The Curveball Case

Softball. It’s the art that I do when that lets me be myself. When I swing my bat and it hit the ball it’s like an artist stroking a line of paint on a canvas. When I am throwing a ball and it rolls of my finger tips it letting all the sadness, and worries go away. Playing the game is life painting a masterpiece. Each stroke on the bush is hitting the ball and running to first base. Music. It’s like a band-aid. To protect me when I don’t want to be sad, to express what I can’t express in words. Its when and artist can only express themselves when painted or drawing. And its like me when I listen to music,it’s how I express what I’m feeling inside.

The Intelligence Community has had successes and failures, many of which have made history. One of the most prominent failures in U.S history was the attacks on September 11, 2011. Now most people would start to read this essay and think they know everything about what happened that day because it has been so publicized. However, for me it was different. Yes, I was alive when it happened, but I was too young to understand. The September 11th attacks have been of particular interest to me due to the fact that they happened right in my backyard. One of them even occurred in the same state in which I live. For this reason I wanted to know why an event of this magnitude occured in the U.S. The safety of Americans has changed since then leaving many people affected. The collection and analysis of intelligence in our nation changed dramtically after the 9/11 attacks.

Human Intelligence (HUMINT) is as old as humanity, and to this day is one of, if not the best method of collecting information, because of the potential quantity and diversity of information that can be collected through this discipline. It is a method to gather information through interpersonal relations. In this assignment I will explain the difference between overt and clandestine HUMINT operations, present which Intelligence Community members use HUMINT and describe their principal methods. Lastly, I will offer my opinion as to whether I believe overt or clandestine HUMINT is more effective.

Intelligence Oversights greatest shortfall that I see is how that throughout history there has never really been a dedicated committee focuses its sole efforts on Intelligence oversight, it has usually been an additional role or responsibility and just like my additional roles and responsibilities within my job, they take second and possibly third in priorities.

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.

The history of baseball can be traced back to the early 19th century when people played a baseball-like game with their own rules and homemade equipment. The earliest known mention of baseball in the United States was in 1791 in Pittsfield, Massachusetts. An ordinance was declared that banned the playing of the game within 80 yards of the town meeting house. Even though baseball was mentioned back in 1791 it wasn't officially a sport until 1839 when a man named Abner Doubleday invented the game we know and love today as baseball in Cooperstown, New York.

Hardball by Chris Matthews is an interpretation of what many know as “hard-politics”. The book describes the skill of playing the game in Washington and how to be successful at it. The book is a guide that teaches a series of maxims that would be in favor of politicians to learn in order to be successful. The different tactics provided in the book hold a lot of knowledge that would make the life of anyone following these strategies much easier when trying to get ahead in life. Matthews describes a countless number of examples of successful politicians that rose to the top. Those politicians are the ones who learned how to play hardball in Washington.

The failure of dissemination occurs when intelligence is circulated too late, given to the wrong people and intelligence are accorded with a very low priority. Wherein politicians and policymakers failed to consider the intelligence to validate an espoused position by that of the analysts.

According to Robert Jervis, “Policymakers say they need and want good intelligence. They do need it, but often they do not like it, and are prone to believe that when intelligence is not out to get them, it is incompetent.” In order for intelligence to be

From the rousing introduction, Christopher Matthews’ Hardball is presented as a godsend to aspiring politicians, businessmen, and frankly, everyone alike. Adopting a pompously self-assured tone, Matthews divulges his reasoning about sharing his wisdom collected from his own experience and other major players of “Hardball.” However after finishing the book, his audacity could be forgiven by the enjoyable nature of his work, the information that it provides, and the uncanny resemblance to Benjamin Franklin’s writing style. In the first section of Matthew’s self-proclaimed “classic” and political manifesto, he presents the world of politics (Hardball) through a series of informative—if not redundant—phrases, historical examples, and his own experience

From the rousing introduction, Chris Mathews' Hardball presents itself as a godsend to young aspiring politicians, businessmen, and frankly, everyone alike. Pompously self-assured, Mathews discusses his reasoning to sharing his wisdom collected from his own experience and other major players in "Hardball". However after finishing the book, his audacity could be forgiven by the enjoyable nature of his work, the information it provides, and the uncanny resemblance to Benjamin Franklin's writing style. In the first section of Mathews' self-proclaimed "classic" and political manifesto, he presents the world of politics through a series of informative--if not redundant--phrases, historical examples, and his own experience in Washington.

Chris Matthew’s Hardball consists of four different parts containing different themes and policies on how the political world is run. All four parts: Alliances, Enemies, Deals, and Reputations contain personal anecdotes, historical context of Presidents’ careers, and rules Matthew’s has formed throughout political experience. The beginning of each chapter starts off with a quote that foreshadows the subject of each chapter. Although Matthews does establish important rules to follow as a politician, I disagree with some of his points even though I am a democrat like him.

He is very clear and passionate about how he feels each Administration handled the war on terrorism, from calling the success of the Clinton Administration to how he feels about the failures of the Bush Administrations. Through using the passion he has towards politics Clarke is able to create a timeline of events and their reactions that are appealing and interesting. The precision that he uses to navigate around the information he is forced to omit establishes a flow to his story that allows the reader to follow his story through his 30 year career. As a result of Clarke’s time spent working for the federal government and his ten-years working in the White House the credibility of his accounts of each of these Administrations has a profound contribution on political science as it provides views from not only within the government as a whole and how they handle terrorism but also how the White House handles situations and how the policies change dramatically from one President to another. Clarke’s insider view gives political scientists new opportunities to analyze politics within the White House and in Washington

The United States Intelligence community draws on advanced technology and analytical techniques. An intelligence process that sets objectives, collects, analyzes, and report findings, with feedback loops integrated throughout. Explicitly, the intelligence community advantages technology and tradecraft within a proscribed process. However, estimation of threats and decision-making are outcomes of human thinking. Analysts and policymakers create mental models, or short cuts to manage complex, changing environments. In other words, to make sense of ambiguous or uncertain situations, humans form cognitive biases. Informed because of personal experience, education, and specifically applied to intelligence analysis, Davis

In most cases these INTs community compete among each other to provide needed intelligence information to policy makers to justify their budgetary allocations (Lowenthal, 2014). However, intelligence collection can be divided into five main categories referred to as “intelligence collection disciplines” or the “INTs”. These include Human Intelligence (HUMINT), Signals Intelligence