CAREER: GOVERNMENT

Outsmarting the Terrorists
An FBI agent has developed a high-tech weapon against terror.
By Simón Valentín Tablón

At this moment terrorists are meticulously planning another attack within our borders. This isn’t paranoia; the Department of Homeland Security acknowledges America’s enemies are searching for weaknesses to exploit. For decades, one weakness has been an intelligence disconnect between federal agencies and everyone else: local infrastructures like water and electric companies, local law enforcement, businesses and citizens. Information regarding suspicious activity might not make it to people at the federal or local level who need it most.

But a program designed by FBI supervisory special agent Arturo Fierro will help illuminate that information blackout. Fierro, who has been with the Federal Bureau of Investigation for nearly 20 years, saw a need for change after the terrorist attacks of 9/11. “We had to find a way to share unclassified information, connecting entities that hadn’t been in contact with each other,” he says.

Fierro spent thousands of hours creating the Homeland Security Information Network-Critical Infrastructure (HSIN-CI). It connects federal agencies with local law enforcement, local infrastructures, businesses and citizens. Using computers, cellphones, pagers and faxes, federal authorities can instantaneously send threat warnings while giving members the ability to report suspicious behavior.

HSIN-CI covers half the nation with 40,000 members (200,000 by the end of 2005). Among those members are the FBI and the Secret Service; businesses such as American Airlines, Lockheed Martin, EDS and Brinker International; and local law enforcement agencies and infrastructures.

One of the things Fierro, the national director of HSIN-CI, is proudest of is that the people involved are volunteers. “It’s a responsibility we all share, keeping our country safe from those who want to harm us.”

Roy Condon, formerly EDS vice president and HSIN-CI member, acknowledges the volunteer program’s importance. “In the U.S., 80 percent of the infrastructure is private; banking, energy, airline ticketing. We need a tool that gives us two-way communication, to get information to the local level,” he says. “Whether it’s security of a building or security of the country, you have to know what the threat is. HSIN-CI provides that.”

The program can be used for any threat to our nation. When Hurricane Katrina struck the Gulf Coast, it was used as a cyber warehouse.” More than 50,000 corporations and citizens registered to provide resources to support relief efforts. A listing could be an aircraft, 15 bulldozers, even houses available for use by the displaced.

Retired Marine Corps Gen. Matthew Broderick, director of the Homeland Security Operations Center, and Fierro’s boss, heaps praise on him. “He ... created a program that will keep our nation safer,” he says. Noting the many hours involved, he adds: “I think the moon sets on this guy.”

Fierro is uncomfortable with praise. “This program succeeds because everyone works together; this isn’t a one-man project by any stretch of the imagination.”

Rebuts Condon: “The reality is, we may be on the bus, but Art is driving.”

Those who know him say that, with terror threats still looming over America, Fierro is a good man to have at the wheel. H