The Intelligence Community Of The United States

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.

Paper 1: What are the capabilities and limitations of intelligence in supporting homeland security efforts?

September 11, 2001 forever impacted America and gave a new challenge to our government that went far beyond any challenges that a natural disaster had presented in decades. The terrorist attacks were definitely a wake up call to being more prepared for natural disasters and reevaluating our intelligence agency jobs and communication levels. In chapter 2, one of the key points that Kettl discuss is connecting the dots. We can see that in the midst of 9/11, America focused on the nation’s intelligence services for answers. As the American people we wanted to know, who were the hijackers, where was security and most importantly, and who do we hold accountable? Furthermore, that the intelligence agencies failed to piece together information that already had about terrorism speculations. In chapter 1, Kettl talks about the warnings and signs that the government has before catastrophes (such as September 11, Hurricane

“Prior to September 11th intelligence agencies and law enforcement failed to communicate with each other about terrorist hijackers… This lack of communications had its roots deep in the culture of government… Fortunately, in the Patriot Act, congress began to tear down the walls that cut off communication between intelligence and law enforcement officials” (Gerdes 36)

The 9/11 attacks opened the avenue for a scrutiny of the performance and ability of the intelligence community to detect any threats to the safety of the United States. The media, politicians, reformists and other interested parties would not comprehend how such an attack would happen without the knowledge of the intelligence community. However, it is important to consider the fact that the attack was one of its kind and could not be approached with the resources and expertise used in other initiative such as the cold war. Therefore, the need to restructure the intelligence community arose from the view that it was still operating in the mindset and spirit of the cold war even in the modern era that had seen a revolutionary change of warfare

Since 9/11, the intelligence community has improved greatly. It is not that they have been reconstructed from the ground up, or that their mission has completely changed, it is, in the community’s eye anyway, that they now all share information, no matter how important or how small. This information sharing now even includes all the way down to local and tribal authorities. The reasoning is that, even if it might be small or seem insignificant to you at your level, it may be the piece someone somewhere else in the country needs.

Upon analyzing 9/11 it was clear to focus on the limitations that the Federal Bureau of Investigations and the Central Intelligence Agency had faced. Security breaches and poor intelligence sharing were just some of the critical failures that were encountered. Moreover, the main focus is pointed towards the miscommunication between these two agencies. Evidently, the execution and tactical strategies went unnoticed despite the apparent red flags that presented themselves, in addition to the Federal Bureau of Investigations and the Central Intelligence Agency failure to pursue threats and establish a baseline of security resulted in the disaster of 9/11. In conjunction to these mistakes, the restriction of shared information

CIA: CIA stands for Central intelligence Agency and is run by the United States. What the CIA does is collect, analyse, and evaluate foreign intelligence to help the president and major parties of the US Government to make decisions about National Security, being without and outside the country.

On September 11, 2001 Al Qaeda operatives executed a violent and lethal terrorist attack against the United States. The attacks against the north and south towers of the World Trade Center, United Airlines flight 93, and the Pentagon, have collectively been deemed the deadliest terrorist attack to take place on American soil in the history of the United States. The appalling attacks against New York City and the nation’s capital triggered an immediate assessment of the intelligence community, existing anti-terrorism policies and methodologies, and the overall structure of the United States intelligence community. More specifically, the federal government began to assess its existing capabilities to ensure domestic homeland security and enhance the security posture of the United States. An array of after-action reports indicated that communication and collaboration between varying government agencies was limited and very difficult to navigate. More specifically, intelligence agencies were extremely restricted and compartmentalized and as a result of such lapses, Al Qaeda was successful in their attack planning and execution. Although there has been a recognizable improvement in communication throughout the intelligence community, the United States must evolve and

September 11 called for massive reforms for the IC. One of the biggest barriers to circumventing the attack was not being able to connect the dots because federal agencies did not talk to state and local agencies and vice versa. We needed significant change and that happened with the creation of the Department of Homeland Security and revamping of FBI intelligence gathering. Now that all the agencies at all levels of government work together and filter information through fusion centers the intelligence gathered is a lot. This brings up the issue of if civil liberties are being violated gathering useless information (Burch, 2010).

“My personal view is that the intelligence community is bamboozling Congress and the administration…You can have both (civil liberties and national security),” says Binney. He estimates that the data from “99.99% of all (domestic) communications” is useless to the NSA and should be erased. “There’s no probable cause or any indication that the data that they’re collecting on the vast majority of U.S. citizens is in any way related to terrorism,” says Binney.

As our readings covered this week, the attacks on September 11, 2001 opened up a whole new world of requirements that are needed in order to defeat the terrorist threat the world is faced with now. The domestic threat that creeped up onto the shores of the United States on that fateful day raised significant concern on how it could prevented in the future. As James Burch mentioned in our reading, “the very term domestic intelligence raises significant questions, as well as concerns about civil liberties” (Burch 2010, 184). He went on to state even further that even though domestic intelligence may raise concerns about civil liberties, “it also supports an equally vital need – the preservation of the nation-state” (Burch 2010, 184). The US was forced to adapt and by doing so had to create a new set of rules and put certain safeguards and methods in

The attack on 9/11 brought many of the mentioned possible shortcomings of the intelligence community to light. Immediately after the attacks on 9/11, which resulted in radical Islamic terrorists using planes as weapons, many questions aimed at the intelligence community came forward. One of the main questions regarded the lack of communication between intelligence community members. Another question raised was about the community’s main budget and had it been restricted to a dangerous low.

In the post-Cold War eras, the US intelligence community saw many crises and transient threats as the U.S policy makers raised questions about the need and the role of the U.S. intelligence community. This thing made the effort of defining the priority of the U.S. intelligence more difficult and further complicated. Intelligence became an area “where the government could reap savings.” (Ibid, Para 2) The government resource savings in the US intelligence community resulted in cutbacks from the intelligence collections such as HUMINT and technical, including cutbacks in analytic resources. (Ibid) They all had significant U.S. policy issues in the U.S. intelligence community at that time. One example, talking about the Iraqi intelligence failures, carefully drafted national intelligence failed in its singular mission “to accurately inform policy deliberations.” (Ibid, Final Thoughts, Para 1) In this term, we can consider how the case of Curveball’s fabricated story of Iraq having weapons of mass destructions tricked the U.S. intelligence community and American foreign policy in Iraq operations. The U.S. intelligence community and policy makers spent long hours and carried out intense debates on the Iraqi intelligence cases/issues, yet they both could not ignore and mitigate the U.S. intelligence failures in Iraqi operations. (Dorgin & Goetz,

The government is not always required to have a warrant in a search and seizure of a house or a person’s possession. Intelligence Agencies can hack peoples' cell phones and listen and track phone calls, without a warrant. (Source 6). Intelligent Agencies have the ability to do this without a warrant as long as the phone call or text messages go back to the federal court (source 6). With the 4th Amendment supposed to protect your private property, the government can somehow access a citizens past vacation, phone calls, and many more without your consent (source 1). The government in this case will not require your permission or a warrant, this leads to the government collecting data on people. Many government agents who are assigned a person