Homeland Security Employs Imagination: "Red Cell"

bhkad · 07-31-08, 02:13 PM

Quote:

Homeland Security Employs Imagination
Outsiders Help Devise Possible Terrorism Plots

By John Mintz
Washington Post Staff Writer
Friday, June 18, 2004; Page A27

The Department of Homeland Security, given the difficult task of trying to divine al Qaeda's future methods of attack on the United States, is seeking advice from some unexpected sources these days: futurists, philosophers, software programmers, a pop musician and a thriller writer.

Picking the brains of people with offbeat specialties and life experiences is the latest tactic in the government's efforts to get inside the heads of worldwide terrorists. Homeland Security's Analytic Red Cell office employs a tactic that has been used for decades by U.S. intelligence agencies, the Pentagon and large corporations -- gathering together people from outside their insular bureaucracies to arrive at fresh insights.

"We try to anticipate four, five moves ahead in the mind of our adversary," said Jon Nowick, director of the Analytic Red Cell program, which is part of the department's Information Analysis and Infrastructure Protection, or intelligence, unit. "We paint a picture where there are no dots to connect."

Typically the Red Cell team assembles 20 or so participants for a day-long session at leased offices in the Washington area. Each session divides into smaller groups and takes up a different question, such as: If you were a terrorist, how would you target the G-8 economic summit, held last week in Georgia? Another recent topic was: Why haven't terrorists hit the United States since Sept. 11, 2001?

The results are compared with terrorism analysis from Homeland Security's intelligence professionals who examine real-life threat information. Written reports on Red Cell's sessions are then forwarded to terrorism analysts inside the department, as well as to local and state police and security experts in private industry. Most Red Cell reports note they are "alternative assessments intended to provoke thought and stimulate discussion."

The Red Cell has not previously publicized itself. Its leaders talked to a reporter recently in part to quell rumors that one of the team's threat scenarios -- such as an assault on a chemical plant -- might be a real-life event.

Many participants have not worked much with the government before.

Homeland Security Employs Imagination (washingtonpost.com)

Who here would give the Government permission to monitor their postings for this purpose?