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.
The documentary entitled, Watergate Plus 30: Shadow of History, documents the political decisions and environment within the Nixon Administration from 1969-1974. The documentary specifically details and describes the environment and culture in which the Watergate scandal could occur and the events and abuses of power that lead to its occurrence. Setting the tone and the political climate of the Nixon Administration was the Vietnam War; making him a wartime President, a war that he inherited from his predecessor. The Vietnam War faced a lot of opposition from the general public, with massive protests and political demonstrations by the younger generations and overall general public. Nixon’s presidency was surrounded by this climate amidst the
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.
During the 1970’s, the United States experienced "Watergate," the most famous political scandal in American History. It was a scandal that began with a break in and ended in resignation. On June 17, 1972 five intruders were caught and arrested for illegally entering the rooms of the Democratic National Committee headquarters in Washington’s Watergate Complex. "The investigation of the break-in lead directly to the reelection campaign of President Richard M. Nixon and unraveled a web of political spying and sabotage, bribery and the illegal use of campaign funds" (Washingtonpost.com). Two-and-a-half-years later along with a number of court hearings led to the 1974 resignation of Richard M. Nixon. Nixon became the first President in U.S. History to resign. During all the political drama the United States brought an end to an unpopular war and made great strides in space exploration.
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. (...
The Biography Editors state that the Watergate burglary occurred June 17, 1972 where five men were apprehended for breaking into the Democratic National Committee Headquarters. The five men were Bernard Barker, Virgilio Gonzalez, Eugenio Martinez, Frank Sturgis, and James W. McCord Jr. The Watergate scandal revolved around multiple crimes that were committed. The crimes that have been stated in articles such as, the Washington Post, dealt with political espionage, obstructing the investigation, breaking and entering which led to wiretapping phones. Also, there was campaign fraud during President Nixon’s reelection. The five men who were arrested were all associated and working on behalf of the president’s reelection campaign. As stated by The
Richard Nixon's first term as president will always be connected with the Watergate scandal, the biggest political scandal in United States history. Various illegal activities were conducted including burglary, wire tapping, violations of campaign financing laws, sabotage, and attempted use of government agencies to harm political opponents to help Richard Nixon win reelection in the 1972 presidential elections. There were about 40 people charged with crimes related to the scandal. Most of them were convicted by juries or pleaded guilty. Watergate involved more high-level government officials than any previous scandal. It has been etched in the minds of millions and is still being recalled today when faced with the present day scandal of President Clinton. In All The President's Men, Carl Bernstein and Bob Woodward, former Washington Post reporters, recount, illustrate, and analyze the Watergate scandal time and their work in reporting and revealing these events for the newspaper.
...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.
Another issue discovered during the process of Snowden’s leaks is Over-classification. Allowing abuses to remain hidden and impeding information sharing can create risks to national security and obstruct the democratic process. Most importantly, these actions create distrust in government. Intelligence investigations must, of course, go forward in secrecy, but not all aspects must be so cloaked.16 Because of the secrecy surrounding the leaks it is difficult of the
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).
The mistrust most Americans feel toward the government officials and political parities of today can be traced back to the Watergate scandal of 1972, which led to the resignation of an American president. The crimes of the Watergate scandal included political burglary, bribery, extortion, wiretapping (phone tapping), conspiracy, obstruction of justice, destruction of evidence, tax fraud, illegal use of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) and the Federal Bureau of Investigations (FBI), illegal campaign contributions, and use of taxpayers' money for private purposes.
The Watergate scandal had everything. Nixon disgraced the presidency by lying to the country and abusing his power and his committees were involved in illegal acts and a big cover up, all leading to little side roads of corruption and lies. Watergate is by far one of the worst presidential scandals in the history of the United States. In the story of Watergate, five burglars were found breaking into democratic offices at the Watergate complex in Washington DC. The break-in was passed off as just another burglary, but when the burglars were found to have connections with the CIA, questions were starting to be asked. Then when the phone number of Howard Hunt was found in one of the burglar’s phone books, it made people think, why would one of the burglars have the phone number of one of the presidents men? When Watergate was uncovered, it revealed that the president was a liar and a cheat. The president lied to our country, lied about his involvement, concealed self incriminating evidence, abused his power, and planed to have the CIA stop the FBI investigations. During the times of the unraveling of Watergate, questions were asked about connections with the White House and the president, but when the president was asked about it at a press conference he assured Americans that The White House has no involvement whatever in this particular incident.
“On June 17, 1972, five men, including CIA agent James McCord were arrested in the burglary of the Democratic party headquarters in the Watergate apartment complex in Washington, D.C.” “The Post Investigates.” Later that year, the Federal Grand Jury indicted these five men for their involvement in the Watergate burglary. Less than two months later, Richard Nixon was reelected President in an unprecedented landslide over George McGovern, the Democratic candidate. At the end of January the following year, James McCord and Gordon Liddy were convicted of illegally wiretapping the Democrats Watergate apartments, (“The Watergate Decade”).
Nixon was long associated with American politics before his fall from grace. He was along time senator before finally being elected president in 1968. During his first term, his United States went through the Vietnam War and a period of economic inflation. In 1972 he was easily re-elected over Democrat nominee George McGovern. Almost unnoticed during his campaign was the arrest of five men connected with Nixon’s re-election committee. They had broken into the Democrats national head quarters in the Watergate apartment complex, in Washington D.C. They attempted to steal documents and place wire taps on the telephones. By March of 1973, through a federal inquiry, it had been brought to light that the burglars had connections with high government officials and Nixon’s closest aids. Despite Nixon and his lawyers best efforts, it was shown that the president had participated in the Watergate cover-up. On August 8, 1974 Nixon announced, without admitting guilt, that he would resign. He left the Oval Office the next day: an obvious fall from grace.
A year before the election of 1972, President Nixon was becoming nervous about what the Deomocrats were planning on for the election. Nixon wanted to be re-elected but he did not think he could become re-elected without some sort of help. Nixon decided to send a group of spies to investigate what was going on at the Democrat Headquarters to see if they had any plans on how they were going to bring down Nixon. Supposedly hired by Nixon, a group of five men went to the Watergate hotel and stole some documents. Unsatisfied with what they found, they returned three weeks later intending to fix wiretaps that were not working and photograph documents. However while they were inside the building these fiv...
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