Intelligence Community - Essay Example

Intelligence Community Introduction The 9/11 incidence can be duly considered as the darkest day for the Americans as they faced a serious threat,affecting their regular lives at large. It can be affirmed in this similar concern that the occurrence of this particular incident had certainly made other countries towards adopting serious and deliberate steps for upgrading their respective intelligence system in order to mitigate such threat or fight in opposition to the terrorism activity. It is worth mentioning that the 9/11 incidence had shaken the American Intelligence Community as it could not judge how such an inaccuracy or mistake took place that made the country and its people to suffer by a considerable degree. It would be vital to mention in this regard that the above discussed incident not only urged the American intelligence to upgrade its system but also raised questions regarding how to eradicate such an incident in future. Though the Intelligence system belonging to America still remains in a stronger position as compared to others throughout the globe, it is essential to remember that threat always persist and this trend would continue in future, resulting in making the system to upgrade for mitigating such threat (McKelvey, 2013). With this concern, the essay aims to identify the causes behind the intelligence failure of 9/11 and also assess how can this be corrected in near future so that threats relating to national security can be addressed and mitigated by a considerable degree. Causes of the Intelligence Failure of 9/11 It can be apparently observed that there exist various causes that eventually led towards the failure of the Intelligence Agency of America. Prior to the incident of 9/11 attack on America, the Intelligence Agency of the nation were viewed to be following a different set of rules and diverse standards wherein the number of departments were involved in adopting various effective decisions. It can be affirmed in this similar concern that various rules and constraints may decrease the potentiality to adopt and execute sudden decisions (American Military University, n.d.). While determining the causes of the Intelligence failure of 9/11, it was noted that problems within the Agency were growing, as there laid huge figure of priorities, low budget and the persistence of bureaucratic rivalry among others. These factors did not allowed the US Intelligence Agency to address and mitigate the threat concerning national security, which raised due to the occurrence of 9/11 incident (The National Commission on Terrorist Attacks Upon the United States, 2004). Notably, the lack of military option can be duly regarded as one of the prime causes of the Intelligence failure of 9/11 incident. This can be justified with reference to the fact that the military personnel had to follow certain limited policies based on which they could not make effective decisions for resolving the adverse situation of 9/11 incidence. This particular reason or cause ultimately led towards frustration within the military base, as they could not take the decisions according to the prevailing situation, which imposed negative impact on the nation and its people. Specially mentioning, the nation i.e. the US faced a major threat regarding not interpreting the language of Arabic, which was used by the terrorists involved in 9/11 attack. Thus, the misinterpretation of the same by both the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) along with the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) can be duly considered as the other cause of failure of the Intelligence Agency belonging to America of 9/11 incident (Public Broadcasting Service, 2014). Apart from having military and information misinterpretation issues, the Intelligence Agency of America failed in utilizing advanced technologies. It can be affirmed that being most advanced in technology field, the Agency could not make necessary decisions about the implementation of effective technologies. In spite of various communication mode availabilities, the Agency could not keep an eye on the utilization of the particular mode of communication, which was being utilized by the terrorist organization. In addition, it could be undertsood that the Agency did not possessed adequate level of resources and failed to utilize the accessible resources efficiently. The lack of having adequate resources as well as proper utilization of the same is regarded as the prime cause of the failure of US Intelligence Community. The very root cause of failure of the Intelligence Agency of the US could be that the Agency cannot make every individual to read and understand the holy book of Islam, which eventually makes quite hard for the people to understand the outcomes of such feeling and their impact on the society as well as the nation (Bergen, 2006). It would be vital to mention that the incidence of 9/11 had shattered the appearance of America as the damaged twin buildings were considered as the pride and the power of the Americans being the headquarters of the Department of Defense. This eventually formed a sense of taking revenge against the terrorist groups who were mainly involved behind such incident, which affected one’s individual life irrespective of caste, religion or age (BBC, n.d.). The major cause of failure of 9/11 was the implementation of American foreign policy in the Middle East regions like Iraq and Saudi Arabia. This implementation has made the people of these two countries to take part in making suicidal attacks as they were against the America and the policies held by the American government (Lawn, n.d.). Observably, there also exist certain other reasons that contributed towards the failure of the US Intelligence Agency of 9/11. In this similar context, one of such important causes was identified to be lack of imagination. This can be justified with reference to the fact that the government institutions belonging to the US were not well-coordinated along with well-designed concerning the adoption as well as the execution of effective and strategized policies of preventing such sort of threat. Apart from having failure in relation to the segment of imagination, the operational failures also count as the other cause of failure of the US Intelligence Agency of 9/11. It has been apparently viewed in this similar context that the personnel involved with the Agency have failed to utilize the computer-based screening systems, resulted in not recognizing the hijackers and the passports as well. Also, lack of proper management on behalf of the US Government was also recognized as its other cause of failure in addressing and mitigating the incidence of 9/11. It is worth mentioning in this similar concern that the government failed in making effective planning regarding the consignment of accountabilities for conducting