Controversies Surrounding the Intelligence Agencies - Essay Example

Controversies Surrounding the Intelligence Agencies The Unites States intelligence organizations have had unending controversies about their operations and efficiency in the same operations. The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) being the intelligence unit charged with heaviest load of chores to work out since it deals with external espionage. Has had a couple of controversies which have brought about questionable remarks involving its efficiency in its operations and also about the same operations. Since the very start of its existence as a functioning espionage body in 1947, it has caused alarming situations. Dating from the recent “scandals” involving the agency that are inclusive of the Snowden Revelations, the United States ambassador attacks in Benghazi (Munger, 2015). To the aging ones of the USS Cole and 911 bomb attacks, not forgetting the ancient ones of the post-Iraq Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMD) to the United States-Vietnamese wars of 1960 to mid1970’s. A lot of mayhem and catastrophic episodes of disaster has hit those on the receiving end of the outcomes of its operations. According to public records, the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) has given a hand to the executions of several missions of the U.S Government interest inclusive of coups, assassinations and kidnapping of targeted individuals for interrogations with torture. It has been the key espionage agency that has been put into use by almost every president of the U.S in the running of their regimes. The extensive use of this body has been with Bush’s and Obama’s regimes where it had been deployed with the responsibility of fighting Islamic terrorism at large and also monitor the world’s nuclear weapons advancements (Silberman, 2015). There has been evident rivalry between the Federal Bureau of Investigations (FBI) charged with the mandate to execute internal espionage and the outspoken CIA which details about it have been discussed earlier. The NSA has been caught in these crises with reference to Snowden Revelations. According to The Los Angeles Times on December 9th, 2014 there was a long-delayed study that found that the CIA’s brutal interrogation program lost track of captives. It led to false confessions and fabricated information and produced no useful intelligence about immediate terrorist attacks. The 499-page executive summary released that Tuesday by the Senate intelligence committee contains previously not known details so burning and so graphic that the State Department has warned U.S embassies overseas to prepare for possible protests around the globe. It came to unfold to be true with the protests and embassy attacks in Benghazi, Libya and those of September 14th, 2012 in Tunisia. It was a good implication that the world is becoming fed with the indulging of U.S intelligence in other nations affairs since it has brought disturbances inefficient running ( LA Times, 2014). Edwards Snowden revelations continue to talk more of the ghost communication breaches at the National Security Agency (NSA). This announcement brought it out to the international community that the NSA has spied on almost everyone internationally. It means that NSA spy even on world leaders all significant business transactions in the globe. These revelations also report there to have been a British version of NSA that has taken control over fiber optic cables over the globe. The revelations also talk of the agency's hacking techniques exposure to the public globally. It is an implication that the U.S feels threatened by the daily political, economic and technological advancements of the rest of the world. It genuinely indicates that the U.S still wants to maintain its status has the world greatest nation that is why they are busy cracking into every nations' system trying to access their fate in the near future. The presence of a British version of NSA further indicates to a collaboration between the America’s espionage agencies and Britain’s espionage. To spy on the rest of the nations for they both want to retain status as world’s superiors (Biccherai, 2014). The CIA’s Detentions Rendition and Interrogation program has been one controversial unfolding. This program traces footsteps back to the very beginning of this agency. It became vibrant with the start of terror attacks on U.S soil and on U.S embassies overseas. The agency has been involved in the traced down of suspected targeted individuals who are abducted detained and interrogated, sometimes tortured. It became more evident when a retiring CIA boss needed torture films to be destroyed, but the government was the opposite opinion to retain them. This issues brought a dilemma that made it go public and it was all over that it was no longer a rumor that CIA was kidnapping detaining and torturing its suspects. It was even more evident with the establishment of the likes of Guantanamo Bay. Every world’s elite needed no other story to be told to know the brutality CIA has been cultivating in the name of sourcing for “intelligence”. This a clear implication of the dishonesty involved in the agencies operations. It’s also a communication that the pretty little information they give online is just but a fabrication of statements meant to curtain the main events from the public eye. All this suggests that the world should be very aware of the fabrications the CIA ties brings out as the truth (Anonymous, 2013). The CIA has been condemned for its controversial role played in bringing down a couple of well-functioning government systems all over the world to protect American’s state interests. In 1951 when the Iranian parliament decided to nationalize its oil industry under the then newly elected Prime Minister Mohammed Mossadegh, which was under the control of British Petroleum Companies. The U.S decided an overthrow. The CIA carried out a clandestine operation that saw Mossadegh overthrown. Mohamed Reva Pehlevi was installed who was forced out after 25 years of power during the Iranian Revolution of 1979 that saw the seizure of the U.S embassy 52 American hostages’. All these happenings left U.S and Iran relations at crossroads for the last 30 years. After their Iranian triumph, the CIA was employed to carry another coup twenty-four months later in Guatemala where the then president had start land