Meet Counter-Terrorism and Counter-Intelligence Expert Dale Watson
Watson talks about some of the challenges facing counter-terrorism efforts today and how Booz Allen is helping law enforcement and homeland security clients meet those challenges.
Dale Watson, Senior Executive Advisor at Booz Allen, has almost three decades of experience in law enforcement, counter-terrorism (CT), and counterintelligence (CI). After 25 years with the FBI, Watson retired as the Executive Assistant FBI Director for CT and CI. He has been involved with every major terrorist investigation since the 1990s, including the first World Trade Center attack, the Oklahoma City bombing, the Khobar Towers Air Force barracks bombing, the USS Cole bombing, the September 11, 2001, World Trade Center and Pentagon attacks, and the anthrax attacks in the same year. Watson talked with boozallen.com about some of the challenges facing counter-terrorism efforts today and how Booz Allen Hamilton is helping law enforcement and homeland security clients meet those challenges.
boozallen.com: You’ve really seen some action.
Watson: Yes, there’s not too much I haven’t experienced in CT and CI. I had a great career at the FBI. What finally got me was sleep deprivation.
boozallen.com: Please share with us some of the challenges you see in counter-terrorism now, post-9/11.
Watson: The biggest challenge is staying focused on both CT and CI, especially in the cyber area, and keeping the American people attuned to that. It’s natural—the further we get from 9/11 without another attack—to turn our attention to other issues. But the threat has not diminished. Part of staying focused is educating the public. And we also need to ensure we have the resources—people, technology, budget—to support the continued drive against the threat.
boozallen.com: How is the push for CT and CI affecting law enforcement agencies and procedures?
Watson: Most are going through a tremendous culture change as a result of CT and CI. The traditional role of law enforcement is catching criminals, solving crimes. It’s a different mindset to track down a bank robber, for instance, after a crime has already been committed. But in counter-terrorism you’re trying to understand where a threat may come from before the attack, and it could come from anywhere. Counter-terrorism requires you to anticipate a crime in order to deter it, rather than tracking down criminals after a criminal act. That’s a large cultural change to go through. Law enforcement’s work now is not simply related to criminal cases but to collecting intelligence about the threats we face. And agencies are trying to figure out what that means. What are they looking for? What are they supposed to report back?
boozallen.com: How is Booz Allen helping with that culture change?
Watson: Right now we’re helping a law enforcement agency streamline its security process to make it more effective and efficient. We’ve analyzed the way it handles security clearances and made some recommendations for improvement, such as changing paper forms to electronic forms. The objective is to reduce the number of days it takes for a security clearance. The ability to get people cleared quickly affects the agency across all its programs.
boozallen.com: That sounds like a big program with many facets.
Watson: Absolutely. And it requires a broad range of expertise, including organizational change and business enterprise re-engineering. We’re also engaging the science and technology resources of Booz Allen to help with technical development.
boozallen.com: What else are we helping the government do around counter-terrorism?
Watson: Information sharing is another very important concern. Law enforcement and intelligence agencies have tended not to share information in the past, but CT has to be a coordinated effort. I expect that detecting and preventing the next act of terrorism will start, not with the FBI, but with a Border Patrol agent or an Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent or maybe someone at the state and local level. All of these agencies and personnel have to be able to get and share information and make sure it gets to the right people.
boozallen.com: That’s another culture change, isn’t it?
Watson: That’s a huge one, and also another big challenge we’re helping clients address. For instance, we’re working with another government agency on information sharing and intelligence analysis. We’re helping develop new training procedures that will affect all the government agencies involved with CT and CI, including the Department of Defense. And we’re helping stand up a National Operations Center, as well as state and local fusion centers.
boozallen.com: I’m sure you get asked this all the time, but are we safer now than we were before 9/11?
Watson: I think we are. Certainly we haven’t experienced a major terrorist attack since then. But we’re not done yet. We still have a lot of work to do.
interview posted December 15, 2008
