With terrorism still prominent on the U.S. agenda, whether the country's prevention efforts match the threat the United States faces continues to be central in policy debate. One element of this debate is questioning whether the United States should create a dedicated domestic intelligence agency. Case studies of five other democracies--Australia, Canada, France, Germany, and the UK--provide lessons and common themes that may help policymakers decide. The authors find that * most of the five countries separate the agency that conducts domestic intelligence gathering from any arrest and detention powers * each country has instituted some measure of external oversight over its domestic intelligence agency * liaison with other international, foreign, state, and local agencies helps ensure the best sharing of information * the boundary between domestic and international intelligence activities may be blurring.
Whether U.S. terrorism-prevention efforts match the threat continues to be central in policy debate. Part of this debate is whether the United States needs a dedicated domestic counterterrorism intelligence agency. To inform future policy decisionmaking, this book examines, from a variety of perspectives, the policy proposal that such an agency be created. These include its possible capabilities, comparing its potential effectiveness with that of current efforts, and its acceptability to the public, as well as various balances and trade-offs involved in creating such an agency. Reflecting the limits in the data available and the significant uncertainty associated with this policy area, if there is a unifying message from the study, it is one of caution and deliberation. In an area in which direct assessment and analysis are limited, there is a need to carefully consider the implications and potential outcomes of such significant policy changes. In doing so, examination from different perspectives and through different approaches -- to ideally capture a sufficient picture of the complexity to see not just the benefits we hope to gain from policy change but the layers of effects and interactions that could either help or hurt the chances of those benefits appearing -- is a critical ingredient of policy deliberation and design.
One of the questions in the fight against terrorism is whether the United States needs a counterterrorism domestic intelligence agency separate from law enforcement. Drawing on an analysis of current counterterrorism efforts, an examination the domestic intelligence agencies in six other democracies, and interviews with intelligence and law enforcement experts, this volume lays out the relevant considerations for creating such an agency.
In considering the potential creation of a new domestic intelligence agency, we approached the issue from a variety of directions, seeking insights that would help us understand the pros and cons of creating such an organization and describe different approaches for doing so. This research effort in a set of topical papers and analyses that address different parts of this policy issue and examine it from different perspectives. This volume presents the set of papers focused on the U.S. domestic context and approaches for understanding the decision to create a new domestic intelligence agency.
With terrorism still prominent on the U.S. agenda, whether the country's prevention efforts match the threat the United States faces continues to be central in policy debate. Does the country need a dedicated domestic intelligence agency? Case studies of five other democracies--Australia, Canada, France, Germany, and the UK--provide lessons and common themes that may help policymakers decide.
The intelligence failures exposed by the events of 9/11 and the missing weapons of mass destruction in Iraq have made one thing perfectly clear: change is needed in how the U.S. intelligence community operates. Transforming U.S. Intelligence argues that transforming intelligence requires as much a look to the future as to the past and a focus more on the art and practice of intelligence rather than on its bureaucratic arrangements. In fact, while the recent restructuring, including the creation of the Department of Homeland Security, may solve some problems, it has also created new ones. The authors of this volume agree that transforming policies and practices will be the most effective way to tackle future challenges facing the nation's security. This volume's contributors, who have served in intelligence agencies, the Departments of State or Defense, and the staffs of congressional oversight committees, bring their experience as insiders to bear in thoughtful and thought-provoking essays that address what such an overhaul of the system will require. In the first section, contributors discuss twenty-first-century security challenges and how the intelligence community can successfully defend U.S. national interests. The second section focuses on new technologies and modified policies that can increase the effectiveness of intelligence gathering and analysis. Finally, contributors consider management procedures that ensure the implementation of enhanced capabilities in practice. Transforming U.S. Intelligence supports the mandate of the new director of national intelligence by offering both careful analysis of existing strengths and weaknesses in U.S. intelligence and specific recommendations on how to fix its problems without harming its strengths. These recommendations, based on intimate knowledge of the way U.S. intelligence actually works, include suggestions for the creative mixing of technologies with new missions to bring about the transformation of U.S. intelligence without incurring unnecessary harm or expense. The goal is the creation of an intelligence community that can rapidly respond to developments in international politics, such as the emergence of nimble terrorist networks while reconciling national security requirements with the rights and liberties of American citizens.
The author reveals the dangerous weaknesses undermining domestic intelligence in the United States and tells why a new national security service should not be part of the FBI. He explains the need for a new domestic intelligence agency, modeled on the Canadian Security Intelligence Service and lodged in the Department of Homeland Security.
Much has been written about U.S. intelligence operations. However, intelligence, as it is conducted in the U.S. domestic environment, has usually been treated in a fractured and sensationalistic manner. This book dispassionately assesses the U.S. domestically oriented intelligence enterprise by first examining its individual components and then sho
Formerly a staff archivist for the National Archives and a senior intelligence analyst with the Central Intelligence Agency, Rudgers challenges the popular view that the Agency was principally the brainchild of former OSS chief William J. Donovan. Rather, he explains, the centralization of intelligence was part of a larger reorganization of the US government during the transition from World War II to the Cold War. He also documents how it swerved from its original purpose of guarding against sneak attacks to taking part in clandestine activity against the Soviet Union. Annotation copyrighted by Book News, Inc., Portland, OR
