Creation of the Office of the Director of National Intelligence - Essay Example

?Running Head: Office of the Director of National Intelligence Office of the Director of National Intelligence Inserts His/her University Name Introduction Intelligence agencies have been an integral part of United States government since its creation. With the development of the country intelligence organizations of United States also developed and acquired high level skill. In the 20th century intelligence agencies of United States of America were named among the best in the business. The performance of United States secret agencies was commendable throughout the Cold War era. After the fall of Soviet Union the world became Uni-polar and there was no significant threat that the country faced, at least from another country. But this illusion of total control and dominance over the world was shattered with the attacks of 9/11. It was something no one in the world was expecting and it forced United States to rethink its overall intelligence capability. The 9/11 attacks were a blow to the confidence of United States and it led to major restructuring of intelligence agencies. After 9/11 United States decided to make a new intelligence institution called the Office of Director of National Intelligence. In this essay the details of this agency will be discussed alongside with the details of its creation. A general overview of the intelligence agencies of the country will also be given. The need for this separate institution will be discussed and future threats this office may be able to counter will be explained. History and General Overview of Intelligence Agencies of USA Intelligence agencies of United States of America have a long history. Since the creation of United States of America secretive agencies have a large role in the government operations. Founding fathers of America knew the importance of a secret agency that will protect the country from foreign and domestic threats. George Washington in his first Presidential State of the Union address requested Congress to establish a secret service fund for different secret activities (Central Intelligence Agency 2007). Since then secret agencies have conducted activities in foreign countries for the short and long term interest of United States. For a major part of 19th century Britain was a great danger for United States therefore most activities of secret agencies of United States were targeted against Britain. Agents were also sent in different colonial regions in order to extend the influence of United States and protect the interest of the country. In the early and middle of 19th century the aim of United States was to protect itself and gain power. The Civil War was the first big hurdle United States had to face after the war of 1812. The war endangered the sovereignty of the country. Secret spies also played a great role in the civil war on both sides (Central Intelligence Agency 2007). Propaganda schemes were followed by both the side and secret agents were used. After the Civil War United States of America realized that the country needed a formal intelligence organization that could protect the interest of the state domestically and internationally. Before this informal intelligence missions were carried out but as the country developed there was a need of a formal intelligence structure. In 1880s the first two formal intelligence agencies were made. The first was the Military Intelligence Division and the second was Office of Naval Intelligence (Central Intelligence Agency 2007). Over the period of time intelligence agencies became more organized and acquired superior skills. More divisions were made and covert operations continued in the first half of 20th century. In the First World War the efforts of US intelligence agencies were not very successful mainly due to the lack of funding. But before the Second World War, United States had developed a great system of intelligence gathering and many agencies were working in order to collect intelligence. The intelligence failure of Pearl Harbor was the greatest intelligence failures in United States history. This event made the government realized how vulnerable their system of intelligence was. After the end of Second World War the country started to work on its intelligence network seriously. In 1947 Central Intelligence Agency was formed as a covert operations agency (McGarvey 1972). This was the start of formalization of intelligence agencies. During Cold War era the performance of secret agencies of America was good. The intelligence capability of the country also increased with the rapid economic development of the country. Many different agencies came into existence during the Cold War era and intelligence gathering alongside with covert operations increased. Today there are many intelligence agencies of United States. The Intelligence Community of United States (IC) is a collective federation of 16 independent intelligence agencies of United States. Secret Services, CIA, NSA are some of the members of the Intelligence Community. The main purpose of the IC is to have coordination between the intelligence agencies of United States. All the agencies share its information with the Intelligence Community which advises the President. The head of the Intelligence Community today is the Director of National Intelligence. He is also the head of the Office of National Intelligence. The head of IC and NI serves as an advisor to the President and the national Security Council. He is also responsible for the coordination of Intel that IC receives from its member agencies. Creation of Office of Director of National Intelligence The Office of Director of National Intelligence was created in 2004 at the recommendation of the 9/11 commission (Director