The Intelligence Community, Congress, and Major Reforms. 1. Introduction The United States (U.S.) Congress is responsible for the management and oversight of all U.S. intelligence agencies. The U.S. Congress authorizes funds for intelligence programs (Rosenbach and Paritz¬¬, “Confrontation or Collaboration” 18). As of today, the two congressional committees responsible for intelligence oversight are the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence (SSCI), and House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence (HPSCI). The congressional committees were first established in the 1970s. Although the intelligence committees are in direct support of the intelligence communities, there have been controversies and confrontation between the two. These confrontations have affected the relationship between the two entities. From World War II (WWII) to the end of the Cold War, intelligence flaws contributed to reforms being implemented, however not all of the reforms worked. Reforms seldomly assist and most of them were disregarded. The reforms implemented, contributed significantly to the intelligence community. These reforms have shaped how the intelligence community conduct intelligence activities and contributes significantly to the policy and guidance for intelligence activities. By understanding the policy and procedures and how they came about in the intelligence community, individuals will be able to identify the important role intelligence plays in national security. 2. Congressional Oversight The Watergate Scandal involved individuals wiretapping phones and stealing secret documents inside the office of the Democratic National Committee (DNC).On June 17 1972 the individuals were caught and they were connected to President N... ... middle of paper ... ...cting, analyzing, and disseminating of intelligence to the United States Government. It gives Congress the ability to make sure the intelligence agencies within their jurisdiction are abiding by the policies and laws set forth by the United States and the United States Constitution. Major Reforms in the Intelligence community are, unfortunately, a result from mishaps, flaws, and unforeseen events. However these incidents have only contributed and improved our intelligence activities and procedures. There are some instances whereby the U.S. made improvement in the intelligence community without it resulting from an intelligence mishap. The U.S. have the capabilities to improve its intelligence community and this should be an ongoing procedure in order to protect itself against the four counterintelligence threats: terrorism, espionage, sabotage, and subversion.
Since, as he establishes, leadership’s political priorities were critical to the ultimate decision in the CIA’s actions, the degree to which the CIA actually concentrated on this mission of collection and analysis depended on the perceived threats from the top. Consequently, the actual level of reliable analysis deteriorated as demonstrated by the example of ORE analysists who were “normatively risk averse” and trying to “get it right,” and provide analysis that fit into the view of their leadership. Lacking trust in their analysists’ conclusions, the CIA proved unable to supply reliable intelligence and forge “collaboration and integration.” Rather than addressing institutional problems the CIA developed a pattern that continued throughout its entire history. Even though it refers to the Reagan era, Immerman’s conclusion that in a time of crisis the CIA deemed that they “required a change in leadership more than an institutional adjustment,” could easily apply to any other period. This application of psychology to history while enlightening does detract from the reader’s understanding of a formation of a CIA “culture” that limited its intelligence analysis efficiency. Without this fundamental comprehension of a CIA “culture,” some of Immerman’s later
“President Bush has stated that about a hundred detainees were held under the Central Intelligence Agency secret detention program, about a third of whom were questioned using “enhanced interrogation techniques. The CIA has a way of very publicly blowing their cover seeming to pop up wherever turmoil, and political problems arise. The CIA exists to prevent threats, its operations involve covert actions or spying through various means to gather critical intelligence data. The CIA dates back to 1947. The qualifications and skills are above average. The job of the CIA is to anticipate and quickly assess rapidly evolving international developments and their impact, both positive and negative, on US policy concerns. When researching the career of
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.
After World War II American intelligence had the need to be transformed. The inexperience along with bureaucracy and poor coordination among American intelligence officers obligated the United States intelligence community to change dramatically in order to confront the new challenges that emerged after the end of WWII. From Early America through WWI the intelligence system of the United States of America was involved in operations in which they had to construct intelligence systems virtually from scratch (Andrew 1995). Human intelligence was already developed, but with certain limitations and other intelligence disciplines were underdeveloped and very seldom sophisticated. After WWI America recessed and settled in a period of peace. The United States faced no threat to its security from its neighbors, from powers outside of the Western Hemisphere (Lowenthal 2006). That caused a visible absence of intelligence activities, leaving America out of sight for any international conflicts; the United States of America focused and limited its activities beyond its own borders. In later years the Japanese attack to Pearl Harbor, America rushed to reactivate their military forces, moving from a passive country to full participation into a another international conflict; WWII. As a consequence, the United States engaged in activities that improved its intelligence system increasing its capabilities needed to address seriously the future threats of the Cold War.
As technology continues to advance at lightning speed, the world as we used to know it is beginning to disappear. Publically available data has replaced much of the espionage tactics that the CIA depended on after WWII and into the Cold War. Information that used to take years to obtain through covert missions is now readily available on social media, commercial databases, or through Signals intelligence (SIGINT). As the world becomes more technologically advanced and intelligence sources display new opportunities, the Intelligence Community (IC) has been there to exploit the data to gain the upper hand on the enemy, and support decision makers. Advancements in technology have made the IC what it is today, however, the path of learning the correct methods of exploitation is littered with abuses. In the 1950’s and 60’s, the CIA’s newest technology was a proposed mind control drug, and project MK-ULTRA was born. The Central intelligence Agency (CIA) performed rogue tests on an unknowing public without their knowledge and severely tainted the image of the agency. In 2013, the public found out about the National Security Agency’s (NSA) Top Secret PRISM program that obtained the phone and internet records of the public without their consent. These two programs were separated by decades, yet the similarities are undeniable. Both MK-ULTRA and PRISM resulted in intelligence oversight reforms aimed at managing these types of operations before they occur. While the government does not always have the ability to foresee how advancements in technology will affect the public, intelligence oversight mechanisms over the past 20 years provide the necessary safeguards that are needed to protect each American’s privacy, provide for th...
