US Counterintelligence Threats

On September 11, 2001 terrorists apprehended 4 airplanes and committed the most heinous act in American history. They flew two planes into the world trade center, one into the Pentagon, and one crashed in a field in Pennsylvania crash killing more than three thousand American citizens. Since 9 /11many things have changed in America in relation to our national security.

The most obvious change sense 9/11 is U.S airport security and regulations. One of the biggest reasons why 9/11 was such a success for the Al-Qaeda group hijacking of the planes was 100% the airports unsuccsessful security. They were able to board the planes and go through metal detectors at the checkpoint. Thats why just a few short months after 9/11 occured the United States declared the TSA (Transportation Security Administration) is improving public safety while traveling through major transportation areas like airports. Many major airports have TSA, meanwhile some not so large airports have private agencies that are similar to TSA. Americans have had to undergo significant changes in their travel habits and this change seemed to be the

Contrary to popular belief, the art of intelligence and counterintelligence is not really all that new to the United States, but goes all the way back to the days of The American Revolution. Had it not been for the bravery of men and women alike, and the utter will to be free from the British rule, our military leaders would not have been so well prepared to engage the enemy and win in decisive battles.

Knowledge is power. It is as simple as that. Espionage is the secret gathering of information, often referred to as "intelligence". Intelligence refers to the processed information needed to make any decision. This could be used for business, military, economic, or political decisions. More often than not, this term refers to domestic or foreign policy of a country. Espionage is illegal in all countries, yet all countries have some form of espionage organization. The first espionage act was recorded 2500 years ago. The first book on espionage, The Art of War was written by a Chinese emperor/general Sun Tzu in about 500 BC. There is another type of espionage, counter-espionage. This is the

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

Perhaps the most immediate and obvious changed after the attacks took place in US airports. Two months after the attacks, Congress federalized airport security by passing the Aviation and

One change was made towards the immigration system. By creating more agencies and programs, the United States can keep unwanted immigrants outside of the country. There were also changes made to the U.S. national security. The creation of the PATRIOT act by President George W. Bush gave America the proper tools required to prevent future terrorism. Finally, social activity was hindered. 9/11 instilled fear into the eyes of the public and created mass confusion and terror. The tragic morning will live on in the hearts of all Americans forever. The United States immigration policy, national security, and social activity was greatly affected by September 11th,

“Counterintelligence (CI) refers to information gathered and activities conducted to protect against espionage, other intelligence activities, sabotage, or assassinations conducted for or on behalf of foreign powers, organizations, persons, or international terrorist activities, however, not including personnel, physical, document or communications security programs.” (United States 1981)

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.

Edward Snowden, the former National Security Agency (N.S.A) subcontractor turned whistle-blower is nothing short of a hero. His controversial decision to release information detailing the highly illegal ‘data mining’ practices of the N.S.A have caused shockwaves throughout the world and have raised important questions concerning how much the government actually monitors its people without their consent or knowledge. Comparable to Mark Felt in the Watergate scandals, Daniel Ellsberg with the Pentagon Papers, Edward Snowden joins the rank of infamous whistleblowers who gave up their jobs, livelihood, and forever will live under scrutiny of the public all in the service to the American people. Edward Snowden released information detailing the

The current state of Counterintelligence (CI) in the Intelligence Community (IC) is for the most part adequate. Still today there are many agencies who conduct these types of mission, even though the Federal Bureau of Investigations (FBI) primarily the lead when it comes to CI. Agencies like the United States Army Criminal Investigation Command (CID), Naval Criminal Investigative Service (NCIS), Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA), the Unites States Air Force Office of Special Investigations (AFOSI), and the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) are some of the different agencies which conduct CI missions and operations.

The intelligence community of the United States is a large, robust and bureaucratic system. From this community though, the national objectives of the United States are supported through their gathering and analytical capabilities. The following paper will highlight the intelligence agencies of the Federal government as well as state and local agencies that make up the intelligence community. Within these entities are programs that develop intelligence for use in protecting the homeland as well as analyzing intelligence from across the broad intelligence community spectrum. Along with this information, an overview of the 9/11 Commissions report on intelligence sharing recommendations will be looked at. Finally the domestic and foreign intelligence issue will be defined and addressed. From these discussions the overall capabilities and limitations of intelligence and the intelligence community will be seen through the aspect of supporting the efforts of securing the homeland.

Counterintelligence encompasses both “information” and “activities.” When we collect intelligence on what foreign intelligence services are doing that intelligence is called “counterintelligence information.”

Abstract: The theoretical and qualitative research findings discussed in this paper support the claim that the cases of Aldrich Ames and Edward Snowden led to monumental changes in U.S. national security and foreign policy. The effects of these cases extend beyond domestic change and have instigated international repercussions in both intelligence practices and diplomatic relations between the United States and multiple countries. Moreover, research acquired from journals, academic books, congressional documents, and scholarly articles will be used to strengthen the argument that the ramifications of whistleblowing and espionage in the Information Age have heightened the potential for damage to U.S. foreign relations and national security.

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).