Covert Actions: A Case Study

Thinking in the philosophical terms of "good" and "evil," nothing purely "good" can survive without the slightest taint of "evil," and vice-versa. The same standard exists for everything. Just as you cannot always succeed by being purely honest, a government cannot hold itself together without committing it's own personal rights and wrongs. The United States of America has protected its residents well in the past, and kept the appearance of a mild innocense; well, most of it, anyway. The Covert Intelligence Agency (CIA) is mostly swamped in its wrongs, though many have not even been proven. The CIA has been this country's "yang" to protect the populace of the USA.

Congress built upon the reforms of the 1970s by passing the Intelligence Oversight Act in 1980. This Act was an amendment to the Hughes-Ryan Act and obligated the IC to report covert actions to both the SSCI and the HPSCI prior to their implementation, unlike the ambiguous previous requirement of a timely manner. The Intelligence Oversight Act was noteworthy in that it constrained the intelligence community more than any previous legislation (Riley 2010). The two biggest shortfalls I see to the system is the number of contributors there are to the system on such a large scale. When I think about all of the redundancy built within the system, I think about all of the possible breakdown in communications that could take place. The second shortfall I see is the legislative leverage that is held over the Intelligence community. I personally believe this to be a mistake because this power could be held in a negative manner and to gain a political stance or agenda. The Congress can withhold money and resources, can leak information to the media and which could cause a mission or operation to

The various things the congress must insure are being handled properly are the quality of analysis, the legality of actions, operations and making sure the needs of policymakers are met. The first method is the use of the executive branch to monitor covert action and espionage. The head of the executive branch is The President himself. The President also has the power to appoint a commission to assess intelligence topics. One of the Presidents go to is the “Gang of Eight” (made up of the Senate and House Majority and Minority Leaders, and the Chairs and ranking members of the House and Senate Intelligence Committees). The use of the “Gang of Eight” allows the president to notify only them instead of the entire congressional committee. The President also has a committee known as the President’s Intelligence advisory Board. They are used to initiate analysis activities and investigations the President deems

How can lawmakers maintain a balanced approach while collecting intelligence on United States persons in order to prevent a national security crime and provide full consideration to the rights of said persons? Does the current legislation permit U.S. Army Counterintelligence Special Agents to conduct investigations to the fullest extent or does it hamper their ability to properly investigate? Lawmakers have asked these questions since the inception of government executed counterintelligence operations in order to support our country’s leaders trying to strike the perfect balance of investigative freedom and citizen’s rights. When the Counterintelligence Corps was formed in 1961 there were few laws that governed intelligence collection.

Which extended to the JFKs upper back and exited through his throat and then struck Governor John Connally´s ribs breaking them, then shattering his wrist then finally resting on his thigh. Skeptics say that the trajectory was fanciful and renamed it as the Magic bullet theory. It 's just one reason why conspiracy theorists think more than one shooter was involved(who killed JFK?). There is some speculation over that people and groups are involved, but who would want to hurt the president? These people and groups might have put Oswald up to do their dirty work or they just did it themselves. There are two groups and one person that has the most targets on their back and why. The CIA 's potential involvement was frequently mentioned during

The intelligence oversight committee has an immense role in ensuring budgets and laws are addressed according to policies and ensuring that national security is at the forefront of their concerns. These responsibilities must be diligently carried out and cared for by the Executive Branch. Congress must support the military and its various operations, worldwide. Security is at the highest priority of importance to the United States (Berkowitz, 1989). Before service members can go out into an area of responsibility to win hearts and minds, the government must assist in win the hearts and minds of our United States service members.

Congress plays a vital role in strategic intelligence through the use of operational oversight and budget control, but this has become an issue of concern in recent years. Congressional intelligence committees uphold high decisions pertaining to every type of intelligence collection that exist, and was founded on the concept of no one person having absolute power. This is the concept that undergirds the importance of the oversight of national intelligence. Since the U.S. involvement in Operation Iraqi Freedom, Congress has not had a very robust congressional oversight on intelligence and left the decisions to that of the president and the intelligence agency governing important operational matters.

Congress expects the CIA to take steps to address the Aldrich Ames’ treason fallout or risk budget cuts or agency closure. Ames’ exposed a multitude of secret operations and intelligence officers to the Soviet Union over a period of nine years which caused at least ten deaths and led to his arrest in February 1994. CIA Chief Woolsey commissioned internal review processes to assess the damage, review security procedures, and inquire if Ames’ chain of command failed to follow agency expectations and regulations.

