WASHINGTON – In November 2012, Jeh Johnson, who was then the Pentagon’s general counsel, let himself speculate in a speech about al-Qaeda, “How will this conflict end?” He foresaw a “tipping point” at which U.S. officials might be able to say that the group had been “effectively destroyed.”
That was then. Nearly three years later, al-Qaeda and other toxic terrorist groups have metastasized. Johnson is now secretary of homeland security and has responsibility for protecting America against attack. Rather than imagining an end to the terrorist campaign, Johnson must re-enlist American citizens – and a weary government bureaucracy – to fight the next rounds and keep the country safe.
Maintaining public unity is difficult late in the Obama presidency, when the federal government often seems overwhelmed and unable to galvanize popular support. Johnson watched the Twin Towers fall on Sept. 11, 2001, from his office in midtown Manhattan, and he remembers the national resolve that followed. The fierce partnership between the public and the government back then, when every doorstep seemed to display an American flag, is now badly frayed.
Across the landscape of problems that Johnson’s agency must manage, there is seeming disarray. The Transportation Security Administration, which is part of DHS, has become fodder for late-night comedians after a report this month that its inspectors failed 95 percent of the time to detect concealed weapons and explosives.
But TSA is just the beginning of Johnson’s management problems. He oversees the Secret Service, which has stumbled through a series of security lapses and seeming cover-ups. He oversees public-private coordination of cybersecurity at a time of unprecedented cyberattacks. And he’s trying to convince technology companies to cooperate with a federal government to which Silicon Valley has become nearly allergic after the Edward Snowden revelations.