joint operations within the agencies like the FBI, the CIA and the military officials among others (The National Commission on Terrorist Attacks upon the United States, 2004). Solutions to Avoid Similar Failures in the Future by the Intelligence Agency The 9/11 incidence seemed to impose adverse impact on the US and its people and this made the government as well as the Intelligence Agency of the nation to identify their respective loopholes and avoid the above discussed failures in near future. In this similar concern, the first priority of the Intelligence Agency towards avoiding such failures in future would be preventing the occurrence of terrorist attacks like 9/11 through following the restructuring procedure. It is strongly believed that this restructuring approach would certainly aid the Agency to avoid such failures in future through strengthening wider intelligence sharing capabilities, making effective decisions and utilizing accessible resources efficiently (The National Commission on Terrorist Attacks upon the United States, 2004). It is worth mentioning that in order to address and mitigate or avoid the aforementioned failures in future, the Agency would require to refurbish its intelligence related policies along with building its confidence towards conducting such missions in an effective manner (The New York Times, 2006). It would be vital to mention in this similar concern that broader advancements in technology and involvement of greater automation of power have certainly made the US Intelligence Agency to gain the upper hand to fight against the terrorism activities. Specially mentioning, power automation has made a drastic change in the technology wherein every particular aspect can be seen and monitored through one control room. Recently, the US airports have been equipped with the Explosives Trace Detection Devices that eventually made easy for the airport officials to check the passengers and keep the track of those who frequently travel from similar destinations. Moreover, apart from this, various other devices have also been utilized in order to maintain safety and take necessary precaution as and when needed (Kiger, 2011). The Homeland Security Advanced Research Projects Agency (HSARPA) launched a “Small Business Innovation Research” (SBIR) program in the year 2003 for promoting various small businesses to participate in Research & Development programs to have technology solutions for empowering homeland security (Wang, 2005). This could be one of the potential solutions for the US Intelligence Agency through which it can avoid the above discussed failures in future. It can be affirmed from a broader understanding that these solutions would certainly assist the US Intelligence Agency towards enhancing its operational efficiency and management power, resulting in avoiding such failures and the occurrence of similar attacks by a certain extent. There were certain potential reasons for which the US Intelligence Agency had failed to respond the adverse situation, which took place due to 9/11 incident. These reasons were noted to be ineffective utilization of accessible resources, lack of better coordination amid the responsible authorities or agencies, engagement of incompetent officials and incapability of maximizing operational opportunities among others. It could be affirmed in this similar context that proper attention to these significant aspects in a positive manner would certainly act as potential solutions for the US Intelligence Community towards avoiding these sorts of similar failures in future (Browne, 2011). It is strongly believed that education will bring a great change in the life of every individual. Moreover, involving others to understand that change can be made possible through education would certainly make a dissimilarity in terms of addressing any sort of dilemma like terrorism (Eberly, 2011). This eventually depicts that America desires to deliver a message to the entire world stating that violence and killing the innocent will not stop terrorism, but through educating people, this can be eradicated up to a certain level. Conclusion In America, no solutions are going to be perfect as the terrorists are finding various ways to break all the barriers that appear in their way of target without taking into concern the innocent and the uninvolved individuals. As per the above analysis and discussion, it can be apparently recognized that there were certain fundamental reasons for which the US Intelligence Agency had to experience failures in the way of addressing as well as mitigating the 9/11 incident. Amongst these reasons, the prime ones were lack of proper along with better coordination amid the officials, ineffective utilization of resources and shortage of long-term vision among others. However, the US Intelligence Agency was viewed to adopt certain significant measures such as providing education to the people belonging to the nations like Pakistan and Afghanistan in order to limit such adverse impacts that impose by the incidents like 9/11. There are certain solutions that might prove to be quite beneficial for the Intelligence Agency to avoid the above discussed failures while combatting against 9/11 attack. In this regard, the Agency might mainly focus on making greater technological advancements and come up with newer ideas that will certainly help it to avoid negligence or failures. During this process, the Intelligence Agency would find and observe every aspect to be taken into concern so that such failures would not emerge in future. Though several people lost their lives and many have survived, no one has forgotten the incident till today and there are people who still remembered everything, which took place during the occurrence of 9/11 attack. Thus, it can be concluded that the US Intelligence Agency would require to adopt and implement certain significant steps so that the failures would not be repeated in future, causing massive disturbances or problems to the people residing within the nation. References American Military University. (n.d.). America blindsided: the US intelligence failures that led to 9/11 Retrieved from https://www.google.co.in/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=6&cad=rja&uact=8&ved=0CFkQFjAF&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.iafie.org%2Fresource%2Fresmgr%2F2012_conference%2Ffaith_lawless_the_us_intell.docx&ei=71B8U7-7NJOwuASnnYKQCw&usg=AFQjCNEObaiuqGHl9_VsDDJWO5f67gJd0Q&sig2=wvQET5xuRumfZze1SIuPbQ&bvm=bv.67229260,d.c2E Bergen, P. (2006). What were the causes of 9/11?. Retrieved from http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/terrorism/fail/ BBC. (n.d.). The 9/11 terrorist attacks. Retrieved from http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/events/the_september_11th_terrorist_attacks Browne, H. (2011). 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