Roles of Law Enforcement and Intelligence in Counter-Terrorism After 9/11
September 11, 2001 marks one of the darkest, if not the darkest, days in United States history. It is a day in the history of our country in which everyone remembers where they were and what they were doing when they heard the news that two planes had flown into the World Trade Center in New York City, taking out both of the Twin Towers. All in all there were close to 3,000 people who lost their lives on that fateful day between New York City, Washington DC, and Pennsylvania. This was the worst terrorist attack that the United States had ever seen. The events of September 11 have been a catalyst for many different changes within the United States. The attacks on the
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There has been a substantial change since September 11, 2001 in how law enforcement agencies attempt to prevent terrorism as well as how they respond to terrorism, and the role of intelligence agencies in preventing terrorism.
Intelligence agencies are “permitted to college a large amount of foreign intelligence that is of interest to law enforcement” (Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence). That which qualifies as interest to law enforcement, and is in the realm of what intelligence is to be looking for is defined as
“Information concerning…activities directed against the United States, international terrorist and international narcotics activities, and hostile activities directed against the United States by foreign powers, organizations, persons or their agents” (Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence).
Intelligence agencies are also collecting information for “political and military intelligence for policy makers” (Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence. Intelligence focuses on many types of information, and “there are few rules governing intelligence gathering”, (Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence). Within the United States we have many different intelligence agencies, most of which existed during September 11. One of the most well known intelligence agencies is The Central Intelligence Agency, their
To accomplish its mission, the CIA engages in research, development, and deployment of high-leverage technology for intelligence purposes. As a separate agency, CIA serves as an independent source of analysis on topics of concern and also works closely with the other organizations in the Intelligence Community to ensure that the intelligence consumer—whether Washington policymaker or battlefield commander—receives the best intelligence possible.
Unlike national security intelligence which primarily focuses on the collection and analysis of data and information which benefits the country’s security
The National Foreign Intelligence Program prevents foreign espionage with investigating foreign cases within the U.S. borders. Also the Intelligence Program is involved with threats, weapons in mass destruction, including the nation’s critical infrastructures such as communications, banking systems, and transportation systems.
In this paper the subject of interest is the role of congress in the oversight of strategic intelligence, or the lack there of. Does congress have a proper role in the oversight of strategic intelligence? If not what should the proper role be? These are the questions best answered by looking at the history of congressional over sight and where it is at today. The next few pages will cover the topics above and shed light on what it is congress calls oversight.
Counterintelligence is one of the most vital areas of the United States intelligence system, and is heavily intertwined with our history, laws and ethics. According to the National Security Act of 1947, counterintelligence (CI) is defined as “information gathered and activities conducted to protect against espionage, other intelligence activities, sabotage, or assassinations conducted by or on behalf of foreign governments or elements thereof, foreign organizations or foreign persons, or international terrorist activities.” It consists of five activities and functions: operations, investigations, collection, analysis and production, and functional services. In this aspect, CI is unique in that it is both an activity and its product. U.S. intelligence agencies, including the National Security Agency (NSA) and the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) collect and analyze both CI information and foreign intelligence. There are many counterintelligence activities that the United States is involved in, as both CI and foreign intelligence play an important role in countering threats to our country’s national security. Among these most controversial and misunderstood activities are counterespionage and disinformation.
September 11, 2001 was one of the most influential days in the history of the United States to date. Although the physical attacks only happened in New York City, Washington DC, and a field in Pennsylvania, not a sliver of our country has been left untouched. 16 years later, our country is still facing challenges that can be directly tied back to the effects of 9/11. It was not just an event that changed the United States, but also has completely changed how the entire world has come to interact and cooperate. As a consequence, the way that we view terrorism and certain ethnicities have been drastically altered as a means to justify the excruciating crisis that our country went through at the turn of the new millennium.
It guarantees that the Intelligence Community has the adaptability and readiness it needs to distinguish and react to terrorist and other foreign dangers to our security. With the current Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, it gives a key part to every branch of government. It gives responsibilities mutually to the Attorney General and the Director of National Intelligence to guarantee that the Nation's chief law enforcement and intelligence authorities cooperate in gathering foreign intelligence in agreement with the law. The Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act of 2008 recognizes two groups of potential targets for surveillance under the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act. The first category is foreign powers which is defined as:
Counterintelligence: exposing, preventing, and investigating intelligence activities on U.S. soil; foreign espionage strikes at the heart of national security, impacting political, military, and economic strengths.
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)
For instance, most common domestic terrorists targeted National Security are gangs and other forms of terrorists inside the US. Intelligence is a solid component of past data that stays permanent. Current intelligence is the non-stop information gathering process to complete the puzzle. Collecting and analyzing the material is what is occurring at this time. Information can be changeable and is also a brainstorming of information. Intelligence estimates is the future information that can be presented as brainpower on a major problem solving technique in our country. Intelligence analysts design endless drills on a how to manual that states explanations on circumstances such as terrorist attacks, nuclear accident, biological war, etc. let’s not forget that all these intelligence techniques are designed to protect and maintain the integrity of our president, our country, its allies and
National intelligence estimates are defined by the U.S. Department of Defense as a "strategic estimate of the capabilities, vulnerabilities, and probable courses of action of foreign nations produced at the national level as a composite of the views of the intelligence community (belfercenter.edu). NIEs are also considered classified documents prepared for policymakers. The National Intelligence Estimate, according to the National Strategic Intelligence Act, 1994, "means the product of the process of considering and weighing the possibilities, probabilities and facts disclosed by national security intelligence with regard to any situation, and of drawing conclusions from such possibilities, probabilities and facts"(belfercenter.edu). NIE’s
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.
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).
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).
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. The collection is the ability to gather intelligence information about rivalry capabilities against own nation; defensive part of CI involves measures to prevent and thwart other nations ' attempts to penetrate into own nation 's intelligence system; while an offensive aspect 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 it helps in collecting vast quantities of secret information and produce an excellent analysis of intelligence, although, ineffective counterintelligence measures may diminish confidence in the final results (Van Cleave, 2013).