The Growth of Secret Intelligence in the United States - Essay Example

This paper will aim at explaining the importance of maintaining confidentiality in secrets, operations, and information based on the information provided by the two investigative reporters in their book.

            In ‘Top Secret America’, the authors provide a list of investigative articles that describe the growth of secret intelligence in the United States after the 9/11 attacks. The book provides a three-part series that explains thousands of companies that work get to work on issues revolving around homeland security, intelligence, and counterterrorism (Priest & Arkin 5). The book presents the highly secretive world of America’s intelligence that few know about their existence, running costs, and operations. The work conducted by these organizations gets highly classified, and the public lacks an idea of what processes get conducted. The high level of confidentiality by the ‘secret American world’ has had its benefits for the country in regard to the war against terror. The two investigative journalists, who are also the authors of the book, provide evidence of their frustrations in tracing code names, acronyms without explanation, and buildings without addresses (Priest & Arkin 189).

            In their book, Arkin and Priest reveal another parallel world existing in America consisting of thousands of federal agencies, private companies, and individuals doing ‘top secret work’. They reveal increased spending on counter-terrorism, which does not get accurately accounted for by the federal government (Priest & Arkin 223). The secret work of these agencies gets aimed at protecting the country from potential terror threats. Placing confidentiality in the operations of these agencies is necessary for keeping information regarding military actions and decisions secret from potential enemies. This helps the forces to secretly plan attacks and detect threats without getting suspected.

            Maintaining a high level of secrecy and confidentiality also helps the joint special operations command-JSOC, in their target military operations and reconnaissance. In the book, the authors explain the development of the JSOC into a lethal force and highly secretive command which conducts much more work than the CIA currently (Priest & Arkin, 98). According to work conducted by Priest, the author describes JSOC as a force that gets to shape the universe in undetectable ways. Due to its highly secretive stature, the command conduct target military operations such as the one that got to kill Osama Bin Laden. The high level of secrecy maintained in these organizations is vital in alienating target terror threats. This helps the country in fighting against terrorism. The JSOC has turned out into a lethal arm of the military due to the little information that gets shared or is available about it. The high level of secrecy maintained by the JSOC has resulted in people getting curious about this mysterious organization. The high level of confidentiality though, has also served to assist the country in getting rid of its enemies since the 9/11 attacks and keeping the country safe (Priest & Arkins 258). The success of the JSOC has resulted from few people knowing about its operations. As a result of its obscurity, the JSOC has got to not only carry out operations in countries that America is at war against but also in other states around the globe.

            From the book, the authors pinpoint the secret growth of the country’s defense department through the employment of individuals and the building of secret underground bunkers in Maryland (Priest & Arkins 208). These actions have led to the overall growth of the country’s security and thus an overall assurance of the safety of its citizens. Secret intelligence detects potential threats to the country and helps to minimize the impact of terror attacks on American citizens. The US government has grown to assure its citizens of their safety through the development of these secret state intelligence agencies.

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