Case Study: ISI And RAW

Intelligence is all the information gathered by a country regarding political issues, both internal and external. Intelligence is collected through spies, special agents, internet data collection, pictures and many other sources.

As Russian forces pushed into Afghanistan seeking to conquer the nation, spread communism, and secure oil routes, the United States suspected Russia may be successful in its conquest. Moreover, President Carter’s administration took notice and produced presidential findings, allowing the United States to indirectly and mildly support Mujahidin rebel forces, who sought to confront the Russian forces and win back Afghanistan. President Carter utilizing the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) funneled small weapons and funding to associates within the Pakistan intelligence community who in turn provided the items to the rebel forces (Coll

The Pakistani government was involved in an attack on Mumbai that killed over one hundred and fifty people. The captured militants who executed the attack were never brought to proper justice, an incarcerated terrorist confessed that Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence agency aided the attack, and the Pakistani government freed the militant group’s commander for no plausible reason. Pakistan has denied all accusations of its’ involvement but evidence shows that they played a key role in this devastating siege.

The CIA had worked with Pakistani intelligence (ISI) during the Soviet war. US operations in Afghanistan blurred the edges of the relationship in the early 1990s. Upon losing interest in Afghanistan, the US imposed sanctions against Pakistan’s nuclear program degrading the ISI relationship further. In 2008, the US fired missiles into Pakistan without warning, thus dissolving any relationship still in existence at the time. When faced with being affiliated with a CIA operative following a shooting in Pakistan, the US was able to make the decision with full knowledge of the

The NSA, National Security Agency, is the largest manager of United States intelligence in the

The Intelligence Community is a cooperative federation of sixteen separate United States government agencies that worked separately and together on matters of foreign relations and national security. One of these agencies is the Central Intelligence Agency which is to collect, analyze, evaluate, disseminate foreign intelligence to assist the President and senior US government policymakers in making decisions relating to national security. Therefore this paper will discuss Central Intelligence Agency history and the role it plays in combating acts of terrorism.

Perhaps the most important change in how the federal government was reorganized after September 11th is the creation of both the Director of National Intelligence (DNI) position and the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI) in 2004 with the passage of the same IRTPA that created TSA. This concept had been first suggested in 1955 after a study by Congress then and was recommended time and again but only became a reality after the September 11th attacks drove the need for major intelligence reform home and the 9/11 Commission continued the push for the creation of such a position (ODNI, n.d., paras. 1-5). As one can see from the mission and vision of the ODNI, the importance cannot be overstated. The mission includes leading intelligence integration while having the IC produce the most insightful intelligence products possible and the vision is fully integrating the IC thus making the nation more secure (ODNI, n.d., paras. 1-2).

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.

Gathering of correct and reliable information about possible planned activities, methods, resources, bases etc of terrorist organizations is crucial to prevention of terrorism. The right information at the right time can help avert disastrous attacks, saving countless lives. Most nations have extensive mechanisms and organizations in place to collect intelligence to protect their citizens, such as the American Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), British MI5, Russian FSB, Israeli Mossad etc. the 27 members of the EU all have financial intelligence units, acronym

It is eminent to the Intelligence community (IC) to have strategic relationships with partners such as local law enforcement, policy-makers and the private sector. Strategic relationships are vital to the overall mission of the IC. What is a strategic relationship? According to the Business Dictionary it is an agreement between two or more entities to conduct specified activities or processes, to achieve specified objectives such as product development or distribution. According to Cambridge Dictionaries Online, it is the arrangement between two companies or organizations to help each other or work together, to make it easier for each of them to achieve the things they want to achieve. A Strategic relationship for the IC is collaborating with two or more law enforcement, contractors or private sector agencies to assist one another with intelligence and information in support of a strategic goal. Without strategic relationships valuable intelligence would be missed. The IC cannot ascertain all adversary’s iniquitous attempts to bring harm to the United States. The IC cannot do it all by itself and therefore need external assistance in protecting national security.

Terrorism has become a main threat to the peace and development in the U.S and the world as a whole. Past experiences of terrorism such as the September 11th attack in the United States has a created the need to have a functioning counters intelligence which will effectively deal with terrorism. However, for the counter intelligence to be effective, other basic functions have to be played out. The basic functions are collection and analysis. The other function is the execution of covert actions and the major role is the counterintelligence. The Intelligence agents combine all roles and place them under the umbrella of intelligence.

Intelligence is one of the first lines of defense used by the United States to protect the Country against both foreign and domestic threats (Johnson, 2010). There are many ways and methods of intelligence collections employed by the intelligence community such as “spies, eavesdropping, technical sources, and openly available materials” etc (Clark, 2013). Method used also depends on many factors such as available resources, time, agency involved, and intelligence collection source. U.S Intelligence agencies use different collection and analytical method that suit their collection function, structure and pro¬cess. For example, DNI/OSC relies on open source (OSINT), CIA uses human intelligence (HUMINT) tactic, DIA uses measurements and signatures intelligence (MASINT), NSA employs signals intelligence (SIGINT), and NGA utilizes imagery intelligence (IMINT) techniques for their intelligence collections (Clark, 2013).

However, Pakistan has made international claims that they have used security measures from the United Nations. They have stated that their security covers all areas of nuclear security and is an updated version of their previous security system. Pakistan says they have created nuclear portals which monitor trafficking nuclear weapons. While Pakistan has made claims, specific examples show their system has it’s flaws and does not deserve the credibility they have asked for. Chashma-Kundian, and Wah Cantonment are nuclear facilities located near Taliban controlled areas. Each nuclear facility is at risk of being attacked. Wah Cantonment has already faced numerous suicide bombings. Terrorist factions in Pakistan are a particular threat because they are the fastest growing in the region. One particular group, the Tehrik-e Taliban are collectively made up of around forty jihadist organizations. The Tehrik-e Taliban are said to be linked to the Afghan Taliban and insist on the need to fight the U.S. In a statement made by the Director of U.S. Intelligence, Mike McConnell, he said, “In the last year, the number of terrorist attacks and deaths were greater than the last six years combined.” Since Benazir Bhutto, former prime mister of Pakistan was assassinated; terrorist activity has increased because they share a border with the jihadists

The local and state response to 26/11 exposed several other failures and short-comings within the Indian internal security architecture at the state and federal levels. Many of these have been identified by the Ram Pradhan Committee (henceforth Pradhan Committee, 2009). This was a high level committee of enquiry which the Maharashtra government established to investigate the systemic shortcomings in the Indian internal security establishment that the attack exposed (Rediff, 2009)

"In choosing to use aggressive extremism as the musical device of technique, us govt government of Pakistan, and most especially the Pakistani army and ISI, jeopardizes not only the probability of our ideal collaboration but Pakistan's opportunity to be a well-known nation with genuine regional impact. They may believe that by using these proxy servers, they are securing their wagers or redressing what they feel is a discrepancy in regional energy. In fact, they have to drop that bet." (Admiral Scott Mullen, Chair of the Combined Chiefs of Staff)