reforms that threatened United Fruit Company. The CIA’s operation PB Success eliminated President Jacobo Ibanez and installed a U.S friendly government led by Carlos Castillo Armas that not only restored United Fruit but also left a bitter fruit and death squads for Guatemalans. The CIA tried to eliminate Cuba’s Fidel Castro in 1961, but they failed. In the same year, they succeeded in assassinating Dominican’s then President Rafael Trujillo. In 1965, an operation in Indonesia helped replace the Leftist Sukarno with the Rightist Suharto whose brutal regime saw an estimate of a million Indonesians massacred. In the recent past, the CIA has played a role in ending several governments region in Sub-Saharan Africa and In the Arabian nations leaving the victim states devastated. The Implication here is wide open that the U.S intelligence organizations are not carrying helpful roles in dispute countries but they there for collateral with the only welfare in the heart is the safeguarding of their national interests (ALLGOV, 2014). The CIA’s involvement in Vietnam from 1960 to mid1970’s came as another opportunity for the agency to carry out its ‘questionable’ operations. The most controversial bit of this activity was the Phoenix Program in which the supporters of communism were targeted, tortured and in some cases assassinated. It was one brutal operation that had no respect for a single human right and caused mayhem in Vietnam. CIA agents also worked in neighboring Laos, Cambodia, and Thailand. In Laos, they trained the Hmong people to fight in internal but they got killed in numbers, and this forced the Hmong to Flee for survival. We cannot forget to mention a thing about the U.S-Iraq wars. In that, the CIA was involved in collecting intelligence about Iraqi’s possession of weapons of mass destruction which failed to establish whether Iraqi had them. The implication here displays incompetence and unprofessionalism of the agency to handle and execute intelligence matters (Munger, 2015). There have been controversies within the organization of senior high ranking CIA officials been inside men for the Soviet. These Soviet ‘moles’ leak out was a real blow below the belt for CIA. There was tension in the service as trust issues cropped up among the agents. That was not the only default for the agency but also the failure to notify a series of Islamic terrorists. The 1993 bomb attacks on the World Truck Centre truck bombing. The 1998 twin attack on American Embassies in Tanzania and Kenya. The 2000 USS Cole and the 2001’s 911 bomb attacks(Adam Sewer, 2014). During this period, the CIA had no Intel about this attacks, and again the agency suffered loss of popularity as an espionage organization. After this, the agency packed-up action to start sourcing for intelligence about this attacks. Over the years, the firm has managed to regain some glory by execution of several wanted heads wanted by the CIA. The failure of the company to notify about these subsequent attacks was a clear implication of a declining security agency that was not able to play its primary purpose of formation. The now pro-active CIA is an impact of a refurbished body ready to take down its duties (US Senate, 2014). It is now clear how controversial the U.S Intelligence is basing on all incidences starting from the mid-twentieth century to present day. We can learn that the main reason for the existence of espionage agencies on American soil. And others located overseas is to protect the countries interest from any external interference and also safeguard the country's properties and ideologies from foreign interference (McGee, 2008). As much as we can point fingers to the U.S Intelligence to the government this agencies do what they are designed to do; that is why it is also called “The Secret Service.” It means that a lot about the operations of these agencies remains highly classified government information since if it goes public almost everything about the operations is questionable by the public. The implication here is that the intelligence organizations should carry out their activities in the most classified ways to avoid civil unrest. Learning from the past controversies it’s healthy to imply that the intelligence agencies are a primary cause of global rivalry and suspicion. It is also good to note that the espionage programs are more of political missions than security missions. Another implication worth noting is that the world is at a high rate of political economic and technological developments that are causing suspicion making nations to spy on each other and even try to sabotage each other. That is how far the U.S intelligence organizations have pushed the globe (Shanker and Schimitt, 2011). References Adam Sewer. (2014) The US Embassy Attacks Explained. MotherJones. http://www.motherjones.com . ALLGOV. (2009) Controversies 911 Suspects Cannot Mention Being Tortured During Trial Testimonies. Onenterframe. http://www.allgov.com . Anonymous. (2014). From Salahis to Cartagena: Timeline of Secret Service Controversies. Fox News. http://www.foxnews.com Bicchierai, L.F. (2014). Edward Snowden’s Revelations. Mashable. http://www.mashable.com . June 05, 2014. McGee, M. R., U.S.A. (2008). We are at war with terrorists, not muslims. Air & Space Power Journal, 22(1), 21-23. Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com/docview/217773290?accountid=45049 Munger, M. (2015). No place to hide: Edward snowden, the NSA, and the U.S. surveillance state. The Independent Review,19(4), 605-609. Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com/docview/1671113540?accountid=45049 Senate Select Committee on Intelligence. (2013). World Threat Assessment of the US Intelligence Community. Washington, DC US Government Printing Office. Shanker T, Schimitt E. (2011). Seeing Limits to ‘New’ Kind of War in Libya. The New York Times. http://www.nytimes.com/2011/10/22/world/africa/nato-war-in-libya-shows-united-states-was-vital-to-toppling-qaddafi.html?_r=0 . October 21st, 2011. Silberman, L.H. (2015). The Dangerous Lie That ‘Bush Lied’. Wall Street Journal. http://www.wsj.com. February. 8th, 2015. The National Security Archives. (2002). Iraq and Weapons of Mass Destruction. http://nsarchive.gwu.edu/NSAEBB/NSAEBB80/ . US Senate. (2014). Committee Study of the Central Intelligence Agencies Detention and Program. Los Angeles times. http://www.latimes.com. December 9th, 2014. Read More