Homeland Security Project

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.

The Homeland Security Project, an initiative of Harvard Kennedy School’s Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs, has announced the appointment of Jeh Johnson, former Secretary of Homeland Security, as the Project’s new non-resident Senior Fellow.

"Donald Trump is already enabling Russia with his lack of action. He doesn't even affirm the assessment by our intelligence agencies that Russia disrupted our elections; in statements, he still caveats the possibility that Russia did it with asides that it could have been others. He appears not to have challenged Russian President Vladimir Putin in any meaningful way when they met at the G20. States and localities have not been given any advice about how to protect their election systems going forward."

A silver lining to all this uproar is possible. NAFTA was never perfect, but neither its game-changing benefits nor its imperfections were ever treated sensibly in public debate. Now, President Trump's intense focus on NAFTA and the willingness of his administration to renegotiate it furnishes an extraordinary opportunity to rebrand North American trade, commerce and security while addressing the issues that were either too hot to handle in the 1990s or didn't even exist then.

"The measure of success in counterterrorism efforts is not simply whether an attack occurred or not. Another measure must be whether fewer people died or were harmed because of the actions of police, fire fighters, emergency managers, public health officials and the voluntary efforts of the public."

"No parent is thinking about raising fearless kids right now. Their kids will be tied to them by their metaphoric leashes for the foreseeable future. That's the real power of this attack: not only are the victims so particularly undeserving, they are also among the most vulnerable in the immediate aftermath when terror like this strikes."

"I've never met Clarke, but based on his inflammatory rhetoric, along with the cloud hanging over his tenure in Milwaukee, I'll just come right out and say it: He’s not fit to serve at the agency tasked with domestic security for all Americans."

Lisa Monaco discusses the pick of Robert Mueller as Special Counsel for the White House investigation on Russia. 

"It is that assault on our norms, processes and constitutional order that make the week we just had so historic. How extraordinary? Clapper began that week testifying the enemy was Russia. He ended it, unwittingly it seemed, by telling us that the enemy was also within."

Countries in North Africa account for some of the largest portions of the nearly 40,000 foreign fighters who have flocked to join Mr. Baghdadi’s murderous cult, as well as the Qaeda affiliate in Syria. Recent worrying trends in Egypt, Libya and Tunisia should make the American government focus on countering the Islamic State’s global expansion and asking: What is the United States’ strategy for ensuring that the current progress in Iraq and Syria is not simply the opening act of a more far-reaching drama involving the Islamic State?