America’s international supremacy originates from the hard work of her agencies at home which provide a strong foundation for security and international diplomacy. One of these security agencies is the National Security Agency, or NSA. “By 2008, the NSA had become the largest, most costly, and most technologically sophisticated spy organization the world has ever known” (Bamford 1). The National Security Agency is a beneficial government program and a core component of protecting America from terrorist attacks.
The National Security Agency has a relatively short history compared to many other government agencies. Years before the creation of the NSA, the first security services in the world were established in various departments of the U.S. military (“Pre-1952 Historical Timeline”). The first establishment was the U.S. Navy Code and Signal Section beginning in 1916 (“Pre-1952 Historical Timeline”). These began during World War I in order to assist with code-breaking and intelligence. The Army established its own intelligence section called the U.S. Army Code and Cipher Section in 1917 (Pre-1952 Historical Timeline”). As communication means advanced and the need for intelligence increased, the Navy created the Radio Intelligence Office in 1924 (Pre-1952 Historical Timeline”). The first direct predecessor of the NSA was the Signal Intelligence Service, formed in 1929 (Pre-1952 Historical Timeline”). In 1943, the Signal Intelligence Service was renamed the Signal Intelligence Agency (“A History of the NSA”). The Signal Intelligence Service formed the Army Security Agency in 1945 which President Truman made into the National Security Agency in 1952 (“A History of the NSA”).
The modern National Security Agency, post 9/11, has many res...
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The mission and values of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) is up held with strong Constitutional values. Over the years since the FBI was created in 1908 by Attorney General Charles Bonaparte during the Presidency of Theodore Roosevelt. As a progressive during this time period Bonaparte applied his philosophy to forming the FBI with several corps of agents. His thought was that these men should have expertise and not political connections. With the U.S. Constitution based on “federalism” a national government with jurisdiction over matters that cross boundaries, such as interstate and foreign affairs.
Prados, John. Safe for Democracy The Secret Wars of the CIA. Chicago, IL: Ivan R Dee, Publisher, 2006.
Host: On September the 11th 2001, the notorious terror organisation known as Al-Qaeda struck at the very heart of the United States. The death count was approximately 3,000; a nation was left in panic. To this day, counterterrorism experts and historians alike regard the event surrounding 9/11 as a turning point in US foreign relations. Outraged and fearful of radical terrorism from the middle-east, President Bush declared that in 2001 that it was a matter of freedoms; that “our very freedom has come under attack”. In his eyes, America was simply targeted because of its democratic and western values (CNN News, 2001). In the 14 years following this pivotal declaration, an aggressive, pre-emptive approach to terrorism replaced the traditional
With the introduction of the internet being a relatively new phenomenon, the act of cyber espionage is not something that has been properly acknowledged by society. The American Government has done a stand up job of keeping its methods in the shadows and away from the eyes of its people since its documented domestic surveillance began on October 4th, 2001; Twenty three days after the Twin Towers fell President George Bush signed an order to begin a secret domestic eavesdropping operation, an operation which was so sensitive that even many of the country's senior national security officials with the...
Weiner, Tim. Legacy of Ashes: The History of the CIA. New York: Doubleday, 2007. Print.
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.
Over the course of the history of the United States of America, the country has had struggles with its own borders and the protection of those borders. Illegal immigration is a big problem and the smuggling of drugs, weapons, and cash over our borders into our country has evolved into a bigger problem. The United States has over seven-thousand miles of border to cover each day. That is quite a bit of land, but the only problem with this is there is a lack of manpower to cover every single mile of border. The US shares its borders with Canada and Mexico. All along these borders are small communities and cities that are occupied by US citizens. This means that these cities and communities require the protection of our Homeland Security Agency.
Citizens feeling protected in their own nation is a crucial factor for the development and advancement of that nation. The United States’ government has been able to provide this service for a small tax and for the most part it is money well spent. Due to events leading up to the terrifying attacks on September 11, 2001 and following these attacks, the Unites States’ government has begun enacting certain laws and regulations that ensure the safety of its citizens. From the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) of 1978 to the most recent National Security Agency scandal, the government has attempted and for the most part succeeded in keeping domestic safety under control. Making sure that the balance between obtaining enough intelligence to protect the safety of the nation and the preservation of basic human rights is not extremely skewed, Congress has set forth requisites in FISA which aim to balance the conflicting goals of privacy and security; but the timeline preceding this act has been anything but honorable for the United States government.
VandenDolder, Tess. "You Had One Job to Do: The NSA Doesn't Actually Stop Terrorism." Politics News: Does the NSA Actually Prevent Terrorism? N.p., 14 Jan. 2014. Web. 5 Feb. 2014.
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United Sttes. Central Intelligence. Operations. By Richard Helms. United States Government. 14 Apr. 2013 .
The National Security Agency is a government run service. It is responsible for the international surveillance, deciphering, collection, analysis, and translation of information and data for foreign intelligence and counterintelligence purposes. This agency has recently had their whistle blown by Edward Snowden, a former CIA employee. Snowden released files on operations such as PRISM, a program that gives access to servers frequented by many Americans. This encroachment shocked the nation.