DHS taps key architect of 9/11 response to oversee domestic counterterrorism efforts

A key architect of the U.S. response to the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks has been tapped to coordinate and amp up domestic counterterrorism efforts, as the federal government reevaluates its approach to combating the threat of violent extremism.

Nicholas Rasmussen, former director of the National Counterterrorism Center (NCTC), is heading to the Department of Homeland Security to oversee counterterrorism prevention, intelligence, policy and other efforts across the department and component agencies like the Secret Service, the Transportation Security Administration and Customs and Border Protection.

DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas announced Rasmussen’s appointment and several new plans in an internal announcement emailed to agency employees on Tuesday and obtained by Yahoo News.

“As the Department’s Counterterrorism Coordinator, Nick will report to the Secretary and serve as the principal counterterrorism adviser to our senior leadership,” the announcement said. “He will lead efforts to coordinate counterterrorism-related activities across DHS and with our interagency partners, oversee the National Terrorism Advisory System, and help advance our participation in Joint Terrorism Task Forces.”

DHS “will also be establishing a task force, overseen by the CT Coordinator and composed of personnel assigned from DHS Components and agencies,” the announcement said. “The task force will support the CT Coordinator’s mission to unify our activities, identify opportunities to enhance our capabilities, and build greater cohesion across the Department to combat targeted violence and terrorism.”

Mayorkas noted that Rasmussen served as director of the National Counterterrorism Center from 2014 to 2017. Most recently, he was the executive director of the Global Internet Forum to Counter Terrorism.

In June, DHS launched an “urgent review” into the department’s efforts to combat domestic terrorism and targeted violence across its agencies and divisions after the deadly attacks in Uvalde, Texas, and Buffalo, N.Y., Yahoo News reported.

The review was conducted to determine if the massive department, established after 9/11 to thwart foreign terrorist attacks, needed to be restructured to counter domestic terrorism threats and acts of targeted violence like mass shootings.

The former counterterrorism coordinator, John Cohen, who left the position in March, said he supports DHS’s appointment of Rasmussen. “Nick’s experience in the intelligence community and as the director of the National Counterterrorism Center will serve him well as he performs the critical role at DHS,” Cohen told Yahoo News.

At the Eradicate Hate Global Summit in Pittsburgh in September, Rasmussen politely declined to confirm rumors circulating at the domestic terrorism prevention conference about his return to government. But in a keynote panel discussion on lessons learned in the aftermath of the Buffalo attack, he provided some clues about his vision.

“Hold your federal government accountable,” he said. “Hold your law enforcement authorities accountable. Hold your tech companies accountable for the environments we are in. But solutions can and will be found on local levels.”

DHS has been highly criticized for not doing enough to help prevent or respond to threats of violence across the nation. Rasmussen acknowledged in an interview last year with Yahoo News' Michael Isikoff that the United States had not focused enough on the rising threat of domestic extremism during his tenure as director of NCTC.

Rasmussen headed the post-911 Countering Violent Extremism programs, led mostly by law enforcement, which were criticized for unfairly targeting Muslim communities. In an interview with Yahoo News in 2020, he spoke candidly about learning from past mistakes and about grappling with his role in sowing mistrust in certain communities where the involvement of the federal government is not welcome.

"In some community groups, there are concerns about targeting Muslim communities, and those concerns are legitimate," he said in late 2020. "That was a problem, and that's something I've grappled with."

Now community and prevention and nonprofit leaders are crying out for help from DHS. That frustration and the need for more action — in the form of resources, funding and guidance — was clearly expressed at the conference in Pittsburgh last month, where DHS Deputy Secretary John Tien, counterterrorism policy and community engagement and prevention program officials held private "listening sessions" with community and nonprofit leaders who work in prevention.

“There was a lot of frustration. It got a bit heated, to be honest,” said one person after the first listening session. “What we know is that DHS is very good at listening — they have been listening for a long time. [What] we want to know is when they will actually start doing something.”

Those feelings were echoed by others who met with DHS during the conference. "Our communities are suffering, our people are dying," said one person. "We are done being listened to, we need to be heard."

Rasmussen urged the conference attendees to continue to hold accountable those in power in government, with roles in domestic terrorism prevention, and to push for action and change.

He moves into his new role later this month.