DIRECTOR OF NATIONAL INTELLIGENCE SAYS NEED SEARCH ENGINE FOR HOMELAND SECURITY
Defense Intelligence Undersecretary James Clapper impressed lawmakers during his confirmation hearing to become director of national intelligence (DNI) Tuesday, while emphasizing a need to automate searches of analysis reports for more effective information sharing.
With an intense focus on the power of the DNI and the intelligence community’s reliance on contract workers recently, Clapper had very little opportunity to say anything about how he would reshape the intelligence agencies’ contribution to homeland security if confirmed by the full Senate. But he addressed several matters that have hindered homeland security investigations in recent months.
Answering a question from Sen. Carl Levin (D-Mich.), Clapper stressed that currently no single depository of terrorism information exists for the National Counterterrorism Center (NCTC) to use. “An integrated repository of terrorism data capable of ingesting terrorism data remains necessary to establish a foundation for the application of sophisticated technology tools,” Clapper said.