Security Intelligence - Essay Example

Are Intelligence services in modern democracies an instrument of repression The history of power specialising in suppression s back to Spanish Inquisition and the culture of the Renaissance throughout Europe. "The concept of repression concerns not only political ideas but also embraces ideology and personal conduct, religion, philosophical thought, sexual behaviour and other areas as referred to in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights."1 Repressive transitions may take place through negotiated changes, national reconciliation, or reinstating of democratic process. It is important to identify the agents of repression and their possible continuation as public servants to prevent violation of human rights and promoting national reconciliation. Intelligence services present the most characteristic type of documentation and are rich sources of information on people and repressive organisations. The powerful intelligence agency of United States, Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) was "created in order to encourage competitive analysis within the intelligence community and to ensure that policy makers did not tailor intelligence to suit their interests."2 An intelligence agency's function is to offer an international clandestine capability to endorse and protect economic well-being of a nation and to protect from internal turmoil. Historians have only recently begun to investigate the role of intelligence and intelligence services in the formation and implementation of political, military, and economic policies which enrich, in many cases change, our understanding of personalities, events and decision making process.3 An analysis of the history of intelligence agencies reveals that there were many instances of involvement in democratic infringement activities. In the words of John McDermott "the CIA, which insisted that the US engage itself in a major way in Vietnam in spite of the coolness of the State Department and considerable opposition in the Pentagon"4 is a fine example of repressive activities of intelligence agencies that misguided government to engage in a futile exercise in Vietnam. It is necessary to put check and balance on intelligence agencies for successful existence of democratic nations and also to archive records of regression to have a clear picture to future generation. Instruments of repression: The specifically created instruments of repressive institutions include 1) intelligence services; 2) paramilitary bodies; 3) special tribunals; 4) concentration camps; 5) special prisons; and 6) psychiatric centres for re-education. After Second World War the repressive institutions, over the period of 1974-1994, includes Brazil, Chile, Germany, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Paraguay, Poland, Portugal, Russia, South Africa, Spain and Zimbabwe. "Among the countries of Central and Eastern Europe, which had been within the orbit of the Soviet Union since the Second World War, in a world divided by the Cold War, there began a process, starting in Poland, which would culminate in the 1990s with the total collapse of the existing political structures, the most symbolic element of this process was the fall of the Berlin Wall and the German re-unification. In parallel with these European developments, another unstoppable process of demolition of repressive political regimes began in Latin America to discard conservative military dictatorships. African continent also saw the end after a period of prolonged struggle."5The documents of repression are part of the patrimony of the people. They must be preserved in their integrity, serving as a memento of intolerance, racism, and political totalitarianism. Analysing the documents of primary repressive institutions reveals the political violence perpetrated on the people and the process of transition to democracy and necessity to exercise individual rights: amnesty, indemnity, pensions, and general civil rights in the new political situation. Records available with police or intelligence agencies will help evaluate an individual's personal, family or professional life, that have been influenced by political, ideological, ethnic or racial prejudice, and competence to hold official positions. Aftermath of Cold War and role of intelligence agencies With the end of World War II, and beginning of Cold War, hostility intensified towards the Soviet Union and clubbed domestic communism from a matter of political opinion to one of national security in the United States. Suspicion of American policy makers about Soviet Union's apparent attempt to dominate the areas of Eastern Europe were proved true with subsequent Communist coup in Czechoslovakia, blockade of Berlin, as well as take over in China. Suspicion aggravated with Soviet detonation of atom bomb, in 1949, influenced politicians to mobilize public opinion for the cold war and perceive communist party members to be part of a secret conspiracy. Most of policy makers viewed Soviet Union as a hostile power committed to a program of worldwide expansion and only United State was strong enough to resist. There were rumours, known as conspiracy theory, of communist infiltration in the State Departments and possibility of individual communists in sensitive positions subtly influencing the nation's policy or undermining its ability to defend itself. Communist spies were considered as genuine threat as J Edgar Hoover maintained, "every American Communist was, and is, potentially an espionage agent of the Soviet Union."6 There was enough evidence to establish this contention from the confessions of people caught in the act, who were American, British, or Canadian citizens, in or near the Communist party and did spy for the Soviet Union mainly for political reasons. At the initial stages of cold war House Committee on Un-American Activities and the Senate Subcommittee on Internal Security relied directly or indirectly on FBI investigative reports to expose Communist influence in