DHS intelligence branch sent 'untrained, inexperienced' intel collectors to Portland, internal review finds

An internal review of the Department of Homeland Security intelligence branch revealed an unprepared and ill-trained workforce was thrown into assisting with intelligence collection amid the civil unrest in Portland, Oregon, in summer 2020, contributing to the gathering and dissemination of intelligence on US journalists there.

Insufficient supervision, improper collection tradecraft and the deployment of "untrained, inexperienced" collectors to Portland was in part to blame for the intelligence office revealing the names of US journalists in several open-source intelligence reports in July 2020, according to the review.

"These intelligence reports were unusual in that they reported on the activities of U.S. journalists engaged in ordinary journalism," the review says.