2 SEP 2002
DO THE MEDIA ENCOURAGE TERRORISM
There has been a lot of thought put into finding a more effective way to build intelligence efforts to make a stronger product for decisions of national security. The use of the media and worldwide reporters can be used in the effort to build more information on the intelligence products, but the usage will be limited. It is not very likely that the government of Pakistan will sponsor a column disclosing a list of nuclear assets every week, or that the Irish Republican Army will endorse a schedule of events for next weeks offensive maneuvers; but it is likely that many countries in the free world will encourage the disclosure of movements and known associations of terrorists. The same type
…show more content…
In many cases the television and newspaper crews serve to work directly against American militia organizations. Americans do not like to see fellow citizens die at the hands of a terrorist, especially by an American terrorist. Timothy McVeigh, probably unknowingly, helped in decreasing the number of American terrorist (Grosscup, 117). McVeigh's act, bombing the Murrah building in Oklahoma City, was seen as so repulsive that many law-abiding people attracted to militias simply walked away. The majority of Americans didn't want to be associated with anything like the killing of 168 Americans, even though McVeigh had only attended a few militia meetings. The media coverage for the bombing in 1995 gave the American public the education needed to assess what was going on in the militant organizations across the United States. The education of American citizens is an invaluable tool that is channeled through the media for the benefit of all citizens. With the help of the media, the people get all of the facts and are able to form their own opinion about what is going on, who is responsible for events, and how future events can be avoided. Explaining how future events can be avoided is beneficial if the government is planning on implementing new policies to thwart future events. The intelligence gathering process often uses the media to gain information that, by law, agents are not authorized or not able to get to. During the Gulf War against Suddam Hussein, the
After September 11, 2001, U.S. citizens were shocked that over 2,900 people were dead because of Islamic extremists (Kean, et al. "National Commission on Terrorist Attacks Upon the United States"). More deaths occurred in the Paris and San Bernardino attacks. Tensions between the U.S. and Islamic extremists have not yet subsided. Americans receive information regarding Islamic extremists through the media, from which they form opinions on what the U.S.’s foreign policy with the Middle East should be, which affects military spending. To what extent has the media’s portrayal of Islamic extremists affected U.S. military spending and relations with the Middle East?
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
Attacks receive more coverage when they harm or kill victims, involve hijackings or aircraft, have known perpetrators, and select targets associated with Western countries. A study of transnational terrorism shows that attacks that inflict injuries are twice as likely to attract media attention as those that do not. The attacks in which the perpetrator can be identified are four times as likely to be reported in a newspaper and ten times as likely to be reported on television (The Media’s Role in International Terrorsim). Attacks in the Middle East or Europe are twice as likely to receive media attention as attacks perpetrated in Latin America (The Media’s Role in International Terrorism). There are very similar factors that influence media coverage of attacks that take place within the United States.
For my issue I will be focusing on the influence of the American mainstream media after the September 11th attacks and during the United States’ international military campaign known as the ‘War on Terror’. On September 11, 2001 otherwise known as 9/11, a series of terrorism where committed in which the Islamic terrorist group Al-Qaeda devised four bomber attacks on U.S landmarks killing 2,977 people (CNN). Shortly after the events of 9/11, George W. Bush enacted the Authorization for Use of Military Force Against Terrorist (AUMF) and from his administration declared their own definition and objectives regarding the war on terror. The declaration would create not only a mass media indolent but insight a decade long conflict of fear of security
The United States has had a long and complicated journey with intelligence. Throughout its early history, the United States had a sporadic relationship with the intelligence community, only utilizing intelligence during wartime. After World War II, it became clear that the United States needed to enhance its intelligence gathering systems in order to prevent another disaster of this magnitude. Reacting to this pressure, policymakers soon drafted and passed the National Intelligence Act of 1947, creating the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), the United States’ first peacetime intelligence agency. Though not always entirely authorized to do so, the CIA has carried out many covert operations with varying levels of success. Despite the fact that some of these operations have been a success, covert operations have largely been a detriment to the United States; covert operations hurt the United States’ public image, rarely fix the original problem entirely, and were not meant, by those who drafter the National Intelligence Act of 1947, to be carried out by the CIA.
