Assignment

For the SLPs in this course, your assignments will be based on unique scenarios, which have directly impacted Homeland Security. The scenario for the Module 1 SLP as follows:

The U.S. intelligence community (IC) has uncovered and verified a plan by al-Qaida to conduct a major, coordinated attack within the U.S., to be perpetrated within the next 30 days in the month of December. This plan involves the use of twenty suicide bombers, also equipped with automatic weapons, targeting the ten largest shopping malls in the country during the holiday shopping season. The terrorists are believed to already have the weapons and explosives necessary and are also believed to have been living in the U.S. for at least one year.

You are an intelligence analyst working for DHS's Office of Intelligence & Analysis and have been assigned the responsibility of writing a paper for senior DHS management which will provide them the following:

An overview of the target set (names of the malls, locations, annual visitors, and related general information) and their general, overall vulnerabilities, and

Which DHS resident agencies would have a role to play in the prevention of this attack and the unique capabilities each of these agencies would be able to provide for this effort.

Assignments should be 3-5 pages (3 complete pages minimum) double-spaced, not counting the cover or reference page. Paper format: (a) Cover page, (b) Header, (c) Body.

Submit your assignment by the last day of this module.

Relevance-All content is connected to the question.

Precision-Specific question is addressed. Statements, facts, and statistics are specific and accurate.

Depth of discussion-Present and integrate points that lead to deeper issues.

Breadth-Multiple perspectives and references, multiple issues/factors considered.

Evidence-Points are well-supported with facts, statistics and references.

Logic-Presented discussion makes sense; conclusions are logically supported by premises, statements, or factual information.

Clarity-Writing is concise, understandable, and contains sufficient detail or examples.

Objectivity-Avoids use of first person and subjective bias.

References-Sources are listed at the end of the paper.