Term Paper on "Intelligence Agencies"

Term Paper 28 pages (11218 words) Sources: 1+

[EXCERPT] . . . .

Intelligence Agencies

What exactly is an Intelligence Agency? It is an agency that is responsible for gathering information about an enemy of any kind, and assimilating this information in such a way that it would be useful to them in their fight against the enemy. One of the more famous Intelligence Agencies of the world is the Central Intelligence Agency of the United States of America. This is an independent agency that the government of the United States which is charged with the specific responsibility of gathering and collecting information about intelligence as well as counter-intelligence activities that are taking place outside of the country. This is generally done with the specific permission and approval of the National Security Council.

The types of intelligence agencies that a country may actually require are very different from place to place a country to country. For example, a country that has armed forces may require such intelligence information that would help it to function better, like maybe military intelligence. The space and earth and satellite programs of a country may need intelligence about the various scientific developments in other countries, and so on. Intelligence activities may be conducted on three different levels, strategic, also known as national, tactical, and counter-intelligence activities. The first method that of strategic intelligence is one of the broadest levels of intelligence, and this includes the necessary information about the innate capabilities as well as of the intentions of various foreign countries that may or may not be actual threats to the country that is carrying out these activities.

Tactical Intelligence, on the other hand, is the intelligence that is connected to the various issues within an organization or a management of an organization, and deals with such issues as pre-employment screenings, the security assessments that may be required for the purpose of screening, both in the electronic field and in the physical field, and various other issues such as harassment, or the identification of the discrimination issues that have become a security threat to the organization, and so on and so forth.

Strategic Intelligence is that information that can help the recipient of the information makes better decisions about the various things that may be affecting him, and for which this information would provide him with an idea of a solution as to how to move further. It is a well-known fact that it is this type of critical decision-making that would ensure the security of either the business or the criminal or the civic issue or any other matter that the intelligence is required for. Strategic intelligence can also be defined as the basic intelligence that is required to form both military and security plans and strategies at national and international levels of operation.

The 'Intelligence Community' of the United States of America, in a nutshell, can be defined as the federation of executive branch agencies that carry out intelligence activities that are considered extremely necessary as well as of paramount importance for the condos and the maintenance of foreign relations and for the protection and preservation of national security. The information or intelligence that is collected by these agencies and organizations of the United States of America will generally include such intelligence like information about any types of activities that are directed against the U.S.A., all intelligence about international terrorist activities that may be taking place anywhere in the world, and may be a potential threat to the national security of the U.S.A., and nay other forms of intelligence as requested by the President, like for example, the information about any hostile activities that may be conducted in a foreign country against the U.S.A., and any other such information.

Who are the members of the Intelligence Community of the United States of America? This is a specialized group of about fifteen Federal Government Agencies and Organizations that play an important role in the business of conducting the activities of national intelligence. Some of the fifteen members are: the intelligence elements that belong to the Army, the Navy, the Air force, and the Marine Corps, the Central Intelligence Agency, or the CIA as it is better known, the Defense intelligence Agency, or the DIA, the Department of Homeland Security, the Energy Department, the Federal Bureau of Investigation, or the FBI, as it is better known, the National Geo-Spatial Intelligence Agency, the National Reconnaissance Office, the National security Agency, the State Department, he treasury Department, and the United States Coast Guard.

The leader of the Intelligence Community is the Director of Central Intelligence, or the DCI, and it is his duty to keep the President of the United States updated and knowledgeable on matters of security and intelligence and all about the various activities that may be taking place at any point of time within the Intelligence Community. The entire team of members of the DCI would be able to provide a distinctive edge and an advantage to the President as well as to the military, and to the law enforcement community of the U.S.A., and to the diplomats and to the Congress, who would then utilize this information as they see fit. The team would also have the responsibility of creating various policies and managing the different processes within the DCI that would eventually promote accountability, leadership, and also the corporate management of the Department.

The various policy makers would by this process of interaction b kept apprised of the intelligence and the information that is directly related to the security of the nation, and it is the Congress that has the responsibility of overseeing and maintaining a control and an overall charge of the intelligence activities that are taking place. After the assimilation of the intelligence, what is done to it, and who is responsible for acting on the information? Since it is widely acknowledged that the knowledge as well as fore-knowledge of the world around us is the most important factor in the happenings of the world that allows not only military commanders but civilian leaders too to consider and plan alternative actions from the options that are offered to them by the gathering of the intelligence by the agencies that make the appropriate decisions regarding the intelligence that is provided to them.

This is in other words referred to as 'evidence' and it is this that allows the decision makers in the Government and elsewhere to plan out any strategies and plans based on the information that they have received about the activities being indulged in by foreign countries. For example, the 'Executive Order 12333' has as its primary focus all the various activities of the Intelligence Community that have as their main focus of action the capabilities and the capacities of foreign powers or foreign organizations or their various agents and their intentions in indulging in those particular activities, and the various activities that they engage in that may be suspicious or causing doubts. The intelligence gathered by the Intelligence agencies is processed in a few steps, the first step being that of processing the information that has been collected.

The next step is that of analysis and the production of the information, after which is the dissemination of the intelligence. At this stage the information would be unlimited and overwhelming, and it is only after processing and dissemination that the information would be passed on to the concerned people, who may be the leaders of the nation, or the policy makers, or the armed forces or the law enforcement personnel of the nation. The intelligence in itself may be one of several types. One type is often referred to as 'human intelligence'; another is the intelligence that is derived from the unscrambling and dissemination of signals, yet another is that of 'imagery intelligence', and another is that of 'open source' intelligence, and there may also be other types of information like, for example, highly technical intelligence.

Since it is a fact that everywhere today there is threat to the security of the nation and its people, it is of utmost necessity for the Intelligence Agencies who are responsible for collecting damning evidence against any person or bodies who have been indulging in such activities that may be a threat to the United States of America, in this case, to be knowledgeable about the various threats that are surfacing day by day in today's world. These are some of the various threats that are being faced by the people of today, who do not know where the next threat would come from: chemical warfare, biological warfare, terrorist activities, trafficking in narcotics and other similar substances, and a newly discovered threat to the infrastructure of information of the country, in addition to the common threat to the military of the country.

In the activity known as 'counter-intelligence', the IC not only identifies and comprehends and also prioritizes the information and the intelligence that has been collected by it, but also counteracts the various intelligence threats that are faced by the country from foreign powers.… READ MORE

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