of National Intelligence 2011). The office was created through the bill of Intelligence Reform and Terrorism Prevention Act of 2004. The aim of the office is to assist the President of the United States in matters of national security. The office was formed to coordinate intelligence activity carried out by different intelligence agencies of the country. It was actually the need of the hour that an office was created that could increase the analysis of secret information that is gathered by secretive agencies of the country. There was no lack of intelligence information rather there was an information overflow. For that a separate intelligence unit was needed. This requirement was served by the Office of Director of National Intelligence. After the 9/11 attacks the confidence of the country in the intelligence network was at an all time low. The dominance of United States of America was accepted by the rest of the world. After the end of cold war and fall of the Soviet Union, United States emerged as the only super power of the world. The country was not facing immediate threat from any country and its influence was great on the whole world. The intelligence capability of the country was therefore devoted to other areas as there was not threat. Who would attack biggest super power of the world? The attacks of 9/11 came as a shock for the whole country and it was a massive intelligence failure. The situation after 9/11 was similar to the situation of the country after the Pearl Harbor attacks. At that time too the intelligence failure was a massive set back and after 9/11 the effect was similar. A need was identified to create a new intelligence system that could prevent such attacks in future. This was the major reason behind creation of a separate Office of Director of National Intelligence. Director of Office of National Intelligence also serves as the Director of Community Intelligence (CI). He therefore knows what the other intelligence agencies are doing and analyzes all the information that these agencies collects. The Office of National Intelligence helps the Director in analysis of Intel. There is no other purpose of Office of National Intelligence. Intelligence agencies work on different projects in different countries therefore they have so much data and information with them. Every intelligence agency works in a separate direction and has a different focus. The Office of Director of National Intelligence actually works to connect the dots between information received from other intelligence agencies of United States. Need for the Office of Director of National Intelligence The intelligence and security infrastructure of United States had many problems since separate independent agencies were formed. All of them worked in their separate directions and there was a severe lack of coordination. Since 1950s concerned officials have suggested major reforms in the intelligence infrastructure of the country but unfortunately nothing was done due to lack of involvement by the legislative bodies (Office of Director of National Intelligence 2011). The country has a habit of reacting after the damage and this was the case with the 9/11 event. Only after 9/11 the government realized that there was a need of an agency that should be responsible for looking into the information collected by other agencies. There were many agencies working in United States pre 9/11 attacks and all of them were doing just fine. But they lacked coordination because there was not a systematic framework through intelligence agencies can cooperate. Intelligence agencies operate under their respective heads and there is a tendency in intelligence officers to not take help from other agencies. It is a problem that is persistent in secretive organizations. They do not want to ask for other institution’s help simply because they consider it inferior. They want to do it all by themselves and this was a major reason why a need of separate department arouse. The lack of communication among various intelligence agencies was a major problem at the time of 9/11 attacks (Rafique 2011). Information was there but an effort was not made to analyze it and therefore the whole country had to suffer the consequences. It was because of this lack of coordination and communication that need of Office of Director of National Intelligence came up. Previously Intelligence Community has headed by the director of Central Intelligence Agency. There was not a separate office of National Intelligence and this meant that the director of CIA had to two jobs. First was to coordinate between the different member agencies of the Intelligence Community and the second job was t head the most important intelligence agency of the country. These two jobs were a toll on the director of CIA and coordination was lacking therefore (Johnson 2010). A proper intelligence framework required a separate organization or a agency to head the Intelligence Community. This is how Office of Director of National Intelligence cam e into existence. The Director of National Intelligence became the head of the Intelligence Community. He was also given a separate office to assist him in coordination and analysis of information collected by different intelligence agencies. Office of Director of National Intelligence is not a member of the Intelligence Community and this is done precisely to keep the focus of the DNI on his main job. There was also a need for an Office of DNI because terror threats have become increasingly sophisticated and diverse. It is not the Cold War era where there is only one major known threat. Today there are many threats and most of them are unknown to United States. Terrorism has become a global phenomenon. A person sitting in Pakistan can be plotting against United States and intelligence agencies have to safeguard the country from such threats. The country needed an intelligence system that could coordinate the information coming from different agencies working on different projects. Al-Qaeda is a sophisticated organization because it is not limited to a geographical boundary and has members all over the world. The leadership is united but not attacks are planned by the leadership. Members of Al-Qaeda operate at grass root level and therefore are difficult to track and fight. Intelligence becomes increasingly important in this age of global terrorism and Office of Director of National Intelligence aids in the collection and analysis of that information. There was also a need for quicker decision making at the highest level of the government. After the 9/11 attacks country feared other such attacks and there was a need of decrease in response time. Office of Director of National Intelligence plays a major role in increasing the time required for decision making. Director National Intelligence is also an advisor to the President therefore the information he receives from other intelligence agencies is directly forwarded to the President. Office of Director of National Intelligence was also needed because the threat United States was facing after 9/11 attacks was more complicated and dynamic then the dangers of the Cold War (Intelligence Community Official Document 2007). A liaison was needed between the White House and the intelligence agencies and creation of the Office of Director of National Intelligence served that purpose. Future Threats and Role of Office of DNI United States is facing a serious threat from terrorist organization all over the world. Many Jihadist network are operating with the sole aim of destroying United States and many of them have resources to do so. Intelligence today is more important than it ever was before. There has been no major terrorist attack on United States of America since 9/11 but this can change in future. There is a great threat of domestic terrorism as Al-Qaeda and other Muslim terrorist groups are trying to recruit residents of United States of America (The Daily Point 2011). This is a major problem for the country. Local residents are difficult to screen because they might not have a criminal record. In such a time need of intelligence is important and so is the coordination between intelligence agencies. Office of Director of National Intelligence can coordinate the information they get from the domestic agencies and international intelligence agencies. They are the ones who can connect the dots and can save United States from another disaster like that of 9/11. Information of both foreigners and of local residents is important if United States is to avert an attack similar to 9/11 attacks. An important benefit of Office of Director National Intelligence is that it can direct the efforts of the whole intelligence system on a particular issue. It director reports to President therefore any information that is given to the President can shift the attention of all intelligence agencies. There are always differences in the intelligence agencies as to which issue require more attention. Different agencies think different issues are important therefore there is a need for a coordinated intelligence strategy that should tell what issues require attention. Office of Director of National Intelligence collects information from all agencies therefore it is in the best position to decide where country should devote its intelligence efforts. Conclusion Intelligence agencies have been an important part of United States government since the time of founding fathers. After Cold War era the country became the only super power the world and therefore did not entertain any major threat. But after 9/11 attacks things changed and the intelligence agencies were restructured. The 9/11 commission recommended the creation of Office of Director of National Intelligence that could help coordinate intelligence gathering between different agencies. The Director of National Intelligence also became the head of the Intelligence Community and the advisor to the President and National Security Council. There was a need of such an office because intelligence agencies were collecting information in large amounts but there was no one who can analyze all that collective information. Office of Director of National Intelligence is helping connecting different agencies and is the only organization that can direct the intelligence efforts of the country in a direction. References About ODNI. (2011). Office of Director of National Intelligence. Retrieved from http://www.dni.gov/history.htm A new national plan to fight the threat of al Qaeda and other violent radicals at home. (2011). The Daily Point. Retrieved from http://www.thedailypoint.com/usa/a-new-national-plan-to-fight-the-threat-of-al-qaeda-and-other-violent-radicals-at-home-13449.html History of American Intelligence. (2007). Central Intelligence Agency Official Website. Retrieved from https://www.cia.gov/kids-page/6-12th-grade/operation-history/history-of-american-intelligence.html#spies-like-us Johnson, Stephen. (2010). Director of Intelligence Shortfalls: Is it the Man or the Vision. Foreign Policy. Retrieved from http://shadow.foreignpolicy.com/posts/2010/06/13/director_of_national_intelligence_shortfalls_is_it_the_man_or_the_mission McGarvey, Patrick, J. (1972). C.I.A.: the myth and the madness. New York: Penguin Books Office of the Director of National Intelligence. (2007). Retrieved from http://www.dtic.mil/cgi-bin/GetTRDoc?Location=U2&doc=GetTRDoc.pdf&AD=ADA471949 Rafique, Najam. (2011). TRANSFORMING THE US INTELLIGENCE COMMUNITY. The Institute of Strategic Studies Islamabad. 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