Unit 3 Assessment Question Monday 6 May 2013

1. Homeland Security Presidential Directives:

Read the summaries of HSPD 1-10. Which of these HSPDs was most important? Examine the full text of that HSPD, and present the specific elements that you think have most improved our ability to prevent, protect, respond, and/or recover from terrorism. If you could choose to implement one other HSPD directive, which directive would it be, and why?

In reading each of the Homeland Security Presidential Directives (HSPD) 1-10 I found each of the directives has its equal share of importance in comparing one to the other. The directives begins with establishing who is responsible for what area in the first directive and moves to securing the nations borders, to establishing a system with one vocabulary for Federal, State, and local government to use; to policies and procedures on how to handle weapons of mass destruction. It doesnt stop there. Directive-5 begins with policies on how to handle domestic incidents, to directive-6 on integration and use of screening information; to critical infrastructure identification, priorization, and protection. The directive continue with directive-8, national preparedness, to the defense of the United States Agriculture and Food, and finally directive-10 biodefense for the 21st century. After reading all of the 10 Presidential Directives, even though equal in importance, there are three directives I found to be most important: Directive-1; Directive-4; Directive-10. The Directive-1 is called the Organization and Operation of the Homeland Security Council and the title speaks for itself. The directive introduces three committees and their responsibilities and tasks. This establishes a foundation on the war against terrorist by having each Federal, State, and local government knowing and understanding their role in the event of preventing, protecting, responding, and/or recovering from a terrorist organization. In one of the committees, the Homeland Security Council Policy Coordination Committees introduces eleven functional areas for the committee to create policies within in order to fight terrorism. The eleven areas were Detection, Surveillance, and Intelligence; Plans, Training, Exercises, and Evaluation; Law Enforcement and Investigation; Weapons of Mass Destruction Consequence Management; Key Asses, Border, Territorial Waters, and Airspace Security; Domestic Transportation Security; Research and Development; Medical and Public Health Preparedness; Domestic threat Response and Incident Management; Economic Consequences; and Public Affairs. The Directive-4 is called the National Strategy to Combat Weapons of Mass Destruction and the details of this directive is to take advantage of the technology of the world and use it to protect and prevent weapons of mass destruction from ending up in

the wrong hands. This directive has three principle pillars: Counterproliferation to Combat WMD Use, Strengthened Nonproliferation to Combat WMD Proliferation, and Consequence Management to Respond to WMD Use. Counterproliferation to Combat WMD Use explains how the U.S. military and civilian agencies will be trained to deter and defend against a full range of possible WMD employment scenarios. Strengthened Nonproliferation to Combat WMD Proliferation takes traditional measures and uses them to other states and introduce them for a result of less threatening from terrorist organizations to the state. These traditional measures were diplomacy, arms control, multilateral agreements, threat reduction assistance, and export controls. Consequence Management to Respond to WMD Use prepared the United States in the event to needing a response to the use of WMD against the United States. Each of these pillars are used on the basis of intelligence collection and analysis on WMD, delivery systems, and related technologies; research and development to improve our ability to respond to evolving threats; bilateral and multilateral cooperation; and targeted strategies against hostile states and terrorists. The Directive-10 is titled Biodefense for the 21st Century. This directive explains a need for the United States to continue to seek measures of improving their technology and intelligence efforts on biological technology. There has been several tasks the government has accomplished in making the 21st Century have a better chance in being prepared for a biological attack. The United States has mobilized biomedical research infrastructure and expanded international research relationships as well as established medical and public health infrastructure that is being revitalized and expanded. Some of the accomplishments the United States has made in this area are expanded international efforts, launched the Proliferation Security Initiative to stem the trafficking in WMD, established the BioWatch program, a network of environmental sensors to detect biological weapons attacks against major cities in the United States, and many others. The three directives each offers the United States chances to protect, prevent, and respond as well as recover from an attack. References U.S. Senate Summary of Legislation to Create the Department of Homeland Security. (2004). Homeland Security Presidential Directive. Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office.

2. Homeland Security Strategy:

Regarding your reading in Chapter 16 of the textbook and The National Strategy for Homeland Security (2002), answer the following questions:

1. Which of the six critical mission areas identified by The National Strategy for
Homeland Security is most important/least important? Is there one we can do without?

The six critical mission areas are intelligence and warning, border and transportation security, domestic counterterrorism, protection of critical infrastructure and key assets, defense against catastrophic threats and emergency preparedness and response. The most important critical mission area was intelligence and warning. This area is important because with information the number of terrorist attacks can be avoided and deterred. The most least important critical mission area would be the protection of critical infrastructure and key assets. Each infrastructure should be treated on the same level because of the potential for a terrorist organization to use it for destruction. Even though the protection of critical infrastructure and key assets is the least important it is important and is needed. There is no critical mission area not needed to ensure the protection, prevention, response, and recover from a terrorist attack for the United States and allies. 2. Which other strategy document released during the period of 9/11/01 2004 do you
think is important, and why?

The National Strategy to Secure Cyberspace is important in my book for the same reasons for monitoring communications. Cyberspace poses a huge threat to the infrastructure of the United States as well as the nations allies. The cyberspace needs directions for the federal departments and agencies involved in cyberspace security. This area need to be protected just like a nuclear power plant.