There are many pathologies present in the American bureaucracy and bureaucratic agencies. The major pathologies are red tape, conflict, duplication, imperialism, and waste. Each of these pathologies had at least some sort of roots in the case of the 9/11/01 terrorist attack. Had these pathologies not been prominent in the pre-9/11 bureaucratic government, it is very likely that our intelligence communities would not have failed to detect the terrorists. The first and quite possibly the most prominent pathology is known as the red tape pathology. Red tape results from all of the complex rules and procedures that must be done in order to get anything done. Although these rules and procedures are often necessary to maintain order and …show more content…
Agencies such as the FBI would work solely to obtain more information with its own prestige being its own priority, and would thus not pool its information with other sources to allow America to effectively plan for a terrorist attack. Also, because of each agency trying to promote itself, many agencies ended up doing the same thing, which was a waste of time and money. Finally, the last bureaucratic pathology is known as waste. Waste specifically means spending more than is necessary to buy some product or service. This was a major issue in the pre-9/11 world because of the rules of government revenue sharing. When a government gives an agency a certain amount of money, all the money that the agency does not use goes back to the national treasury. Because of this, agencies see no point in saving any money, and just spend all they want without restriction. Money that could have been used to efficiently gather information and that could have helped prevent an attack was thus wasted, and this need not have been the case. Red tape, conflict, duplication, imperialism, and waste all helped contribute to the United States ' government 's inability to prevent a terrorist attack on 9/11/01. All of these are pathologies that hinder the ability of the bureaucracy in America to run effectively, and this is evident in the terrorist attacks that this nation has faced. In fact, the 9/11 attacks are a perfect example of how serious an issue these
There is a plethora of criticisms about the effectiveness of the Bureaucracy. Even during the 19th century, as Wilson writes, the Post Office “was an organization marred by inefficiency and corruption”. With an appointment standard such as the “spoils system”, where individuals or groups are granted high level positions based on political favors alone, corruption is almost a certainty. The political aspect of the Bureaucracy was prevalent in the military for over 100 years, as Wilson states “the size and deployment of the military establishment in this country was governed entirely by decisions made by political leaders on political grounds”. Political favors and factors plague our government, including the Bureaucracy. A by-product of these political favors and corruptions are stagnancy and mediocrity. An example of this, as
Various factors like the nature of bureaucratic organizations, unsuccessful diplomacy, lack of military actions, legislators, the uneven structure of the Federal government, advances in technology, backdrops of police surveillance, and policy formation promote organizational problem s in U.S intelligence communities. Intelligence officials and law enforcement experts have made conscious effort in handling terrorist threats before 9/11 attack. Unsuccessful diplomacy and the uneven structure of the Federal government accelerated organizational problems and absence of information sharing among the intelligence agencies. U.S Intelligence strategies have failed to recognize their new enemy and intelligence agencies lacked resources and manpower. U.S Intelligence agencies like CIA, FBI, and National Security Agency have faced organizational crisis from the side of Federal government and bureaucrats, and this organizational crisis contributed failure in their activities.
In the 1900’s and early 2000’s a series of events would bring a change in priorities for Federal Law Enforcement, namely the Federal Bureau of Investigations (FBI), which was on the brink of being dissolved. “The Inspector General’s 2003 report stated that prior to 9/11, ‘the Bureau devoted significantly more special agent resources to traditional law enforcement activities such as white collar crime,
The Federal bureaucracy before 9/11 was nonexistent. The Federal bureaucracy was dealing with foreign rather than domestic threats. The federal bureaucracy was very limited at the, because DHS don’t exist at that time. Since 2001 until now the DHS has improvement a lot from interdepartmental transitioning in find the threat. The federal bureaucracy get all other countries involve in the betterment and transformation to stop any form terroristic threats.