the federal government, in the entertainment industry, in labour unions, and in public schools and universities. In addition, the reports were used during the conduct of federal loyalty and security programs to raise doubts about loyalty, and deny employment to certain individuals. It shows the prosecuting activities of high level FBI officials. Cold war, a war which was mainly fought with words, ideologies and taking advantage of opponents by espionage, was really between intelligence agencies of both countries. According to Victor Marchetti "the CIA can start wars, it can start revolutions, it can give millions of dollars away without the American people and their elected officials knowing a thing about it. The CIA is doing all these things7." Intelligence agencies of both nations took active participation during Cold War. As it was for the world supremacy both countries tried to gather allies to strengthen their side in order to accomplish this task through intelligence agencies. Cold war was rather the offspring of misconceived intelligence information on communism and power of Soviet Union. Democracy and safeguarding human rights: Democratic government is the government elected by the people where the power is vested in the people. In dictionary definition, democracy is government by the people in which the supreme power is vested in the people and exercised directly by them or by their elected agents under a free electoral system. In the phrase of Abraham Lincoln, democracy is a government "of the people, by the people, and for the people."8 Democracy has crystal clear principles to institutionalize freedom and a democratically elected government's key responsibility is the safety and security of nation and its citizen. Intelligence services have exceptional power for their functioning. The confidential nature of work of intelligence service is important as far as their goal is concerned, but the confidential nature of work itself become the greatest set back because it increase the likelihood of misusing the power and fund for their self interest. Intelligence services have been instrumental in many countries to use different kinds of indirect attacking methods to destroy opponent nation in various ways. Many battles have been created for achieving some political and economical achievement of a particular nation under the guise of intelligence report on security threat. "Biological weapons are used against opponent countries such as spreading harmful viruses, which is a massive threat to human life. Health services are the other field which can be used by the intelligence agencies to weaken the people of a nation. Harmful drugs are imported as medicines distributed all over the county, using these drugs gradually adversely affect the people's health."9 Resorting age old system of gathering information of opponents, through nefarious routes, which is interference on individual freedom, may be ignored. But, recent development of engaging in biological warfare through counterintelligence activities to eliminate opponents will endanger humans as a whole. Role of FBI in infringing democracy: Inception of COINTELPRO10, an adjunct to regular investigative operations and a secret arm of counterintelligence, with strict instruction to keep the secret within the Bureau, with safeguards that preclude public knowledge, indicate illegality associated with the program. Its purpose is to expose, disrupt, misdirect, discredit, or otherwise neutralize the activities of repulsive organizations and groups. COINTELPRO activities, among other things, include sending anonymous, scurrilous, and false letters to break up marriages, to sow internal dissension with organizations, or to inform public and private employers of the political activities and organizational membership of radical individuals, and provoke violence, prevent the election of radicals to public office, prevent dissidents from speaking or holding meetings, and prevent targeted individuals or organizations from publishing and disseminating their views. Basic success of FBI is withholding information from public, on the plea that the documents would reveal instructions on the manner in which it conducts investigations and would thereby substantially impair the effective operation of the FBI, with the help of exceptions in Freedom of Information Act. It may be erroneous to say the FBI became a national political force committed to averting "potential subversion" and in time devised alternative extralegal measures to safeguard the "national security"11 with special authorization to investigate subversive activities and carefully crafted procedures that preclude disclosure of questionable investigative activities. The information collected through illegal means of wire-taps or without legislative or executive authority and leaking derogatory information on prominent radicals and organizations to media is an infringement on individual freedom and violation of criminal statutes relating to mail fraud. Neither innocent nor benign, FBI COINTELPRO activities confirmed the FBI's consciously political efforts to undermine political movements which bureau officials found abhorrent. Special recommendation and directive of Peterson committee12 that "no disruptive action should be taken by the FBI in connection with its investigative responsibilities involving domestic based organizations, except those which are sanctioned by rule of law, procedure, or judicially recognized and accepted police practices, and which are not in violation of state or federal law" establishes the adverse effects of counterintelligence programs like COINTELPRO. Anglo-American ties: Intelligence relationship between London and Washington, at the start of Second World War, was brought about by necessity of continuing mutual distrust, the dominance of respective national self interests, and the vital influence of personal relations, rather than any nebulous notion. Communications intelligence played a major role in deciphering the German "Shark