Empowered by its authority over budget funding , Congress came up in 1991 with enhanced formula to streamline the information flow upon prevalence of “ extraordinary circumstances affecting vital interests of the United States” 9 The new formula authorized the President to bypass the full quorum of the congressional intelligence committees, and only notify the ‘Gang of Eight,’ and any other congressional leaders he elects to inform. Members of the ‘Gang of Eight’ include “ the chairmen and ranking Members of the two congressional intelligence committees and the House and Senate majority and minority leadership”10 (Erwin 2013, 1).

If in the name of National security the government keeps so many documents and departments classified that no citizen can discern what their government is doing, they lose the oversight of the citizens, and as a result will be more prone to corruption or poor decisions. This can be seen for example, in the United States government’s use of the Navy’s SEAL Team 6. Highly secretive, SEAL Team 6 has been used for classified missions in foreign nations increasingly over the past decade, with little to no outside oversight. Joint Special Operations Command (JSOC) investigates reports of misconduct, but JSOC is also the organization that supervises the team’s missions (Mazzetti 3). While this lack of supervision does not mean that SEAL Team 6 is an inherently corrupt organization, it is an example of how the government can so easily fall into

As I would see it, I trust the lawmaking body ought not be allowed to complete a secret operation particularly when the nation is working under a sensible strategy of government. Slighting the route that, there may be conditions where the association may need to do it to maintain a strategic distance from set from the masses and along these lines beating its arrangements. After a short time, our nation is the politically enticing nation for a couple of countries, and secret operations do watch our nation. Concerning whether the comprehensive group ought to be instructed, I feel that this issue has its motivations of interest and preventions. The comprehensive group could respond unfavorably and it could understand a mammoth condition of free

For the average American, the mere mention of covert action likely triggers images of high-speed paramilitary operators conducting an air assault into……….. such NEPTUNE SPEAR, the raid on Usama Bin Laden’s compound in Pakistan. However, NEPTUNE SPEAR was not a covert operation by definition and further, paramilitary operations are only a small percentage of the covert operations that are conducted. More frequently, covert actions include propaganda, political activity and sabotage. Most of the people do not understand that the covert actions consume only a small fraction of the intelligence budget and attention. As many foreign policy tools, covert actions are a tool that policymakers poses to advance national interests, “Covert actions are

The term “Covert Action” brings with it a connotation of shadowy figures wrapped in secrecy and intrigue. It also brings with it a substantial amount of moral questions as to “what is right.” The use of covert action has been widely publicized since the early seventies, but trying to find out the truth to these events has been difficult to say the least. What is even more difficult, is historically recording these events into categories of successes or failures. These operations are difficult to dissect because of their secrecy and although events have been recorded, some facts simply aren’t apparent. This paper will seek to identify the complex issues associated with covert operations.

Counterintelligence (CI) involves actions aimed at protecting the United States against foreign intelligence operations and espionage from penetration and disruption by hostile nations or their intelligence services (Lowenthal, 2014). Three main components of Counterintelligence include collection, defensive and offensive. Collection is ability to gather intelligence information about rivalry capabilities against own nation; defensive part of CI involve measures to prevent and thwarting other nations attempts to penetration into own nations intelligence system; while offensive deal with running double agents to penetrate, manipulate, exploit, and control targeted adversaries. CI is said to be the most essential aspect of the intelligence disciplines, in the sense that collecting vast quantities of secret information and produce excellent analysis of the intelligence, but ineffective counterintelligence measures may diminish confidence the final results (Van Cleave, 2013). According to Federal Bureau of Investigation (2011) “Significant advances have been made in clarifying and rectifying intelligence gaps and requirements through the formation of liaison and working relationships with other U.S. intelligence community agencies, foreign partners, the private sector, and academia”. For instance, since 2001, FBI CI program has resulted to total arrests of 249, of which 46 of them were linked to espionage. Counterintelligence (CI)

“Within the realm of WMD”, there are five categories which include: “chemical, biological, nuclear, radiological, and [high-yield] explosives” (McGlown, 2004). Of the five agent categories, the hospital industry is better equipped to handle the biological agent. A biological attack is the deliberate release of germs that can make you sick. The three groups of biological agents: “bacteria, viruses and toxins” (Stewart, 2010). Most agents are inhaled; enter through the skin by a cut or by contaminating food and water. Anthrax and smallpox agents are the most likely source of mass contamination which would require medical attention (Stewart, 2010). Since the tragic event of 9/11, some hospitals have embraced their responsibility in WMD preparedness.