Belfer Center Event Photos: March 11–21

In the span of a week, our nation experienced a torrent of hate-fueled attacks: the slaying of two African Americans in a Kentucky supermarket , the  mail-bomb assassination attempts and the mass slaying in a Pittsburgh synagogue . These attacks tragically demonstrate that domestic terrorism is on the rise as political polarization and hateful echo chambers on social media radicalize people.

As we mourn those who died in Kentucky and Pittsburgh, we should recognize that such tragedies highlight a dangerous counterterrorism gap that has developed over time: an insufficient focus by the federal government on the threat of domestic terrorism.

Deadly diseases like Ebola and the avian flu are only one flight away. The U.S. government must start taking preparedness seriously.

How should law enforcement officials deal with digital data that happens to be stored in a different country? If FBI agents, pursuing a subject who committed a crime in the United States, serve a valid court order on an American company, the government shouldn’t have to wait a year because the company happens to store the information overseas. Likewise, if the London police are investigating a local murder, the fact that they are seeking phone records from a communications provider located in the United States should not block them from doing their job. 

The Aspen Institute launched on Friday its newest strategy group, a cross-sector public-private forum aimed at translating pressing cybersecurity conversations into action. The Aspen cyber group will facilitate robust conversation between 35 experts from both the public and private sectors on how to best address today’s cybersecurity challenges.

Lisa Monaco served as Assistant to the President for Homeland Security and Counterterrorism from March 2013 to the end of the Obama administration. Prior to the White House, Monaco spent 15 years at the Department of Justice, the majority of that time serving as a career federal prosecutor, and in senior management positions in the Justice Department and the FBI. During this period, she served for three years as counsel to and then Chief of Staff at the FBI, helping then Director Robert Mueller transform the FBI after 9/11 into a national security organization focused on preventing terrorist attacks on the United States. From 2011 to 2013, she served as Assistant Attorney General for National Security, the first woman to serve in that position. Monaco is currently a distinguished senior fellow at the Center on Law and Security at the New York University School of Law and a senior national security analyst for CNN.  

Today, the terrorist threat looks much different than it did right before 9/11. The U.S. counterterrorism community has dramatically ramped up its intelligence capabilities. Determined to “connect the dots” in the future, the U.S. government created new agencies and instituted a new paradigm for intelligence—share by rule, withhold by exception—and set up a slew of “fusion centers” and joint task forces to foster interagency cooperation. Borders were hardened, cockpit doors reinforced, and watch lists created. In Afghanistan, the United States overthrew the Taliban regime, which was hosting al Qaeda. Today, despite recent Taliban gains, al Qaeda still does not enjoy free rein in the country. In Iraq and Syria, al Qaeda’s offshoot, the Islamic State (or ISIS), is on the run, thanks to the work of a global coalition assembled in 2014 and U.S.-led air strikes and special operations raids. The group’s Iraqi capital of Mosul fell in July, and its Syrian stronghold in Raqqa is almost certain to follow. Owing to the relentless pressure that the United States and its allies have placed on terrorists’ safe havens, the threat of a complex and catastrophic attack emanating from abroad—although not gone—has diminished. At the same time, however, the threat from homegrown and so called lone-wolf terrorism has increased.

As a close counterterrorism partner of Spain, the United States will be active in the ongoing investigation into the terrorist attack in Barcelona and any connected incidents.

At least 13 people were killed and around 100 people injured in the deadly van attack in Las Ramblas district on Thursday. In a later incident, authorities said that during a firefight between police and terrorists wearing fake explosives in Cambrils, a town south of Barcelona, five suspects were killed and several bystanders and a police officer were injured. And on Wednesday, one person died in an explosion in the town of Alcanar. Spanish police say they believe the incidents are linked.

In the U.S., law enforcement and intelligence agencies will be examining their intelligence traffic and reporting to determine what information to share with Spanish authorities as investigations continue. The Cipher Brief’s Mackenzie Weinger spoke with Lisa Monaco, former Assistant to the President for Homeland Security and Counterterrorism, to get her assessment of the Barcelona attack, the level of collaboration between the U.S. and Spain, and what to watch for in the coming days.