Critical Releases in Homeland Security: May 24, 2017

"As DHS has increased the security of overland smuggling routes, transnational criminal organizations have adapted their techniques to smuggle drugs and humans through alternative methods. These methods include cross-border tunnels, ultralight aircraft, panga boats, and recreational maritime vessels. While these methods account for a small proportion of known smuggling, they can be used to transport significant quantities of drugs or for terrorist activity. GAO [Government Accountability Office] was asked to review DHS's efforts to address subterranean, aerial, and maritime smuggling. This report addresses, among other things, (1) the known prevalence of the aforementioned smuggling methods, (2) efforts to address them, and (3) efforts to assess the results of activities to counter them. GAO analyzed relevant procedures, reports, and data for fiscal years 2011 through 2016. GAO also interviewed DHS officials and conducted site visits to locations in California, Arizona, and Florida, chosen based upon past detection of smuggling by the selected methods, among other things. The information from the site visits is not generalizable, but provided valuable insights."

"Jihadists have long presented a threat at sea as well as on land but although jihadist military strategy has been the object of considerable analysis and writing over the years, it has been the land-based aspect that has drawn the most attention, while the jihadists' maritime strategy has been relatively neglected. The present study seeks to focus attention on and to better understand the maritime component of jihadist military strategy in order to stimulate thinking and discussion that will help formulate more effective responses to this threat. [...] The thesis of the study is that over the years, rather than maritime attacks being random (apart from some spontaneous lone-wolf attacks), discernible patterns have emerged and that jihadists-and al-Qaeda, in particular-have developed an increasingly coherent maritime strategy. The intent here is to provide an analytical reference source for professional military education, as well as to stimulate thinking and discussion there and in the policy and academic sectors and, at the same time, to develop ideas on how best to deal with this threat."

"Beginning in mid-September 2016, a group of industry, government, academic, international, and public officials gathered at the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) Headquarters to devise a strategy to share information, prevent attacks, and protect infrastructure from emerging threats to public spaces of transportation venues. This Public Area Security Summit, co-hosted by TSA and the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Infrastructure Protection, was the first in a series of meetings with the objective of creating an enhanced security environment in the public area through collaborative engagement with all stakeholders. Together, the group sought to leverage an entire network of transportation and security officials to devise a framework that could deter nefarious actors and, failing to deter, create a system that quickly and effectively responds to attacks in the public area to minimize loss of life and disruption of transportation."

"Chairman Burr, Vice Chairman Warner, Members of the Committee, thank you for the invitation to offer the United States Intelligence Community's 2017 assessment of threats to US national security. My statement reflects the collective insights of the Intelligence Community's extraordinary men and women, whom I am privileged and honored to lead. We in the Intelligence Community are committed every day to provide the nuanced, multidisciplinary intelligence that policymakers, warfighters, and domestic law enforcement personnel need to protect American lives and America's interests anywhere in the world. The order of the topics presented in this statement does not necessarily indicate the relative importance or magnitude of the threat in the view of the Intelligence Community."

From the Executive Summary: "This paper explores the risk that virtual currencies (VCs) may become involved in the financing of terrorism at a significant scale. VCs and associated technologies hold great promise for low cost, high speed, verified transactions that can unite counterparties around the world. For this reason they could appear appealing to terrorist groups (as they are at present to cybercriminals). Currently, however, there is no more than anecdotal evidence that terrorist groups have used virtual currencies to support themselves. Terrorists in the Gaza Strip have used virtual currencies to fund operations, and Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS) members and supporters have been particularly receptive to the new technology, with recorded uses in Indonesia and the United States."