and "Enigma" cipher machine, building an analogue of Japan's "purple" which catapulted the defeat of Axis in World War II. "Budiansky demonstrates that the story of Allied communications intelligence in the Second World War was the story of mass production replacing individual genius in a veritable intelligence industrial revolution.13" Though success of Allied power is history we should not ignore the strength of coded communication used by Axis and the undemocratic methods adopted by Allied intelligence to decipher it. Intelligence agencies in other democracies: Intelligence agencies function world wide to gather covert foreign intelligence on terrorism, proliferation of weapons of mass destruction, provincial instability, and illegal narcotics trafficking which are main challenges of a country. United Kingdom has three intelligence agencies called SIS and "SIS is tasked by the British Government to collect intelligence world-wide in support of its security, defence, foreign and economic policies14." "MI6", is nation's external intelligence agency, under the super vision of Foreign Secretary, which deals with technical and human sources with foreign security services to generate information on political, economic, and military concerns. The Government Communications Headquarters (GCHQ) functions on signal intelligence which helps to decode communications and signals. MI5 is internal intelligence service of Britain responsible to collect information on threats which can from come within the United Kingdom. It is under the supervision of home secretary of the nation. De la Surveillance du Territoire (Directorate of Territorial Security or DST) is the France's main intelligence agency to check domestic threats from outside sources. DST was founded in 1944 and controlled by Ministry of Interior. The duty of tackling counterterrorism is with Central Intelligence Directorate, Counterespionage with Sub-Directorate, and economic Security and Protection of National Assets Department is responsible for the protection of economic and scientific infrastructure of the nation. DST uses four information collection methods to operate effectively against terrorism, which are- Informers, community-Sourced Information, and Monitoring activities. "Gaining human-sourced intelligence in this way is something that is specifically sanctioned by the Vigipirate program, which forms the basic structure of French counterterrorism plan."15 To make this possible, DST works with state department to organize media campaign to explain the need for counterterrorism. It shows that intelligence gathering institutions in U.K. and France are transparent and least involved in violating human rights. Failure of intelligence and Vietnam War: A nation forms its foreign policies with the help of information gathered by its intelligence service and a country's foreign policy is strongly influenced by this information. Intelligence information about the wide spread influence of communism in Vietnam forced United States to take military action against Vietnam. United State's intrusion in Vietnam has been criticised widely by the international community. The war lasted for 10 years and it has been a centre of concern for the media and people all over the world. "The Vietnam War was the longest military conflict in U.S. history. The hostilities in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia claimed the lives of more than 58,000 Americans. Another 304,000 were wounded."16 US started military intervention in Vietnam in 1950s and continued for 25 years till the fierce war for almost ten years. US sent about 30 million military persons to Vietnam to fight for a cause which is still a topic for debate. It has created strong tension in US government and intelligence agencies. It is generally accepted that the fear of communist invasion of the entire region was the real cause of United States involvement that ended up in war. The war almost destroyed Vietnam, but it has given new outlook to cold war and compelled United States to think again about the aims of superpower competition. US plan failed in Vietnam, despite of deploying 500,000 of troops and finally forced to withdraw troops without achieving their goal that resulted in ending of the longest war in its history. Role of CIA "President Harry S. Truman created the Central Intelligence Agency in 1947 to coordinate various assessments of the intelligence community and to place the CIA outside the policy community in order to encourage competitive analysis within the intelligence community and to ensure that policy makers did not tailor intelligence to suit their interests." 17 The CIA quickly evolved into a 'Praetorian Guard' totally under the president's secret control, and that every president since Truman, upon discovering such an extraordinary source of power privately available, has found its use irresistible. Many presidents have abused their secret powers and there is a growing distrust of secret powers. "Over the years CIA's ability to intervene covertly and often violently in the affairs of others almost anywhere on Earth has become more disparaging to presidents."18 There have been many attempts to politicize intelligence over the years with the use fake intelligence to justify war against adversaries and impose arms control negotiations. Due to political interference there is failure in strategic warning and honest efforts to accurately assess the capabilities and strengths of the enemy. The overestimates of the strength of Soviet Union in the 1980 and its subsequent collapse proved over politicization of intelligence on the Soviet Union. Same happened in the case Central America, exaggerating the role of the Soviet Union and Cuba in the politics of Nicaragua, Iran-Iraq conflict, and aggression on Iraq. "Daniel Ellsberg's release of the highly classified 'Pentagon Paper'19 to the New York Times resulted in the exposure of virtually every National Intelligence Estimates on Vietnam written by CIA since the end of French colonial