The Hidden Face of Domestic Intelligence
Matthew Kozma, DHS Undersecretary for Intelligence and Analysis, keeps track of ICE protesters and anti-Trump activists, some of whom Trump calls "domestic terrorists"
He is maybe the highest ranking U.S. intelligence official you’ve never heard of. Yet he’s a key cog in the Trump administration’s controversial campaign to gather and disseminate intelligence on civil liberties activists, anti-ICE protesters, Democratic Party donors and others whom the Trump administration has called “domestic terrorists.”
He is Matthew Kozma, 52, Under Secretary for Intelligence and Analysis at the Department of Homeland Security. I & A, as it’s known, was created in the wake of 9/11 to fill a perceived gap in domestic intelligence collection with the FBI. The office has a broad mandate, from countering domestic threats from foreign terrorist groups like Al Qaeda and the Islamic State to investigating home-grown violent extremists, principally, according to Trump administration officials, “antifa,” which is not really a group but a loosely connected anti-fascist movement. A senior FBI official recently identified it in congressional testimony as the nation’s top terrorist threat, but upon questioning couldn’t answer simple questions about it.
Nevertheless, in December the definition of who is antifa, and what actions qualify to be considered domestic terrorism, was broadened. Attorney General Pam Bondi issued an extraordinary operational blueprint that expanded the definition of domestic terrorism to include “organized doxxing of law enforcement” and “violent efforts to shut down immigration enforcement,” among other activities, which made it easier to label individuals and groups as “antifa.”
“I strongly suspect (I & A) will be very involved in implementation of the order,” Miles Taylor, a former DHS chief of staff in the first Trump administration, told SpyTalk.
