The FBI needs to strengthen its intelligence programs and how it shares information, according to a new government report.
Though the Federal Bureau of Investigation has made intelligence advances over the years, so have the threats to national security — and the building of key intelligence programs to combat them lag behind market advances, the 9/11 Review Commission finds in a report released Wednesday.
“This imbalance needs urgently to be addressed to meet growing and increasingly complex national security threats, including from adaptive and increasingly tech savvy terrorists, more brazen computer hackers and more technically capable global cyber syndicates,” the report says.
The commission was established by Congress in January 2014 with the goal of assessing how the FBI has responded to recommendations made by the 9/11 Commission.
Though the FBI has made important progress in building a “specialized and integrated national security work force,” it must accelerate its efforts, write commissioners Bruce Hoffman, Edwin Meese III, and Timothy J. Roemer.
One example is decentralized terror networks and militias, which have a growing number of foreign fighters — including U.S. citizens.
“Extremists, who are now inspired through social media and recruited on the Internet, increasingly pose a domestic threat given the propaganda and encouragement emanating from overseas to carry out attacks at home,” the report says.
The report also recommends the FBI continue to work on how quickly and effectively it is able to share information with federal agencies — such as the Department of Homeland Security and the Office of the Director of National Intelligence — as well as state and local law enforcement agencies.
And as global threats continue to evolve, so must the FBI, the report recommends.
“Everything is moving faster,” the report concludes.
