Master of Intelligence
A career counterterrorism expert returns to the White House.
RAND BEERS ’64
JO HANNAH ’09 & SUSANAH ’10 HOEHN
TERRY PLANK ’85
ALEX BLUMROSEN ’82
CHARLES TRUMBULL ’02
CHRISTINA STOLTZ ’06
TWO FEARS KEEP BEERS UP AT NIGHT. The first is the threat of murderous extremists in the United States, such as Boston Marathon bombing suspects Dzhokhar and Tamerlan Tsarnaev. “we didn’t see it coming," he says, allowing that russian intelligence advised the FBI to keep an eye on Tamerlan. “The russians weren’t entirely forthcoming about what they were warning us about.”
Given the information to which he now has access as deputy assistant to the president for homeland security, it’s amazing Beers gets any sleep at all. Welcoming a recent visitor, he explains he’s just finished a conference call with health officials around the world to discuss pandemics—one of many threats he must monitor. Sitting at his desk, he nods toward his com- puter: “The screen in front of me is full of unclassified infor- mation, but I can press a button and it becomes classified. all of a sudden i’m in a top secret information system—the entire range of clas- sified information available on the In- ternet—pretty much everything.” at the U.S. Department of Homeland Security he would need to go to another room to access classified information or depend on others to bring him items. Working for the president, it’s all a mouse click away.
The second concern keeping Beers awake at night in- volves cybersecurity. “americans are at risk from criminals seeking to steal their personal information to make money,” he says. This will continue to get worse, he predicts, and beyond that is the potential for cyberwar and cyberattacks.
In a way Beers has been confronting threats since he left Hanover. The Washingtonian attended Dartmouth as part of Navy ROTC, and after graduation was commis- sioned as a Marine. From May 1966 until January 1968 he was in Vietnam, the last half year as a rifle company commander. “i got shot at the whole time i was there, but i was only in a shooting situation the last six months,” he says. After graduate school in military history at the Uni- versity of Michigan he entered the foreign service, where he spent 12 years.
This is not Beers’ first tour in the white house. he served on the U.S. National Security Council staff under President George H.W. Bush as director for counterterror- ism and counternarcotics, under President Bill Clinton as director for peacekeeping and then as special assistant to the president and senior director for intelligence programs. President George W. Bush appointed him special assistant and senior director for combating terrorism, but that ended when Beers, an opponent of the decision to invade Iraq, decided he could not in good conscience continue serving in that role. After dropping out he worked on the 2004 campaign of John Kerry and was ultimately brought back into government via Team Obama.
“The health issue is just one of a number of issues i deal with,” Beers tells DAM, rattling off a list that includes Mexico and drug trafficking, immigration and the govern- ment’s emergency response to, say, february snowstorms. and although he won’t be quoted talking about edward Snowden or the National Security Agency surveillance programs snowden brought to the public’s attention, Beers isn’t displeased with the fact that society is debating sur- veillance and the general subject of liberty versus security. “our national security comes from the people who do it, from the private, first class, in Afghanistan to the border patrol agent in arizona to the president,” Beers says. “They merit the support and respect of the american people.”
Beers has now advised four consecutive presidents.
Beers isn’t displeased that society is debating the subject of liberty vs. security.
JAKE TAPPER is chief Washington, D.C., correspondent for CNN and anchor of The lead with jake Tapper.