Human beings are influenced by what they see, hear, or read on the news. Today we have several sources to receive news: newspapers, internet, and radio. However, with this information people come to question what is truly the truth. The Cable News Network (CNN) displays footage of current events happening all around the world. This well-known 24-hour news broadcasting system began to change its traditional pattern of news began to encapsulate the way media directs the foreign policy formulation. For the individuals behind the scenes, including policy makers and academics, the 1990’s was a time of media empowerment and growth. Piers Robinson thesis in the “CNN effect revisited” is the ways in which the media influences foreign policy formulation, socially and politically. In his argumentative essay, Robinson discusses the development of foreign policy since the “war on terror” and the “humanitarian war.” Additionally, Robinson discusses the ways media intervened with political decisions and how the media’s voice created military action. The media that has the privilege to voice opinions, can result in less freedom for the press
In the heat of extremist organizations rising up across America, ranging from white supremacy to Islamic extremism, investigating organizations as well as intelligence offices are looking for greater ways of being able to access information to preserve public safety. In the wake of September 11, 2001, the country based one of its most disastrous mishandling of intelligence in decades. It was well-documented that the information presented that Osama bin Laden was planning an attack on America had been presented and yet nothing was done.
The United States has the most capable intelligence apparatus of any country in the world. The information produced by various agencies gives the United States a substantial advantage when it comes to understanding world events, predicting and preparing for unsettled times, fielding military forces, and making a host of other political and economic decisions. From an ethical perspective, it means that the United States Intelligences information can create the risk of security for the United
Terrorism and the United States A cloud of anthrax spores looming in the sky of San Diego California
Abstract: In this analysis, it is shown throughout the many different agencies how the intelligence cycle is interpreted. Within each of the different agencies everyone has their own way of obtaining information and different policies that they follow, within the constriction of the US constitution. The intelligence cycle states the many different steps taken to obtain intelligence from domestic to foreign information.
September 11th changed the lives of many Americans, irrevocably. The horrendous attacks on the World Trade Center and Pentagon altered the way American’s viewed their positions within the world, not to mention their lives and their safety. The attacks brought terrorism to the forefront of national attention, in every aspect. The government became immediately immersed in an effort to understand and defeat terrorism, and simultaneously, the media, with its perverse fascination with violence and profit-driven espousal to round-the-clock, up-to-the-minute coverage, demonstrated an obsession with the attacks, by broadcasting almost nothing but the latest developments in the search and rescue efforts and investigations
Data can be collected through human sources, satellites, wiretapping, signals, and internet traffic. However, intelligence organizations must be in compliance with the law to ensure that they are not illegally collecting information (Chesney, 2012). Collection occurs because a threat is likely to occur or agencies are trying to find out what information our foreign adversaries possess about the nation’s assets. Intelligence collection occurs in both domestic and foreign territories. Intelligence agencies collect information about foreign adversaries in order to exploit their weaknesses or vulnerabilities (Gentry, 2008). Furthermore, government agencies and political leaders want to discover which of the nation’s assets are seen as vulnerable to the enemy (Gentry, 2008).
“If the media were not there to report terrorist acts and to explain their political and social significance...terrorism as such would cease to exist” said John O'Sullivan, an editor of the Times of London.1 This is also the way many other people feel about the recent increase in terrorist activity; they feel that the media is causing it. The media is doing this by fulfilling the terrorists' need for publicity.2 Terrorists need media publicity in order to get their views spread to the public.3 Because of this need for publicity, terrorists are committing their acts of terrorism in areas where a lot of publicity will be gained; the United States and Western Europe are the most recent targets. The bombings of the federal building in
Our society consists of consumers that buy into stereotypes and the propaganda that is being fed by the government and the media. Stereotypes steer individual's perceptions of a group of people in a certain way, usually negative, and generalize that opinion to all members of the group. Aware of the influence stereotypes have on people's views, governments use stereotypes already imbedded in society as a propaganda tactic to persuade people's thoughts, opinions and beliefs in order to benefit their cause. The media was used for disseminating stereotypes the effect violent music has on teenager's behaviours such as in the shootings at Columbine. After the September 11 attacks, the U.S. government used the media as an outlet to emphasize
Thousands of our nation's men and women were fighting for their country, yet the media limited the amount of information that they chose to pass on to the public. Each day the media is faced with the choice of making decisions of what news to pass on, when that news could make a significant difference in someone's life, or in the fate of our nation.