The Department of Homeland Security faces challenges of failure to coordinate and cooperate in the latest fight against computer crimes as well as more general intelligence-gathering operations. (...
...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.
The National Security Agency (NSA) is considered to be one of the largest components so the U.S intelligence community stands. It is primarily responsible for gathering intelligence report from detailed communications with the active involvement of the various intelligence tools. It was established in 1952 from the code breaking effort adopted by the handful of military officers and civilians and by and by and by the agency grew in stature and marked its position to gain the role of signal intelligence which is also known as SIGNIT. All of this has resulted from the initiatives taken by the congress and actually it is the congress that helped in providing it the required framework required NSA to carry out its various activities and the enacted laws skilfully guides the limits of NSA. From the perspective of electronic surveillance of US persons and also they are supporting and taking due notice of the public pertaining to the issues at NSA and the related reforms that are directed to make NSA more and more equipped in meeting up with the quotidian technical as well as geopolitical challenges. At present, NSA is constantly coming across multitude of challenges and as well as seeing through a difficult operational environment that brings in certain limitations to its work areas like spending levels for intelligence reports into queries for the future prospects of NSA. The European Parliament has also came forward highlighting the interest of the public who allege that the US along with few other countries are constantly involved in systematic electronic eavesdropping so as to be able to launce the commercial interest of US operations in full effect. (Linda B. 1999)
The NSA or the National Security Agency, is “the largest intelligence agency in the US, which is responsible for collecting and analyzing communications and signals intelligence, plus cybersecurity” ( MacAskill, Borger, and Greenwald par. 1-2). Since its inception, “the very existence of the National Security Agency was not revealed more than two decades after its establishment in 1952” ( MacAskill, Borger, and Greenwald par. 1). and since “its structure and activities remain largely unknown. Hence its wry nickname: No Such Agency” ( MacAskill, Borger, and Greenwald par.1). “Once President Harry Truman established the NSA, its purpose was to collect data and information across the country and internationally. The task originally gi...
One of the main failures of law enforcement and intelligence agencies identified by both the authors of “The Cell” and Senator Richard Shelby was that the F.B.I. and C.I.A. acted in competition with one another to produce results, as opposed to in centralized collaboration. Gladwell points out that the intelligence community was structured in this manner in response to the failures of the Bay of Pigs operation, which had been based on highly centralized intelligence gathering. In turn, the structure of intelligence agencies at the time of the Bay of Pigs was in response to the failure of decentralized intelligence to identify the threat of an attack on Pearl Harbor. The iterative cycle of intelligence failures and subsequent reform efforts ignores the premise that the failures do not represent evidence of the limitations of intelligence agencies, but rather the limitations of intelligence itself. As Gladwell states, “in our zeal to correct what we believe to be the problems of the past, we end up creating new problems for the
The United States has endured numerous security breaches and high security threats over the past two decades. After the attacks on 9/11, the office of Intelligence became a vital source in retrieving sensitive data and tracking down potential terrorists and their networks which could pose a threat to the American people and then forwarding that vital information to the Department of Homeland Security and other government agencies. Intelligence became a key role in “assessing threats to critical American infrastructures, bio-and nuclear terrorism, pandemic diseases, threats to the borders to the nation, and radicalization within American society” (Randol, 2009, p. 7). The sharing of homeland security intelligence has become a precedence for Congress and the government. Our nation must be one step ahead of any potential terrorists that want to harm our turf. Within this text the capabilities and limitations of both domestic and foreign intelligence in supporting homeland security efforts will be explained;
According to one source, after September 11, 2001, intelligence budget grew more. But now we are in another cycle of budget cut again. It is said President Obama proposed the budget amount of $52.6 billion for fiscal year 2013 to fund the National Intelligence Program. This budget amount is said to be less than the $55 billion sought last year. The unstable budget is believed to be hampering U.S. intelligence missions. As the budget pressure mounted, the redundancy in US intelligence increased too, according to the same source. With the budget deficits, the DIA budget didn’t authorized to expand its payroll. It is said DI...
Tidd, J. M. (2008). From revolution to reform: A brief history of U.S. intelligence. The SAIS
...ence that is attained by the CIA is vital to the decisions made by top U.S. officials.
Counterintelligence (CI) is defined as, “information gathered and activities conducted to identify, deceive, exploit, disrupt, or protected against espionage, other intelligence activities, sabotage, or assassination conducted for or on behalf of foreign powers, organizations or persons, or their agents, or international terrorist organizations or activities. ” The citizenry of the United States on the U.S. Government is the focus of the examination of counter intelligence of citizenry on its national government. Data collected and research performed by James Riedel seeks to establish the citizens as a network of spies on the U.S. Government. The spying of citizens on the government is referred to as “espionage” . Counter Intelligence as acts of espionage committed by U.S. citizens is described by Riedel as short in duration and “poorly paid” .