Author Topic: Spooks on the Rio: U.S. Spy Agencies’ Little-Known Homeland Security Role  (Read 148 times)

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Spooks on the Rio: U.S. Spy Agencies’ Little-Known Homeland Security Role
CIA, DIA, FBI, satellites, military play major parts in U.S.-based globe-spanning network
By Todd Bensman on April 5, 2021

In 2017, an informant for the Texas Department of Public Safety (DPS) inside Mexico reported that three suspected Pakistani al-Qaeda operatives were about to cross the border. The alarming report landed on my desk because I worked for DPS’s Intelligence and Counterterrorism Division, where I managed an analytical team that worked such threat matters alongside federal agencies inside the Austin-based Texas Fusion Center.

Within a few days, U.S. Border Patrol agents picked up three Pakistanis near Laredo and reported it to my team. Per usual with reports of a possible terrorist crossing, red flags zipped up the pole to the governor’s office, who wanted a full assessment — yesterday.

So I, a civilian employee of the State of Texas with a DHS-sponsored security clearance, hopped in a truck with an intelligence officer whose partnership with a local law enforcement worker like me, on U.S. soil, might surprise people. He was with the Defense Intelligence Agency, the U.S. military’s spying and analysis arm. I had been working closely already with the DIA officer for three years on terrorist-infiltration reports like this, and on other matters besides.

https://cis.org/Bensman/Spooks-Rio-US-Spy-Agencies-LittleKnown-Homeland-Security-Role