DHS gathers private experts for Homeland Intelligence Experts Group

The U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) established the Homeland Intelligence Experts Group this week, assembling experts from the private sector to advise on federal intelligence efforts.

Former senior intelligence officials, journalists, and human rights advocates join the assembly, including: 

• John Bellinger (Former Legal Advisor, Department of State and National Security Council)
• John Brennan (Former Director, Central Intelligence Agency)
• James Clapper (Former Director of National Intelligence)
• Rajesh De (Former Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General for Legal Policy and NSA General Counsel)
• Thomas Galati (Former NYPD Chief of Intelligence and Counterterrorism)
• Tashina Gauhar (Former Associate Deputy Attorney General and Deputy Assistant Attorney General, National Security Division at the Department of Justice)
• Asha George, Former Subcommittee Staff Director, House Committee on Homeland Security
• Karen Greenberg (Director, Center on National Security at Fordham University School of Law)
• Emily Harding (Former Deputy Staff Director, Senate Select Committee on Intelligence)
• Paul Kolbe (Former Operations Officer, CIA)
• David Kris (Former Assistant Attorney General, National Security Division, DOJ)
• Michael Leiter, Partner, Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom (Former Director, National Counterterrorism Center)
• Elisa Massimino (Executive Director, Human Rights Institute, Georgetown Law)
• Gregory Nojeim (Senior Counsel and Director, Security and Surveillance Project, Center for Democracy & Technology)
• Francis Taylor (Former Under Secretary for Intelligence and Analysis, DHS)
• Caryn Wagner (Former Under Secretary for Intelligence and Analysis, DHS)
• Benjamin Wittes (Senior Fellow in Governance Studies, The Brookings Institution, and Co-Founder and Editor in Chief of Lawfare)

“The Homeland Intelligence Experts Group is being formed at a time of unprecedented challenge, with the U.S. intelligence enterprise facing threats from a range of malign actors, to include foreign nation-state adversaries, domestic violent extremists, cybercriminals, drug-trafficking cartels, and other transnational criminal organizations,” Under Secretary for Intelligence and Analysis Ken Wainstein said. “The Experts Group will be an invaluable asset as we navigate through this evolving threat and operating environment and continue to strengthen our efforts to protect the Homeland.”

The group will meet four times annually, pulling from the expertise of each member to provide input on complex issues such as terrorism, fentanyl, transborder issues, and emerging technologies. They will report to DHS’s Office of Intelligence and Analysis (I&A) and the Office of the Counterterrorism Coordinator.