholders to operate collaboratively and lay the foundation for additional functioning harmonization and planning that can coordinate thwart efforts within the entire U.S. community. This description also cuts across protection from terrorism and the associated programs of mission areas such as mitigation, recovery, and response.
Reducing the United States of America’s vulnerability to terrorism is also an important part of the Department of Homeland Security’s mission. The department performs different functions to reduce the country’s vulnerability to terrorism (Schrier, 2019). One of these critical actions of minimizing vulnerability to terrorism attacks includes undertaking programs that protect, maintain, restore and improve the United States of America’s critical infrastructure. Cybersecurity forms one of the most critical infrastructures in the current world of advanced technology (Reese, 2016). Existence of gaps in this infrastructure can increase terrorism attacks because of access to sensitive information about government, organizations, and individuals and strategize their attacks based on that information. Comprehension of the gap and vulnerabilities that exist in cybersecurity and other related technologies requires in-depth assessment by a knowledgeable department such as CISA. In-depth knowledge of the existing gap enables the DHS department to select the prevention measure that appropriately reduces the identified vulnerabilities.
CISA performs diverse tasks in assessing vulnerabilities in cybersecurity infrastructure of the United States of America and determines the programs that can be utilized in deterring terrorist attacks and boost recovery from and attack through backup plans (Anders, 2020). The accomplishment of these assessments is aided by diverse programs which include a platform for infrastructure visualization, assists visits, regional resiliency evaluation program, and the Infrastructure Study Tool Safety Surveys (Perlroth, 2017). The protective safety synchronization division of CISA conducts specified field evaluations and assessments to recognize vulnerabilities, capabilities, interdependencies, and surging effects of their implications on the country’s critical cybersecurity infrastructure. Risk-based execution of protective and defensive programs intended to deter, thwart, prevent, and mitigate terrorist attacks’ risks by the National Infrastructure Protection Plan are founded on CISA’s non-regulatory and voluntary assessments for vulnerability. This implementation allows the Department of Homeland Security to prevent terrorists’ risks and mitigate them while empowering efficient, appropriated and timely response, recovery, and restoration in diverse economic and social sectors after terrorism attack.
Reducing the United States of America’s vulnerability to terrorism is also an important part of the Department of Homeland Security’s mission. CISA helps DHS in reducing internal terrorism attacks that are caused by organizational stakeholders for the accomplishment of a social or political purpose (Reese, 2016). Numerous employees and other stakeholders take advantage of their familiarity with the establishment’s construction layout, security, structure, safety, and other familiarities to optimize fatalities and sabotage structures. CISA encourages organizations to reduce their vulnerability to terrorism by increasing their responsiveness of terrorists and their associated revolutionary actors to aid in the identification of any behaviour linked to a specific team (Kfir, 2018). Alliances between diverse subsections of CISA promote counterterrorism through communicating facts about terrorist risks by offering detailed and timely information to the community and formulating standards for safety at America’s high-risk facilities of chemical. These CISA functions are accomplished through the National Terrorism Advisory System of DHS and personnel surety program of CFATS (chemical facility anti-terrorism standards).
CISA also minimizes vulnerabilities and promotes counterterrorism within organizations by leading and synchronizing the state counterterrorism determination by combining local and foreign information related to counterterrorism through National Counterterrorism Center (Martin, 2019). This department helps DHS to attain its counterterrorism aim by providing comprehensive information about global organizations that experience active terrorist and serving at the United State government’s combined component of watch-listing counterterrorism. CISA executes these operations through Terrorism Screening Center and the National Counter-terrorism Terrorist Group’s Center (Perlroth, 2017). Prevention of terrorism and the reduction of organizational vulnerabilities is also attained through the creation of synchronized tactics and techniques to rout terrorism and secure the global partner’s counterterrorism collaboration. CISA attains this critical function through the Department of State Bureau of Counter-terrorism. CISA also uses the FBI to provide shared materials on the disparaging nature of terrorism and ways of thinking its messages, objectives, and goals critically, while offering a simple and subtle approach of reporting suspected terrorism.
The Department of Homeland Security reduces the vulnerability of the cybersecurity infrastructure based on vital infrastructure owned privately and publicly. CISA improves its vulnerability assessment effectiveness by voluntarily collaborating with private owners and operators of critical infrastructure and information (Kfir, 2018). CISA improves the resilience, safety, and security of the country’s vital information further by conducting assist visits through Protective Security Advisors. PSAs emphasizes on teamwork, synchronization, training, coordination, education, and creating current relationships with local, federal, territorial, state, tribal, and private segment cohorts during the Assist Visits. CISA requires security surveys of Infrastructure Survey Tool to follow immediately after Assist Visits to collect, gather, process, analyze, and explore facility evaluation information and design a comprehensive assessment of the safety, resilience and security of the facility.
Minimizing the vulnerability of terrorism attacks requires in-depth information and reports of terrorist activity and the gaps they executed in accomplishing their mission. This knowledge is important for the Department of Homeland Security because it uses it to identify additional vulnerabilities that need to be reduced for improved counterterrorism (Sadiq et al., 2020). Exceptional V and I terrorism practice reports provides the Department of Homeland Security with information useful for reducing vulnerabilities such as poor security at the country’s borders. Exceptional V and I terrorism practice reports improves information allotment between industry segments, personal sites, and the government and between sectors and facilities. This sharing is accomplished by providing comparative evaluation data that maintains and supports cross-sector analysis of nationally substantial vital infrastructure risk at the national level. Information obtained through this analysis is used by FEMA to build a risk mitigation program known as Disaster Resistant society that is responsible for minimizing available vulnerability hence thwarting terrorism.
