Consolidate US counterintelligence into two powerhouse agencies

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Consolidate US counterintelligence into two powerhouse agencies

For decades, American counterintelligence has failed due to an organizational structure that encourages parochialism and risk-aversion rather than collaboration and bold action. In 2012, National Security Agency and U.S. Cyber Command leader Gen. Keith Alexander said that Chinese cyber espionage was facilitating “the greatest transfer of wealth in history.”

In the years since, America’s response has failed to deter China’s pillaging of U.S. intellectual property and secrets.

Chinese espionage has acquired trillions of dollars worth of American intellectual property. This theft frees money that would otherwise be spent on military research and development. It subsidizes Chinese living standards and invests in diplomatic initiatives that increase China’s influence around the world.

If these advantages are too abstract to motivate an American response, the danger faced by our military service members should focus our attention. China’s J-20 and J-35 fighters are fifth-generation aircraft that were rapidly developed, in part, because of Chinese espionage. In the event of conflict, these fighters pose real risks to American military personnel. Many may die because American counterintelligence couldn’t stop the Chinese from acquiring our sensitive information.

The House and Senate Intelligence Committees both realize the catastrophic nature of the situation. Competing proposals championed by Rep. Rick Crawford (R-Ark.) and Sen. Tom Cotton (R-Ark.) would make significant changes to counterintelligence management. Neither get the issue exactly right.

Concentrating additional counterintelligence responsibilities inside the FBI, a key part of the Senate proposal, should be a non-starter, given the organization’s failure to stem the tide of Chinese espionage. Periodic high-profile arrests don’t negate the shortcomings. Beyond counterintelligence, the FBI is the nation’s lead criminal investigative agency, and their attention is divided among various responsibilities.

The House proposal creates a national director of counterintelligence but doesn’t fundamentally alter how agencies are organized. This is a mistake.

For decades, the U.S. has treated counterintelligence as a law enforcement function and housed it within federal police agencies. The staggering setbacks we’ve suffered illustrate the folly of that decision.

It’s time to consolidate America’s counterintelligence organizations into two agencies, one focused on the requirements of the U.S. military and the other assuming counterintelligence responsibilities from the FBI. The new organization would take its place alongside Britain’s MI5, Australia’s Security Intelligence Organization and other agencies maintained by America’s allies.

A narrowly focused agency isn’t without precedent: The Drug Enforcement Administration is one example. The DEA exists because protecting Americans from illegal drugs is crucial. Halting the loss of sensitive information, ensuring our military can prevail in a conflict, confusing our adversaries and shaping their perceptions is more than crucial. It’s essential for our standing as the world’s dominant power and for the safety and prosperity of the American people.

The unique requirements of the Armed Forces justify the existence of a dedicated organization exclusively focused on their needs. Under the current structure, the Army, Navy and Air Force all maintain their own counterintelligence organizations, and, except for the Army, these are part of multi-purpose law enforcement agencies along the lines of the FBI. Even the Army, which has a dedicated counterintelligence organization, is focused on counterespionage investigations instead of operations and runs the risk of recreating the law enforcement culture that saps operational creativity.

Combining Army, Navy and Air Force counterintelligence into a single agency would facilitate a more effective allocation of limited resources such as surveillance and cyber, which are now mostly controlled by the individual counterintelligence agencies. When the Army, Navy or Air Force dedicate assets to their individual priorities, they aren’t necessarily leveraging them against the counterintelligence activities that matter most to the nation. A combined agency would also allow for broad campaigns that are difficult to coordinate across disparate agencies

Creating two counterintelligence agencies — one focused on the military and one that assumes the FBI’s mission — ensures policymakers aren’t forced to make decisions based on a single agency’s conclusions. The U.S. already uses this model for intelligence analysis. The Central Intelligence Agency and Defense Intelligence Agency often produce independent analysis from the same set of facts.

America’s counterintelligence failure has cost the nation jobs, put the lives of service members at risk, eroded our strategic advantage and emboldened our adversaries. The losses are staggering, but because they occur quietly and out of sight of the American public, there hasn’t been an outcry to fix the problem.

The future is even more critical. Artificial intelligence, quantum computing and other advanced technologies have the potential to fundamentally alter the balance of power, and we can’t afford the type of intelligence failures we’ve suffered in the past.

Major changes are needed. The House and Senate Intelligence committees are right to focus on this issue. The rest of Congress must wake up and support their efforts.

Colin Pascal is a retired Army lieutenant colonel and counterintelligence special agent. He commanded the U.S. Army Special Investigations Detachment, served as chief of human intelligence and counterintelligence for Operation Inherent Resolve and as director of operations for the U.S. Army foreign counterintelligence activity.

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