When people think of intelligence there is a particular agency within the United States Government that has the greatest name recognition. That agency known to most is the Central Intelligence Agency, or as most would recognize as the CIA. Without an in depth knowledge of the CIA many would assume the agency has been around for a long time. Interestingly that is not the case. The United States has been in the intelligence business since 1775 when George Washington paid an unidentified agent to live in Boston and report any secret correspondence on the movement of the British (America Public University, 1996). However. It was not until the National Security Act of 1947 that the Central Intelligence Agency was created as an independent Agency …show more content…
The mission being to preempt threats, further US national security interests, conduct effective covert action, and safeguard national secrets (CIA, 2007, n.p.). In order to accomplish the said mission the CIA must act on behalf of those who need information to make decisions in the best interest of the country. The CIA has five primary duties and or responsibilities: Advise the National Security Council concerning intelligence activities, make recommendations to the National Security Council for coordination of intelligence activities, correlate and evaluate intelligence relating to national security, support existing intelligence agencies with matters of common concern, and any other duties deemed necessary by the National Security Council (Richelson, 2016, p.19). The responsibilities of the CIA are primarily intended to apply to any foreign intelligence gathering, however, Executive Order 12333 permits the CIA to collect “significant” foreign intelligence within the United States so as long as it does not target domestic activities of U.S. citizens or corporations (Richelson, 2016, p.19). The responsibilities of the CIA, while vast, are limited as well. The clear directive to stay away from gathering intelligence within the United States does preclude the agency from tapping into a potential wealth of information. However, these limitation does not preclude other …show more content…
Conversely, there have also been many failures in which the CIA was responsible for. One of the most notable accomplishments of the CIA was the operation that killed Osama Bin Laden. According to the CIA (2013), the intelligence gathering and analysis which led to the discovery of Bin Laden’s compound was spearheaded by the CIA, with cooperation from other intelligence agencies (n.p). This operation can arguably be one of the most significant accomplishments of the CIA. Unfortunately, a success such as the Bin Laden raid is sometimes overshadowed by historical failures. Ironically, the events that led to the success of the Bin Laden raid stemmed from a failure of behalf of the CIA and others in the intelligence community. In the 1990’s the CIA created a unit focused of Bin Laden and realized he was a great threat to the United States (Friedman, 2012). Even with this information the attacks still
In the aftermath of the terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001, the United States was incredibly eager to strike back at the nations thought to be responsible for this horrific tragedy. These attacks were quickly attributed to the terrorist group al-Qa’ida, led by Osama bin Laden, and to the Taliban-run government of Afghanistan, which had provided sanctuary to al-Qa’ida. In response, Washington approved a covert plan led by the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) to directly attack those responsible in their Middle East safe haven. Initiated on 26 September 2001 with the approval of the warlords of the Afghan Northern Alliance, with whom the CIA had formed an intelligence liaison relationship, Operation Jawbreaker resulted in the fall of the Taliban regime, the killing and capture of a significant amount of al-Qa’ida leadership, and elimination of a terrorist safe haven by early December 2001. Moreover, the Taliban’s collapse denied al-Qa’ida a pseudo-nation-state partner, serving to reduce the organization’s sanctuary to areas residing along the Pakistani border. Operation Jawbreaker, one of the first post-9/11 covert operations carried out by the United States in support of its national security interests, had proved successful. Word of the operation’s swift success astounded those back in Washington; dubbed the CIA’s “finest hour,” it signified the first of many victories by deposing the Taliban’s control of Northern Afghanistan.
The organization I have chosen for this essay is CSIS ( Canadian Security Intelligence Service ). CSIS closely resembles The Federal Bureau of Investigation ( FBI ) or British Security Intelligence Service. I have chosen this organization because I have great interest in becoming an employee of CSIS in the future. This essay will provide brief history of CSIS, the responsibilities of CSIS for Canada, and the application process for an entry – level position. These will be further discussed in greater detail as the essay goes on.
For the American intelligence community, George Washington is considered the father of intelligence. The introduction of the intelligence concept and its application in some missions during the early days of America helped America’s Founding Fathers to succeed against t...
The CIA and MKULTRA For many Americans, the 1950s was a docile decade. In U.S. history books, the period is mostly portrayed as a mellow, orderly one, especially in light of the social upheavals that followed in the 1960s. But for the Central Intelligence Agency, the “I Like Ike” years were packed with adventure and action, much of it conducted outside of the public’s view. Few programs were sheltered with more secrecy than the Agency’s mind control experiments, identified together with the code-name MKULTRA. Concerned about rumors of communist brainwashing of POWs during the Korean war, in April 1953 CIA Director Allen Dulles authorized the MKULTRA program, which would later become notorious for the unusual and sometimes inhumane tests that the CIA financed.
When a giant explosion ripped through Alfred P. Murrah federal building April 19,1995, killing 168 and wounding hundreds, the United States of America jumped to a conclusion we would all learn to regret. The initial response to the devastation was all focused of middle-eastern terrorists. “The West is under attack,”(Posner 89), reported the USA Today. Every news and television station had the latest expert on the middle east telling the nation that we were victims of jihad, holy war. It only took a few quick days to realize that we were wrong and the problem, the terrorist, was strictly domestic. But it was too late. The damage had been done. Because America jumped to conclusions then, America was later blind to see the impending attack of 9/11. The responsibility, however, is not to be placed on the America people. The public couldn’t stand to hear any talk of terrorism, so in turn the White House irresponsibly took a similar attitude. They concentrated on high public opinion and issues that were relevant to Americans everyday. The government didn’t want to deal with another public blunder like the one in Oklahoma City. A former FBI analyst recalls, “when I went to headquarters (Washington, D.C.) later that year no one was interested in hearing anything about Arab money connections unless it had something to do with funding domestic groups. We stumbled so badly on pinpointing the Middle East right off the bat on the Murrah bombing. No one wanted to get caught like that again,”(Posner 90). The result saw changes in the counter terrorism efforts; under funding, under manning, poor cooperation between agencies, half-hearted and incompetent agency official appointees and the list goes on. All of these decisions, made at the hands of the faint-hearted, opened the doors wide open, and practically begged for a terrorist attack. So who’s fault is it? The public’s for being
...that had helped the United States to be one of the greatest counties that it is today. Within the agency, there was no communications where they kept information from each other. The CIA agency had no idea what they were doing in regards to central intelligence and they were compromised where the enemies knew about the attack before the attack was fully implemented. These examples prove that some leaders had some positive outcomes for the United States, but the agency from within could not stay united as well as keeping communications about what was going on in the world. I agree with Tim Weiner’s thesis that the United States is one of the greatest countries in the world, but we cannot seem to create a great and efficient spy service to benefit the United States.