The Department of Homeland Security involves both physical and non-physical measures of minimizing vulnerability to terrorism activities in the United States of America (Shablystyi et al., 2019). Minimization of vulnerability is accomplished using federal and private facilities in the country’s martial service. Exceptional V and I terrorism practice reports department involves state, local, and federal partners in its vulnerability evaluation to ensure comprehensive identification of any existing gaps in the country’s terrorist response through exceptional reports (Kfir, 2018). Infrastructure Protection Report Series Department provides exceptional reports that cover the entire sixteen sectors of vital infrastructure and recognize collective vital infrastructure vulnerabilities that can promote terrorism in the country. The department also identifies background data on specific sectors and the categories of terrorist attacks that might succeed through the exploitation of the identified vulnerabilities.
The DHS uses information obtained through vulnerability assessment and terrorist activities reports and chooses an appropriate approach to minimize vulnerabilities that prove useful by terrorists to plan or actualize their attacks in the United States of America. Physical measures undertaken by both FEMA and DHS to minimize vulnerabilities and counterterrorism include installation of transportation and border safety programs to prevent terrorists from entering the country via illegal means. The department also implements exceptional programs to handle radiological, biological, nuclear threats, and chemical attacks within the country and prevent terrorism from executing related plans (McCormack et al., 2020). Non-physical measures such as ensuring the safety of critical infrastructure through CISA’s cybersecurity also minimizes vulnerability through limiting access to sensitive information of United States of America by terrorists who can utilize it to plan and actualize attacks. CISA makes cybersecurity vital infrastructure more secure and resilient and provides backup systems such as cloud computing programs to prepare for any impending terrorist attack that can affect individuals, businesses and government (Inserra, 2017). DHS also use other security improvement and vulnerability minimization measures such as warnings and intelligence systems and legal enforcement.
The Department of Homeland Security’s mission also incorporates minimizing the destruction and loss caused by terrorist actions in the United States of America and aid in the recovery of such losses (Woulard, 2016). This aim is accomplished through Federal Emergency Management Agency. FEMA constitutes a state governmental administrator for the functioning and logistical tragedy response required to secure and maintain lives, reduce suffering, and defend the property in an effective and timely manner in United States ‘communities affected by terrorism tragedies and disasters.
DHS synchronizes response to terrorist attacks and other tragedies by the federal government through FEMA subdivision which is located within it. FEMA offers aid to country residents, local and national to recover from short-term and long-term effects of terrorism attacks. The agency also conducts plans to assist in preparation for impending attacks. Categories of FEMA’s aid concerning terrorism attack ranges from equipping local, and national emergency supports to synchronizing the federal government’s response to terrorism.
FEMA minimizes the destruction and loss caused by terrorist actions in the United States of America and aids in the recovery of such losses through numerous channels such as offering public aid and obligating financial aid for personal support (Meadow et al., 2016). FEMA cohorts with Disaster Relief Fund to access untimed-bound funding base to acquire funds and direct, synchronize, manage, and finance authorized response and recovery struggles related to local major terrorist attacks. The alliance between these two agencies funds eligible federal terrorist attack support events and authorized tribal, national, local, and territorial activities (McCormack et al., 2020). Excellent examples of such activities include emergency protective actions such as sheltering and direct federal aid. FEMA can also use funds obtained from DRF to finance restoration and repair of authorized terrorism-damaged infrastructure, vulnerability mitigation initiatives, monetary aid to authorized terrorism survivors, and terrorism management aid grants. After a major terrorism activity declaration from the United States’ president, FEMA is allowed to reimburse conditions costs to sustain and safe lives with finances from DRF due to their overwhelmed resources as a result of terrorism.
DHS performs other duties related to achieve its core purpose of counterterrorism through preventing terrorism-related activities and reduction of vulnerabilities that might be used to harm the United States of America via terrorism occurrence (West & Zentner, 2019). The department undertakes all operations of entities shifted to the section, including playing the role of a pivotal point concerning terrorism crises and tragedy planning. DHS also ensures that the operations of its subdivisions and agencies including CISA and FEMA relate indirectly to homeland security and not neglected, abandoned, or diminished except in adherence to an exact clear Act of Congress. CISA aids in the accomplishment of DHS mission by monitoring links between terrorism and drug trafficking, synchronizing efforts to dissolve such connections, and participate in interdicting unlawful trafficking of drugs. This drug trafficking and terrorism connection can be dissolved through the creation of border and transport securities by the DHS.
In conclusion, CISA works with cohorts as the States’ advisor to shield against current threats and to cooperate to construct more resilient, safe, and secure infrastructure for the impending period. On the other hand, FEMA operates to fulfil its role as the primary component of DHS by undertaking its responsibility to prepare local and state governments to avert, defend against, retort to, and recuperate from terrorism incidents and other catastrophic occurrences. It can therefore be concluded that the Department of Homeland Security’s functions performed by FEMA and CISA departments primarily support counterterrorism and minimize the country’s vulnerability to terrorism, helping the department to stick to its core mission.
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