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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Thiessen, Marc A. Courting Disaster: How the CIA Kept America Safe and How Barack Obama Is Inviting the next Attack. Washington, D.C.: Regnery Pub., 2010. Print.
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The National Security Agency/Central Security Service (NSA/CSS) was established in November 1952 to provide a cryptologic organization for the civilian and military leaders of the United States and to provide them with timely information. The National Security Agency (NSA) coordinates, directs, and performs highly specialized activities to produce foreign intelligence information and protect United States information systems through two main missions, Signals Intelligence (SIGINT) and Information Assurance (IA). The Signals Intelligence (SIGINT) mission uses cryptologic machines to break foreign codes to find out what they know and what they are doing. The biggest accomplishment publicly known was when they broke the Japanese military code in World War II and learned that Japan had plans of invading Midway Island. This allowed us to attack and destroy Japan’s superior fleet. With this intelligence, it was said to have shortened the Pacific war by over one year.
The Executive Order Establishing Office of Homeland Security Council puts forth an agenda on countering terrorist acts; it is done to prevent untold a...
Muñoz, Carlo Sink, Justin. "NSA chief claims spying foiled plots." Hill 13 June 2013: 1. Master FILE Premier. Web. 14 Nov. 2013.
After the attacks by the predominantly Saudi extremists on 9-11, the administration of then President George ‘Dubya’ Bush went into overdrive to be seen as proactive in the effort to make sure that the attacks could not be repeated. With the passage of The USA Patriot Act, the then President Bush asserted, we would be handed our intelligence and law enforcement officers the required tools and abilities to fight this new and ‘present danger.’ The document lays out the assertions of the President as of October 26, 2001 as given during a speech at the White House. Also included are the contrasting comments and opinions of Suzanne Spaulding, who has served in the intelligence community for 25 years under both Republican and Democratic presidents and is currently Under Secretary for the National Protection and Programs Directorate at the Department of Homeland Security.
The National Security Act of 1947 created the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA). President Truman’s vision of the CIA was a peacetime intelligence agency that provided early warnings in the event of an attack. After President Truman signed the National Security Act of 1947, a loophole was found. The National Security Act “instructed the CIA to correlate, evaluate, and disseminate intelligence and to perform ‘other functions and duties related to intelligence affecting the national security’ ” (Weiner 2007). The CIA used this wording of ‘other functions’ to conduct secret operations overseas and to practice cloak and dagger methods in obtaining intelligence. Since its establishment over sixty years ago, the CIA’s implementation of cloak and dagger intelligence gathering has evolved to developing a componen...
... Sept. 11th, 2001, terrorist attack on theWorld Trade Center and the unreliability of U.S. intelligence onWeapons of mass Destruction in Iraq have been a focus of intense scrutiny in the U.S. in 2004 particularly in the context of the 9/11 Commision , the continuing armed resistance against U.S. occupation of Iraq, and the widely perceived need for systematic review of the respective roles of the CIA, FBI and the Defense Intelligence Agency. On July 9th, 2004 the Senate report of Pre-war Intelligenceon Iraq of the Senate Intelligence Committe stated that the CIA described the danger presented by Weapons of Mass Destruction in Iraq in an unreasonable way, largely unsupported by the available intelligence. In a briefing held Sept 15th, 2001 George Tenet presented the Worldwide Attack Matrix, a "top-secret" document describing covert CIA anti-terror operations in 80 countries in Asia, the Middle East, and Africa. The actions, underway or being recommended, would range from "routine propaganda to lethal covert action in preparation for military attacks". The plans, if carried out, "would give the CIA the broadest and most lethal authority in its history".
In Robert Baer’s book See No Evil: The True Story of a Ground Soldier in the CIA’s War on Terrorism, he accounts his career in the CIA from the eighties to the late nighties. Through his time, Baer observes a particular relationship between U.S. intelligence agencies and their political masters. Specifically, Washington would direct intelligence resources for political purposes rather than that of gaining intelligence or combatting terrorism. Due to this, Baer through explicit accounts of meetings and conversations among other intelligence officials argues that political disinterest and even misuse of intelligence resources led to failures such as the 1993 TWC bombing, the 1998 U.S.S. Cole incident, and 9/11. As a result, through Baer’s exploits, U.S. intelligence agencies were hindered in its efforts to combat foreign threats due to intelligence operatives and managers either being limited in their capabilities or mismanaged to fulfill political promises rather than intelligence goals.
In this week’s assignment we will be looking at a number of significant issues that are or have confronted the intelligence community in a post 9-11 environment. We will quickly touch on the role the Global War on Terrorism has had on changes to the intelligence community’s position, procedures, and policies along with assessing how the intelligence community has directed it efforts when it comes to dealing with traditional military threats from other countries. It is inarguable that for the large majority of times, change is instituted to make a situation better, or to prevent a bad situation from arising. So too can be said about the countless changes in policy and practices that have affected the intelligence community since 9-11. Retrospectively assessing a few of these polices it can become difficult to see in its totality if they have helped the intelligence community or in a way weakened it.
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.
Second in all things that happens in the United States today there are certain interests that we due to the national security strategy that will have us at risk. The one interest that can hve the nation at risk is the problem of the national security. In all that is going on in the country the problems of the security is a big issue do to the problems of trying to protct the country' allies and parnter. The protection if other puts us at a big risk that can have the country in an uproar trying to protect all nations at risk. In the Global trends 2030: Alternative Worlds the Gini out of the bottle inequalities explode as some countries become big winners and others fail. Inequalities within countries increase social tensions (National Intelligence Council, 2012). Without completely disengaging, we are no longer the “global policeman" (National Intelligence Council, 2012). In all the things that have happen since the united states was attacked the country has taken on more issue of protecting other countries from terrorism. In the idea of protecting others countries are seen us as people that srare push our idea on others. The use of being big brother to...
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;
The first major incident that alerted the United States to the threat of terrorism on its own soil was the bombing in the garage section of the world trade center in 1993. This sparked a surge amongst the nation’s intelligence organizations to go after suspected future threats. This paper will focus on the national security agency’s transition into the digital era and the tools it uses to prop up its unrestricted global surveillance network.
United Sttes. Central Intelligence. Operations. By Richard Helms. United States Government. 14 Apr. 2013 .
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