White House cyber czar maps out intelligence and security strategy

In announcing the president's proposal for a new Department of Homeland Security last week, Bush administration officials said protecting information networks from electronic attacks and conducting more thorough analyses of intelligence were among its top priorities. Under the new department, both of these functions would be housed in the same division, covering "information analysis and infrastructure protection." In an interview with Government Executive last week, Richard Clarke, the President's cybersecurity adviser, explained how the new approach would work.

The White House wants to merge cybersecurity and infrastructure protection agencies at the FBI, the Commerce Department, the General Services Administration and the Defense Department into the Homeland Security Department, Clarke said. However, the information and infrastructure operations would be kept separate and the White House would continue to set overall cybersecurity policy.

"The structural thing to bear in mind is that the job…of the cyberspace security adviser [Clarke's] is a White House job that is going to continue," Clarke said. The Critical Infrastructure Protection Board, which advises the president on matters of cybersecurity policy and is chaired by Clarke, will also remain intact, he said. "What we're doing over here won't change."

There is some confusion over exactly what "infrastructure protection" means under the president's proposal. Clarke said that "99 percent" of the work done by the cybersecurity agencies that would be merged into the new department involves protecting information networks, rather than physical structures. Many electric power plants, nuclear reactors and water treatment facilities operate on networks that are vulnerable to attack, and the agencies see guarding those networks as key to protecting the facilities. But Clarke said he wasn't sure what protection would be provided for the physical assets themselves under the new division.

The information analysis component of the Homeland Security Department would be made up of analysts who would review intelligence compiled and gathered by other agencies, including the CIA, the National Security Agency, the National Reconnaissance Office and a host of others. Those analysts would produce intelligence reports for the Homeland Security secretary.

Clarke compared the division with the State Department's Bureau of Intelligence and Research, established in 1946 to provide the secretary of State with objective analysis of global political developments. Clarke said the State bureau produces some of the "highest-quality intelligence" in the government. The assistant secretary who heads the bureau reports directly to the secretary of State and serves as his principal intelligence adviser.

The head of the new intelligence analysis division would presumably report to the Homeland Security secretary, as well. Clarke said no one would be named to head the office until the president names a secretary for the department.

Clarke emphasized that the intelligence division will not actually collect information from sources on its own. "Its first job is to do analysis" of intelligence provided by other agencies, he said. Asked how those agencies would be compelled to cooperate with one another and with the new department when distrust and operational differences have kept them apart for decades, Clarke said, "It's really easy, because they all work for the president," adding that word has gone out across the government that the new analysis shop has Bush's full backing.

The Bush administration has spent the past several weeks defending itself against charges that senior officials at the FBI and the CIA failed to communicate with each other about the presence of known Islamic militants in the United States in the weeks before the Sept. 11 attacks. FBI Director Robert Mueller has said that the bureau's antiquated technology systems and historic reticence to cooperate with other law enforcement and intelligence agencies have hampered its ability to stop attacks.

Last month, the FBI established a new Office of Intelligence to share information with the CIA. That office is headed by Mark Miller, a career CIA Soviet intelligence analyst. The CIA has also lent the FBI 25 intelligence analysts.

Clarke acknowledged that adding another layer of bureaucracy to the already scattered intelligence community might strike some as counterproductive. But he said history has shown that when different sets of analysts review the same information, their understanding of it sharpens.

Clarke said that while the work of the intelligence analysis and cybersecurity divisions has little in common, elements of the two groups "will [work] cheek to jowl." He pointed out that the FBI's National Infrastructure Protection Center, which would move into the new department, already employs a cadre of intelligence analysts. However, an NIPC spokeswoman said no formal plans have been made about which of its employees will be transferred to the new department.

Clarke wouldn't say whether he was involved in crafting the Homeland Security Department proposal. Asked whether he would accept the position of Homeland Security secretary if asked by the president, Clarke replied, "I don't think that's likely."