Latest Moral Issue in Intelligence Operations: How Far Can We Go to Uncover Secrets - Essay Example

Since 9/11 in the United States, this has been a wake-up call that surveillance must now encompass those citizens within the country to ferret out lone wolf terrorists as well as monitoring foreign countries, their governments, their intelligence groups and those radical terrorist groups now moving into our own territory. War is being fought on a new level, the electronic surveillance, using advanced tools that most in the public may not even be aware of. What is purchased on the market is only one level as to what is being especially created for operatives in the field who must find ways to intercept messages through email and other electronic methods.

Yet, without this type of surveillance, we would not know what the enemy is up to, nor would we be prepared for full-level attacks made on our unsuspecting citizens. The terrorist war is now on our grounds and this means that certain steps must be taken to keep the people safe, even conducting surveillance on natural citizens because they may, unwittingly, be friends with a terrorist. While monitoring foreign people does not require approval, in the United States and elsewhere in the Western free world, approval must be obtained to monitor natural citizens.

Or should that now change when events require quick information collection for analysis? And how far is too far when usurping privacy rights? Should there be a loss of certain freedoms in privacy in order to stay safe? Introduction With all the terrorist activity in the world today, one must wonder just whether our freedoms in maintaining privacy really lie when it concerns cloak and dagger intelligence work behind the scenes. Intelligence operators must always be monitoring communications, for example, between known terrorists and other people who are connected with them.

If there is a hint of a biological or biochemical event to be instituted by one of these ruthless terrorists, is it not better to find out what it will be and when it will take place? That might mean that groups of people must be monitored in order to get that information but there might not be enough time to get the necessary paperwork in place for proper authorization (Olson 2006). Thousands of lives might be lost as a consequence. By its very nature, the intelligence world is a shady place where governments are made, as well as brought down.

The romance and escapades of James Bond 007, as dramatized by Ian Fleming, may still hold a sense of excitement, yet the truth of what really happens in a job as a spy, may be less than romantic. There are a number of writers who spin out novels such Blowback by Brad Thor whose character, Scot Harvath, must find and defuse a horrifying biochemical attack from the Middle East. Vince Flynn’s Separation of Power, stars a character named Mitch Rapp, who must take out a Russian nuke instillation but finds out he was also targeted for death by a member of the Israeli intelligence.

In both books, the main character operates pretty much alone, takes out the enemy by different methods, although there are occasions to call in a favour from one department or another, even from a foreign country’s intelligence service, or from a government contract service. Fair Play: The Moral Dilemmas of Spying by James Olson, presents the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), and other intelligence services, as less convoluted than anything read about in spy novels. In fact, Olson’s book presents the agency as following the laws of the land, and observing the commitments made by the United States to the United Nations (UN) in its various charters and agreements, as well as following the Federal Constitution.

Certainly, every event or issue that comes into the CIA, requires a review, assessment and a determined