rule." Effort to revamp FBI Subsequent to September11, 2001 terrorist attacks, the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), the nation's primary agency for conducting counterterrorist intelligence operation, was widely criticized for failing to prevent strikes on the World Trade Centre and the Pentagon. There is a strong demand to revamp intelligence system in the U.S and create a domestic intelligence service outside FBI structure. "Proponents argue that establishing an agency that is solely concerned with information gathering, analysis, assessment, and dissemination (i.e., on that has no law enforcement role) would decisively ameliorate the type of hybrid reactive-proactive mission that so often confounds police-based intelligence units. Opponents counter that such agency would undermine civil liberties, unduly hinder interagency communication and coordination, and create additional barriers between intelligence and law enforcement." 20Understanding the experience of domestic intelligence bureaus in the United Kingdom, France, Canada, Australia-all of which are close U.S allies based on similar democratic values-will be easy to project positive and negative themes common among the four services and draw parallels for designing a new intelligence system in U.S. The intelligence agencies in U.K., France, Canada and Australia are UK Security service (MI5), Directorate of Territorial Security (DST), Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS), and Australian Security Intelligence Organization (ASIO) respectively. These agencies have no power of arrest, are separate from wider law enforcement but retain a close working relationship with the police. Framing a model with positive attributes of these agencies will help increase efficiency and accountability of intelligence agencies in the United States. Conclusion Intelligence operations are always carried out in-camera and there was no scope to evaluate their performance. Communications intelligence (COMINT)-information derived from the interception and decryption of the messages of government, private organizations, and individuals-occupies the darkest and least accessible area of intelligence network and it is the gear in the diplomatic history of the twentieth century. "Any attempt to clarify the scope, nature, and consequences of communications intelligence was seriously constrained by the reluctance of London and Washington (to say nothing of other capitals) to release anything more than a trickle of information about their COMNIT operations even if some of those operations dated back to the First World War. The situation changed dramatically in the 1996 when the National Security Agency declassified and released to the National Archives some 1.3 million pages of communications intelligence materials from the period 1914-1945."21 However, there are radical changes in government approach and some scrutiny is possible." The CIA still retains its statutory role of compiling and transmitting the president objective intelligence on matters it deems relevant to the nation's security. The Agency may have become little more than a speed-bump for an imperial president who also dominates the Congress and the courts, but it is still part of the checks and balance of power within the executive branch of our government that make the U.S a democratic republic and protect us from the imperial usurpation of power."22It is high time for the intelligence committees of the legislature to monitor the political behaviour of the CIA and to ensure that the agency provides objective and balanced intelligence assessments to the policy maker and turn to the "original mission of the CIA: telling truth to power"23 in order to refrain from repressive and human right violation activities. Works cited Antonio Gonzalez Quintana.1997. Archives of the Security Services of Former Repressive Regimes. Report prepared for UNESCO. Paris: UNESCO) Daniel Ellsberg, Secrets [New York: Viking, 2002], p. 434. as quoted by Johnson Chalmers. 2004. How to Create a WIA-Worthless Intelligence Agency. (Johnson Chalmers. 2004) http://www.tomdispatch.com/post/2025/johnson_on_creating_a_worthless_intelligence_agency Larry M. Wortzel, "Americans Do Not Need a New Domestic Spy Agency to Improve Intelligence and Homeland Security," Heritage Foundation Executive Memorandum, No. 848, January 10, 2003; "No to an American MI5," Washington Post, January 5, 2003. Loch K Johnson. The CIA engaged in drug experiments (the MK/ULTRA Project) against unsuspecting subjects (two of whom died from side effects)." (page 5), Inc NetLibrary, 1991. .Schrecker, Ellen. 1994. Communism and National Security: The Menace Emerges Chapter 3) Boston: St. Martin's Press. Cited from < http://www.writing.upenn.edu/afilreis/50s/menace-emerges.html>Last modified: Thursday, 31-May-2007 09:42:10 EDT , on November 13, 2007 Melvin A, Goodman. November 14, 2004. Righting the CIA: Baltimore Sun) http://www.commondreams.org/views04/1119-20.htm Peter Chalk and William Rosenau. 2004. Confronting the "enemy within": Security Intelligence, the police, and Counterterrorism in Four Democracies. Santa Monica, CA: RAND Corporation. Cited on 14 November 2007 http://www.rand.org/pubs/monographs/2004/RAND_MG100.pdf SIS (Secret Intelligence Service), UK, Copyright 2005. Cited from on 13th November 2007. Stephen Budiansky.2000. Battle of Wits: The complete story of Code breaking in World War II. New York: The Free Press. Review by David Alvarez, Department of Politics, Saint Mary's College of California (January 2000). Retrieved from http://www.ess.uwe.ac.uk/genocide/reviewsw86.htm on 13th November 2007. Theoharris, Athan. 1978. Political Counterintelligence. Spying on America. Cited from http://www.icdc.com/paulwolf/cointelpro/theoharris.htm on November 13, 2007. VietnamWar.com, 2007, cited from http://www.vietnamwar.com/ John McDermott, The CIA and the Vietnam, The New York Review of Books, Copyright 1963-2007 NYREV, Inc, December 6, 2007. http://www.nybooks.com/articles/1958 Read More