...e community have had conflicting views and opposing agendas. Lack of cooperation and communication between intelligence agencies; such as the FBI and the CIA refusing to share information prior to the terrorist attacks of 2001, resulted in limited information and failure on the part of the intelligence community and policy decisions regarding US safeguards against terrorist.
In the past few years the National Security Agency has been all over the news, and not in a good way. Former contractor of the National Security Edward Snowden leaked classified documents to several media outlets on such a scale the world took notice. The day the world learned about the Prism program among others was June, 5, 2013 when Ed Snowden gave the specifics of the programs to The Guardian, and the Washington Post. Ed Snowden turned those secrets over as a member of the NSA but fled the country before the leaks so he would not be imprisoned by the authorities. Immediately after the leaks Ed Snowden became infamous with around the clock watch as to what country would grant his asylum, he currently resides in a Moscow airport pending appeal (Staff, 2013). He claimed he “did not want to live in a society like this” that’s why he decided to turn over states secret for all the world to see (Staff, 2013). Now that you know the man behind the leaks it is time that you find out about the program, and the reach and impact it really had.
The NSA helps to supply the military with weapons and supplies. The NSA also helps protect citizens by providing high tech security. Some of which are approving standards, techniques, systems, and equipment related to the security of National Security Systems (NSA.gov). In addition, the NSA also provides “end-to-end insights into malicious cyber activity, the activities of hostile foreign powers, and cyber best practices” (NSA.gov). Another thing the NSA does is partner with other departments, countries, and companies to help reach goals and provide a good outcome in any circumstance (NSA.gov). Terrorism and cyber threats are big problems towards the United States as well. When the NSA hears or reports any terrorism threats they communicate with national leaders, military, law enforcement and policymakers to discuss solutions. There always is a group of National Security Act workers monitoring surveillance twenty- four seven(NSA.gov).This always ensures extra protection and is always
Nedzi (D-Mich.), Luclen N. “Oversight or Overlook: Congress and the US Intelligence Agency.” A Congressman talk to the CIA senior seminar, November 14, 1979, https://www.cia.gov/library/center-for-the-study-of-intelligence/kent-csi/vol18no2/pdf/v18i2a02p.pdf (accessed January 7, 2014).
Historical Significance: The September 11th, 2001, attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, orchestrated by Al-Qaeda and Bin Laden, were the events that launched the U.S. War on Terrorism. Al-Qaeda’s attack on the United States was carried out by members of radicalized Islamic groups, whose objective was to spread jihad against the secular influence of the West. This tragic event provided the historical b...
Each day the United States faces countless of threats within their borders as well as outside. There are innumerable issues that occur in the world that could help foreshadow events that may occur in the near future and help policy making decisions. An effective way to help predict possible outcomes in the future is the usage of National Intelligence Estimates (NIE). NIE is defined as “authoritative written judgments on national security issues and designed to help US civilian and military leaders develop policies to protect US national security interests”#(National Intelligence Council, 2007). The NIE is the highest-level strategic document generated by U.S. intelligence agencies. How are NIE’s created?
The CIA is one of the U.S. foreign inteligency agencies, responsible for getting and analyzing information about foreign government, corporations, individuals, and reporting such information to the various branches of the U.S. government. The State Department's Bureau or inteligence and reserch and theDefense Department'sdefense inteligence agency comprise the other two. Its headquarters is inLangley, Virginia, across the Potomac River from D.C. The Agency, created in 1947 by President Harry S. Trueman, is a descendant of the Office of stratigic Services(OSS) of World War 2. The OSS was dissolved in October 1945 but William J. Jonavan, the creator of the OSS, had submitted a proposal to President Roosevelt in 1944. He called for a new organization having direct Presidential supervision, "which will procure intelligence both by overt and covert methods and will at the same time provide intelligence guidance, determine national intelligence objectives, and correlate the intelligence material collected by all government agencies." Despite strong opposition from the military, the State Department, and the FBI, Truman established the Central Intelligence Group in January 1946. Later under the National Security Act of 1947, the National Security council and the Central Intelligence Agency were established.
Tidd, J. M. (2008). From revolution to reform: A brief history of U.S. intelligence. The SAIS
Counterintelligence is defined by the “Executive Order 12333 as information gathered and activities conducted to identify, deceive, disrupt or protect against espionage and other activities carried out by foreign states or non state actors” (Lowenthal, 2011, pg. 163). Legally counter intelligence actions are to be documented support for using deceptive actions (Moravej &Diaz, 2007). Counterintelligence to fight terrorism has been in strong effect post the 9/11 attacks. In fact, the agencies that deal with such issues have increased in size, resources and funding. Many of the foreign counterintelligence methods are now adapted to national puposes. In our analysis we will discuss te role of counterintelligence on counter terrorism in the United