Pentagon prepares plan for defending U.S. homeland.

• Author: Kennedy, Harold
• Position: Blueprint For Homeland Security - Cover Story

The Defense Department is working on a comprehensive homeland defense strategy that will detail the Pentagon's emerging role in protecting the United States from terrorist attack.

The study, which is scheduled to be completed late this month, "is going very well," said Paul McHale, assistant secretary of defense for homeland defense. "I have attended nine working group briefings within the past 24 hours," he told National Defense.

The document will outline how the department cooperates with the Department of Homeland Security to safeguard U.S. territory, residents and critical infrastructure against external threats, McHale said. DHS is responsible for securing the nation's borders; protecting air, land and sea transportation, and enforcing immigration laws and regulations.

The Pentagon's role is to stop terrorists in their home bases, such as Afghanistan, or in the air or at sea, before they reach the United States, McHale said. Within U.S. territory, he said, the Federal Posse Comitatus Act prohibits military personnel from engaging in law enforcement activities. As a result, the Defense Department's role is limited to providing support to DHS and other civil authorities, when requested.

Since 9/11, McHale said, the department has implemented "a substantial number of improvements" in its ability to perform these missions.

In 2002, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld recommended--and Congress approved--appointment of an assistant secretary to provide overall supervision of its homeland defense activities. McHale, a former Democrat congressman from Pennsylvania and a colonel in the Marine Corps Reserves, got the job.

During that same year, he explained, the Pentagon activated the U.S. Northern Command, the first combatant command ever assigned to defend the land, sea and air approaches to the United States. In 2003, NORTHCOM achieved full operational capability.

Also in 2003, McHale was assigned responsibility for protecting infrastructure that is considered critical for national defense. "We consolidated critical-infrastructure protection funding within the office of the secretary of defense into a single program, managed by the newly-established defense program office for mission assurance," he said.

The office concentrates upon essential defense-related facilities, including transportation, logistics, financial services, public works, personnel, defense information, space, and intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance. Most of these...