Disaster after 9/11 The Department of Homeland Security and the Intelligence Reorganization

Abstract

In reorganizing homeland defense after 9/11, the government had three options: White House control, power sharing between agencies, or congressional control. The option pursued - reorganizing twenty-two separate agencies under a Department of Homeland Security (DHS) reporting to Congress - has resulted in a dysfunctional organization that is understaffed and under funded, while the missions of the agencies involved have been displaced. Many see the biggest failing of DHS as the failure to establish connections within the intelligence agencies. Billions of dollars have been spent to improve intelligence and first responder capabilities, but the most effective measures taken to improve our national security in the event of terrorist attacks have actually occurred outside of the DHS reorganization.