September 11, 2001 forever impacted America and gave a new challenge to our government that went far beyond any challenges that a natural disaster had presented in decades. The terrorist attacks were definitely a wake up call to being more prepared for natural disasters and reevaluating our intelligence agency jobs and communication levels. In chapter 2, one of the key points that Kettl discuss is connecting the dots. We can see that in the midst of 9/11, America focused on the nation’s intelligence services for answers. As the American people we wanted to know, who were the hijackers, where was security and most importantly, and who do we hold accountable? Furthermore, that the intelligence agencies failed to piece together information that already had about terrorism speculations. In chapter 1, Kettl talks about the warnings and signs that the government has before catastrophes (such as September 11, Hurricane
In November of 2001, the United States was still reeling from the attacks on September 11 of that same year. President George W. Bush created a new organization to prevent future attacks on American flyers. The organization was called the Transportation Security Administration, or TSA. The TSA was tasked with implementing security measures to protect travelers. At first, the measures were welcomed by the public. They were seen as a necessary measure to protect against future 9/11 style attacks. But now, 15 years later, the measures the TSA have put in place have been questioned repeatedly by members of the public, the press and congress. Incidents such as the Underwear Bomber, where a Nigerian
The attacks on the United States on September 11, 2001 were the direct result of the failure of US agencies, ranging from the White House to airport security, to recognize vulnerabilities present in the various symptoms. The reason why these vulnerabilities were not acknowledged and repaired is that these various agencies were trapped in a cognitive dissonance cycle of thinking. After the Cold War, terrorism was seen as a regional problem (9/11 Commission, 92). The majority of terrorist groups were either groups sponsored by governments or militants trying to create governments (i.e. Palestine Liberation Organization). As a result, the tactics used for fighting terrorism were centralized mostly in the Middle East and were restricted to
The creation of the Department of Homeland Security was a result of the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001. “The establishment of this organization provided this nation with a real opportunity for making vast improvements within our communities social and economic infrastructures to combat all threats, mainly terrorism” as stated by Bullock, (2013, P. 1). The 9/11 attacks exposed a
In the 21st century, the world as we know it suffers from psychotic, demented, treacherous and, sophisticated crimes. This world would be corrupt without a tunnel of light if it was not for the Federal Bureau of Investigation. The Federal Bureau of Investigation, also known as the FBI, is a corporation that seeks fidelity, bravery and, integrity for the United States of America. The FBI researches shocking and concerning crimes the news reports about politics, war and, safety that we hear on the television about issues that are being reported to the people. These cases of transgression are missions the FBI analyzes, such as hacking information from double spies, locating terrorists, seeking pedophiles, cracking down unknown mobsters,
“The government, which was designed for the people, has got into the hands of the bosses and their employers, the special interests. An invisible empire has been set up above the forms of democracy.” This quote by Woodrow Wilson fits perfectly with the topics that will be discussed. The major theme of this paper is bureaucracy. Bureaucracy refers to an administrative system in which agencies staffed largely by non elected officials perform specific tasks in accordance with standard procedures. The work of the bureaucracy involves implementing laws and procedures. Does this sound familiar? That is because most bureaucrats work for the executive branch of the government. The executive branch is the one that enforces the laws. Some of these law enforcing jobs include mail clerk, police officer, fireman, and first responder. These jobs are essential to our lives as Americans and are greatly appreciated. This paper will expound on the history, usage, and the Cabinet
As a result, these first two reasons fully reflect the first myth of bureaucracy by Douglas Amy, which seen it as “Immensely Wasteful”.
First and foremost, it is clear that the FBI suffered from a lack of resources. After the 1993 World Trade Center Bombings, Louis Freeh the Director the FBI stated, “merely solving this type of crime is not enough; it is equally important that the fbi thwart terrorism before such acts can be perpetrated.” This statement was meant to increase the budget of counter-terrorism, yet this never happened as the FBI keep substantial resources in areas such as violent crime and drug enforcement(9/11 report). Additionally, for other reasons sufficient funding was never acquired to successfully combat the terrorism threat pre 9/11.
In accordance with the National Commission which was concerned about inadequate information sharing following 9/11. (Cordner, Scarborough 2010) I believe it's worth noting that across the board the internalized intelligence and lack of transfer of information has led to a lot of pointed fingers from agencies as to whom could have had a better potential of preventing the attacks of 9/11.
There was identified problems within the intelligence community overall. The intelligence community struggled through the 1990s It struggled with an overwhelming amount of priorities, lack of and shrinking budgets, outdated equipment, and, of course, bureaucracy. It was not that we did not know about Osama bin Laden and Al Qaeda, it was that the CIA struggled with engaging proxies to disrupt and engage Al Qaeda. The CIA was not the only problem. The FBI has their share of struggles as well. During the 90s, and since the 1993 bombing of the World Trade Centers, the FBI was concerned about international terrorism, but they were and organization with most of their assets devoted to “after-the-fact” investigations. “The FBI attempted several reform efforts aimed at strengthening its ability to prevent such attacks, but these reform efforts failed to implement organization-wide institutional change,” (9/11 Commission, n.d.). The report also identified our permeable boarders, and aviation security issues. The report identified that the State Department’s consular officers nor the Immigration and Naturalization Service’s inspectors and agents were ever to be considered full partners in the counterterrorism effort. Also the protection of our boarders not a national security issue prior to 9/11. When it came to the hijackers of 9/11, they studied the publicly made material for aviation security. They decided to use weapons that had considerable less metal in them, like box cutters, than guns. While two of the hijackers were on the US TIPOFF watch list, aviation security did not use TIPOFF. This led to the terrorist only needing to beat one level of security, and that was the checkpoint. Also during the security process, several of the hijackers were identified for extra screening by the CAPPS system. This system only meant that their checked baggage was further
Americans depend on government bureaucracies to accomplish most of what we expect from government, and we are oftentimes critical of a bureaucracy’s handling of its responsibilities. Bureaucracy is essential for carrying out the tasks of government. As government bureaucracies grew in the twentieth century, new management techniques sought to promote greater efficiency. The reorganization of the government to create the Department of Homeland Security and the Bush administration’s simultaneous push to contract out jobs to private employers raises the question as to whether the government or the private sector can best manage our national security. Ironically, the criticism of the bureaucracy may be a product