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After September 11th, it was clear there was an information sharing problem within the Intelligence Community (IC), although it was unclear how to solve the problem. In the minds of many observers, the creation of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and its intelligence components only muddied the waters. Was 'homeland security' a mission or an agency? Could it be both, and if so, who would take the lead? The early turf battles after DHS's creation led one senior DHS official to quip that the DHS intelligence enterprise was largely "on the outside of the Intelligence Community with its nose pressed against the glass."1 The new department struggled with both the CIA and the FBI in "getting answers to 'hot questions.'"2
Following Secretary Michael Chertoff 's Second Stage Review, the intelligence component of DHS headquarters became its own office, the Office of Intelligence & Analysis (OIA). With the feted former CIA veteran Charles Allen as its Chief of Intelligence, OIA set out to ditch its image as "an infant intelligence operation" without a "full-fledged role in the U.S. Intelligence Community."3 Despite these changes and some important departmental successes, such as DHS' being designated to serve as the facilitator of requests from civilian agencies and law enforcement for classified satellite images,4 DHS' role in the Intelligence Community is not without problems. From the perspective of some IC insiders, bureaucratic overlap and infighting remain chief among these problems. The ramping up of the DHS intelligence enterprise might be seen as part of the government's larger response to put more 'players'...