Ethical Issues: The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA)

These agencies consist of the following along with a brief of each of their mission in order to keep the United States safe from any potential terrorist attacks that may occur and the problems they face:
The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) consists of personnel who are the human intelligence organization of the United States. They provide national security intelligences to senior US policy makers. This is a very important group of individuals and the information they provide is very vital in the constant monitoring of information. In the past they have had many issues such as insuring that they data they are providing is accurate and reliable when its presented to the upper chain of command.
The information they gathered over

the years have been scrutinized and they themselves have admitted to the failures on providing or spreading information that they gathered that could have prevented an attack. According to an article from the New York Times, it mentions that over 20 CIA agents new about two of the terrorist that took part in the 9/11 attacks. The interesting part is that if they knew about these individuals then it should have been reported to their superiors and then briefed to other agencies. This is just one of the mistakes that was overlooked and that is a problem when it comes to intelligence gathering. Other problems when it comes to gathering information are that the agency may consist of not having the proper manning levels or the budget to conduct operations. Another problem was the constant screw-ups that were made public within the organization such as the accusation of spying on other federal government agencies.
The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI). They consist of personnel who help protect American citizens from dangerous threats facing the United States from international and domestic terrorist.
Here is an agency that still cannot get with the program on establishing themselves as a legitimate intelligence branch within the intelligence community. They have solely been focusing on prosecuting potential terrorist instead of sharing information to others. The FBI has a wide range of how they gather information on suspects and cases. They use wire-taps, undercover sting operations and search and seizures to build up enough Intel to be used against someone. The problems they face is similar to the CIA but also having the green light to use wiretaps so they can listen in on conversations that take place of a suspected criminal or terrorist.
The Patriot Act gave them the power to do whatever means necessary to make sure information is gathered, but this has since expired and now a new bill was signed into law to continue the fight against terrorism when it comes to information gathering. . Other issues that plague the FBI are the constant news about how they conduct their operations. They were scrutinized back in 2009 when a teenager from the state of Minnesota went over to Africa and committed a suicide bombing. Since 9/11, they have been conducting numerous operations when it came to Muslim citizens and that according to Farhana Khera, president of Muslim Advocate, she stated,” the F.B.I. was harassing Muslim-Americans by singling them out for scrutiny.” While they were only doing their job, the FBI continues to have challenges on gathering the information that is needed to disseminate and share to other intelligence agencies.
Although there are many others, the two that was talked about previous was to give you an idea on what problems that are faced by both agencies.

There are many problems that all the agencies till face and that is because some American citizens do not like what is going on when it comes to gathering information. Many feel that their rights have been violated and the law needs to be changed and that has also caught the attention of Senators in Washington. This has sparked a trust issue between the American people and the U.S. Intelligence programs. The Senate was trying to renew the NSA spying Authority and Senator Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) stated, “If they come back with that effort to basically extent this for a short term without major reforms like ending the collection of phone records, I do intend to

filibuster.”
Many people think that the intelligence community is prying on their freedom of speech and their rights as citizens. The laws that were signed into place gave the IC the right to monitor without a warrant the telephone calls and emails of citizens and legal residents in the United States. In the Bill of Rights, the Fourth Amendment states that the right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated. There has been a constant battle within the Senate on what is right and wrong when it comes to gathering information and to monitor what activities of possible terrorist personnel or groups that could be operating in the United States and beyond.

The constant problems have plagued the Intelligence Community such as the recent computer glitches that have hit a major airline and the New York Stock Exchange.

Now this is not a direct hit on them for knowing what was going to happen but it puts a spotlight on them when it comes to the average citizen. First thought was how the IC didn’t know or was prepared of such a possible cyber terrorism attack? It’s all speculation on what happened and who knew any information about the "attack". The agencies that make up this unique unit is always under the gun because whatever happens in the United States or abroad and there was not any information provided to prevent them, then heads roll and leads to constant bashing in the media. To switch it up when it comes to gathering information about potential terrorist attacks, one cannot forget that there is a constant uphill battle when it comes to finding out any information about suicide bombers. Now they only have been conducted overseas, but they could also be used to harm American citizens in those Middle East

countries.
Al Qaida has mentioned that they have Lone Wolfs that they could activate on any given notice and these individual can conduct a possible attack once they are ordered by the notorious terrorist group. Suicide bombers have been a constant threat not only to local citizens but they were also used against the military during the wars in the Middle East. Trying to decipher information about such people is something that is a headache because no one will know anything about them until after they carried out their mission. One of the most successful missions of the IC was the fact they prevented the bombing of an airline in 2006 and led to the arrest of multiple persons of interest. They have prevented many attacks that could have created massive casualties and cause a widespread of panic throughout the United States and their allies. The table on the next page shows just how deadly and successful Al Qaida has been towards the United States and Allies: