Top Secret America - Assignment Example

?Top Secret America The United s is more of an intelligence now than it was prior to 9/11. There is little denying the fact that the intelligence especially the counter intelligence network has expanded in the wake of terror threats closer to the American homeland than previously envisioned. The intelligence community expanded not out of its own accord but rather as a need of the hour. The execution of multiple terrorist hits on the same day from American soil against American people prompted the federal government to expand its security infrastructure. Since the hits against American targets were essentially intelligence failures, there was great need to beef up the current intelligence arrangements inside American borders. Historical performance of the intelligence mechanisms proves that internal intelligence failures need to be tackled at the earliest in order to guarantee the American way of life. The intelligence apparatus in operation in the First World War was unable to avert multiple internal intelligence failures such as the Black Tom incident1. The creation of the Office of Secret Services (OSS) and the subsequent restructuring as the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) has been essential to avoid internal and external threats since the Second World War. The recent restructuring of the intelligence community must be seen in the context of the previous restructuring efforts and their results. If the American government had failed to restructure its intelligence apparatus following the First World War and the Second World War, there are chances that the American way of life would have disappeared in the face of rising Communist aggression2. The commentary provided by The Washington Post relating to intelligence community expansions in recent years fails to see the bigger picture. The emphasis of “Top Secret America” lies in proving that the intelligence community is out of control for the federal government. The authors and their interpretation of the American intelligence infrastructure fail to account for the threats faced by America in the modern combat scenario. Unlike the Cold War period, modern day enemies are both hard to detect and deal with. The attacks on the Twin Towers in New York and on the Pentagon were carried out not by armed and trained enemy combatants but by people considered as aliens residing in America. In a similar manner, the July bombings in London as well as other similar terror related incidents involved execution by elements located inside the borders of a country3. Moreover, these elements were indistinguishable from the general public. The Washington Post’s interpretation considers eavesdropping and filtering of common messages and other information as being contrary to basic civil liberties. However, what the authors have failed to account for is that these very activities alert the counter terrorism agencies in time to take positive action. People such as Ramzi Yousaf and Aimal Kansi roamed the streets in America without hindrance for years, gathering intelligence for their ringmasters. In case that an intervention based intelligence and security apparatus had existed in America prior to 9/11, there would have been much lower of a chance for such incidents. The lives lost in 9/11 and since it are all due to a failed intelligence mechanism. Years of peace following the undeclared end of the Cold War led successive American governments to cut down on defense spending. Most of the cuts in the defense spending originated from areas that provided intangible outcomes such as intelligence cues. Eras such as the Reagan administration or the Clinton administration saw massive increases in overseas defense spending compared to decreases in intelligence spending at home. The subsequent erosion of resources from the intelligence community meant that intelligence spending decreased significantly in the decades following the Cold War. Consequently, a weakened intelligence mechanism gave perpetrators a chance to operate on local soil to eliminate local targets. 9/11 is not merely a colossal intelligence failure but it is rather a disaster that signals to our changed attitudes. The American people will have to realize that the cost of liberty, freedom and free will in America is submission to the state’s overarching defense mechanisms. It is simple for the authors to cite increased hiring in the intelligence community such as for TALON4 without appreciating that this is simply making up for lost time and resources. The authors need to realize that the intelligence community had been debilitated to the extent that it allowed a massive failure to occur – a failure that cost thousands of American lives as well as a ruin of the economy since around 20% of the American economy has been diverted to war efforts around the world. Another major area of concern from “Top Secret America” is the use of private contractors5. For one thing, private contractors are required to participate in efforts when there is either under utilization of existing capacity or if there is lower than required capacity to deal with issues. The use of private contractors around the United States is neither new nor controversial. Private contractors such as bounty hunters are employed by various states and federal agencies in order to deal with complicated law and order situations inside the United States. Similarly, it is common practice to employ private contractors in order to facilitate rebuilding and restructuring efforts in the wake of natural disasters. The debilitation of the American intelligence infrastructure means that private contractors have to be employed to deal with lower capacity than required. This situation is analogous to using private contractors in a multitude of various other positions around the country. The author’s stance on the issue is ill founded since most security contractors and intelligence contractors are former employees of the Department of Defense and hence reliable, trained and competitive personnel6. Conclusively speaking, the authors for “Top Secret America” need to revisit their stance from a more neutral and realistic stance rather than from a purely idealistic libertarian position. References Chad Millman. The Detonators: The Secret Plot to Destroy America and an Epic Hunt for Justice (New York, Little, Brown and Company, 2006) Francis F. Hinsley, British Intelligence in the Second World War: Its Influence on Strategy and Operations (Cambridge University Press, 1990). Ishmael Jones, The Human Factor: Inside the CIA's Dysfunctional Intelligence Culture (New York: Encounter Books, 2010). Jeffery Richelson, “Documents Describe Organization and Operations of Controversial Agency and Database”, The Counterintelligence Field Activity (CIFA), 2007. John Keegan, Intelligence in War (New York, Knopf, 2003). Read More