Intelligence Information Sharing - Coursework Example

Intelligence Information Sharing al Affiliation Intelligence Information Sharing Intelligence information sharing refers to the process of making critical security information available to different intelligence agencies in a state beginning from the federal level to the state and local levels. Policing and police intelligence seldom intersected prior to the September 11 attack. Information sharing encountered various obstacles in its original days. It was mostly due to the complexity of the inter-organizational setting and the newness of the knowledge –sharing protocols that existed.

They created uncertainty about what information should be shared and in what situations and inconsistency about how that will occur (Larence, 2011). However, with time, the different agencies became used to the new protocols and how to integrate the same in their daily activities. There have been great strides overcoming obstacles to information sharing in the security docket since 2001.The policy of information sharing has worked out in helping to foil security and terror threats in the country in several instances.

One notable case was the ‘Yassin Aref and Mohammad Hossain’ of 2004.Three agencies working at several levels helped foil their plan to purchase a shoulder-fired grenade launcher to assassinate a Pakistani Diplomat. The FBI did an investigation that enlisted the help of The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms, and the local police. Using the help of an informant, the FBI set up a trap to lure Mohammad Hossain into a fake terrorist conspiracy. Mohammad brought Yassin, a Kurdish refugee to witness.

The informant had plotted a fake Terrorist plan saying that he needed missiles to kill a particular Pakistani diplomat in New York City. He availed this information to the Local Police that contacted the FBI after both Aref and Hossain agreed to help. The FBI contacted The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms, which was after the two criminals due to charges of illegal trafficking of firearms. Aref and Hossain were found guilty of conspiracy to conceal material support for terrorism and money laundering and got fifteen years jail sentence each (Walton, 2014).

Intelligence information sharing is critical in preventing criminal and terror attacks in the country. The process ought to be systematic to prevent any confusion that may arise in a system where there is no proper channel for entry of information. Firstly, since the local police are the ones in the bottom chain of the information pathway, they role should be to act as ‘ears and eyes’ in the local communities. That is they should be the collectors of raw information that is then fed into the intelligence process to help analysts and other individuals ‘connect the dots’.

Police have an opportunity to connect with the local community that make it easier for them to trust them and consequently share information with them. After an analysis of the information, the local police can then decide whether to pass the information to higher intelligence agencies or notSecondly, the government should establish a more comprehensive platform for information sharing. Such a platform might be a highly protected website to which only selected high-ranking security officials have access.

In such a system, the different agencies collect their information then do a thorough analysis of the same. They then convert the information into a format that all other agencies can understand and post it on the website. All the agencies would have the responsibility of protecting the integrity of the website to prevent external or foreign access (Walton, 2014). Alternatively, the government can establish more organizations that act as harbours of security information that act as single coordinating centres for information.

Lastly, to enhance intelligence information sharing, the agencies should strive to strengthen ties between themselves. Administration officials should encourage more inter-agency transfers to strengthen the inter-agency bonds thus making it easier to trust each other with information. The agents from different levels of security should work together in solving security case that would strengthen the bonds. Success in information sharing depends on the cohesion that would exist between the agencies and an overall determination by the agencies to make it work.

Also, a greater network involving international security bodies for instance Interpol would increase the chances of success of the process even more.ReferencesUnited States & Larence, E. R. (2010). Information sharing: Federal agencies are helping fusion centers build and sustain capabilities and protect privacy, but could better measure results. Washington, D.C: Government Accountability Office.United States. (2006). Able Danger and intelligence information sharing: Hearing before the Committee on the Judiciary, United States Senate, One Hundred Ninth Congress, first session, September 21, 2005.

Washington: U.S. G.P.O.Walton, M. R. (2014). Informal Transnational Police-to-Police Information Sharing: Its Structure and Reform. New York: New York University.