A Last Look Back at the Boston Tragedy

Warning:  this is going to be a bit of a rant.

It has been three weeks since the tragic bombings at the Boston Marathon.  During that time we have wept with those who were injured or who lost loved ones...and rejoiced in the tracking and capture of those responsible for this heinous crime.  

Unfortunately, this period has also been one for recrimination.  Several news outlets and elected officials have resurrected that old saw that we saw back in 9/11:  intelligence failure.  Why didn't we know?  Why didn't we prevent the attack?  Information began to surface about Russia sending alerts to US official regarding the activities of the suspected terrorists;  did we follow up?   Did we do enough?  If not, why not?

I remember the first time I was confronted with the "intelligence failure reflex" in conversation.  Working in security (and having worked in the intelligence arena in past lives),  I used to avoid this conversation because it would be a source of annoyance for me.  Finally, an acquaintance notice my ire and pressed me into commentary.  Here's the scenario I gave them in response...

Say you're an intelligence agent working for our government.  You have credible intel that there's going to be an attack in Arizona (where I live) in the next 90 days.  You know that the folks planning this attack are located somewhere within Arizona State University (the largest university in the nation) in some capacity.  Your job is to gather enough credible intelligence to preempt this attack.  

You have certain tools in your toolbelt:

• We have technologies that will take imagery of certain areas and people, but you need to tell us where to point this technology.  If you give me 24 hours notice, I'll task the resources where you want me to, but it'll take an additional 48 hours after that to analyze the data and render you a report.
• We also have technologies that'll allow you to intercept technical data of multiple types.  We can suck up this data en masse, but we need you to tell us who to focus on and look for.  Again, it'll take us 48 hours to cull through any data we've collected to find the specific targets you give us and render a report.

You are also at a bit of a disadvantage:

• ASU has three large campuses that are geographically disperse.  This doesn't include its online presence and its satellite presence.  We don't know which of these campuses/presences is relevant to your investigation...or even if it's only ONE campus versus multiple ones.
• You're in your late 40's (as am I), so you aren't exactly in the same age demographic as a goodly portion of the student population.  This'll limit your infiltration options as well as your interactions with the student population (nothing like a large almost-50-year-old black man hanging out in the student union to shut down conversation amongst the co-eds :) ).

That's your mission.  Good luck!

Now here's the real kicker:  under similar circumstances -- usually with the hindrances of language and ethnicity -- our intelligence and law enforcement professionals stop terrorist attacks and heinous crimes every single day.  Analysts and agents sort through literally thousands of leads daily and successfully interdict foreign and domestic terrorism daily.  During my time in the service, I was personally involved (in very small part) in preventing at least seven terrorist incidents on foreign soil...and I freely admit that my jobs (and skills) were mundane and unexciting.

Am I saying that the bureaucracy is perfect?  No.  Am I saying that mistakes aren't occasionally made?  Not at all. What I am saying, though, is that our underpaid, overworked, and unappreciated law enforcement and intelligence brethren who stand in the gap against seemingly insurmountable odds deserve more that armchair quarterbacking and the continued perception of incompetence others are attempting to heap upon them.  As security professionals we can relate to this situation every time there is a breach or exposure;  let's take a moment to support our fellow Warriors of the Light in different professions who stand in gap daily

*Deep Breath*  Okay...am done ranting.  If you'd like a more articulate explanation as to why tth tragedy in Boston was not an intelligence failure, give this article a read.  Thanks for listening!