Is the Current State of Counterintelligence in the Intelligence Community Adequate? Free Essay

Counterintelligence involves the collection of Intel, analysis and action to avert planned attacks. Security agencies are in charge of collecting security Intel, assessing threats and making policies to protect Americans. The intelligence services are not limited to domestic threats only; they also seek to protect American allies within and in foreign countries. At the same time, the counterintelligence agencies assess political threats, security threats and economic threats. In simple counterintelligence ensures the safety of Americans and its allies the entire world. Various agencies collaborate with each other in sharing information that will help in the protection of the country.

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The current counterintelligence community is fundamentally interlinked with each agency. The intelligence community is mostly connected to the president and the National Security Council. This makes it crucial for the agencies working together to provide correct information to the national Security Council. This means that the intelligence agencies are answerable to the president and the national council. The president has the authority to an initiate covert operations depending on the security information he receives. In turn, he informs the Congress to authorize the necessary resources for the operation. The three organizations work hand in hand to oversee the country's intelligence services. Intelligence information is used to provide timely information to policymakers, diplomats and warfighters. The information depends on the department it is shared with. The protection of American interests lies on the hands of various departments that depend on timely and accurate information to act appropriately. Finally, the intelligence information is not shared with the public to prevent espionage and treason.

The current counterintelligence community is sufficiently working to protect the United States despite the numerous challenges that it faces. The problems it faces include political interference and undefined responsibilities among departments. The intelligence agencies sometimes blame each other with responsibility and jurisdiction issues. At the same time, they may face difficulties on delayed policymaking. However much the intelligence systems my provide timely and accurate information to policymakers it may be time to make policies that conform to the shared information. Despite to this challenge the intelligence community has tried as much as possible to avert any crisis.

The effectiveness of America's intelligence agencies can be attributed to their investment in new technology. The security agencies are involved in listening to foreign communications, satellite monitoring, and surveillance. These achievements had made since the World War II when Central intelligence agency came into being. Since then America has made various steps in ensuring that the security of the country is a their priority. They have also formed multiple tasks forces that analyses and disintegrate information to provide the right intelligence to the National Security Council. Domestic intelligence has been left under the care of federal bureau of investigations that ensures it averts any internal crisis. On the hand, defense intelligence agency provides military intelligence to protect the borders of America.at the same time they provide necessary intelligence on the battlefield for covert operations. Finally, NSA offers surveillance on the country's communication patterns and advises the National Security Council on the impending threats to America. All these intelligence agencies are not limited to analyze security threats only; they also focus on economic and political patterns that may bring risks to the USA.

Compare and contrast U.S. Counterintelligence to that of a Britain's counterintelligence security services.

Britain and USA have various similarities in the counterintelligence security services. Despite the similarities in assessment and analysis of national intelligence systems in both countries there also exists sharp distinctions. USA and Britain have a lot to learn from each other on the intelligence analysis system. These two countries have faced various security threats which they have been able to avert. At the same time, they face challenges depending on individual counterintelligence systems. Both the two countries have the best counterintelligence security services in the country.

Both USA and Britain intelligence security services tend to protect the interests of their nations. They access domestic and foreign intelligence information to ensure the security of their people. They both have internal intelligence services and foreign intelligence security services. In the USA the agency in charge of domestic counterintelligence service is the federal bureau of investigations while in Britain they have security service (MI5) that counters domestic terrorism and espionage. On the other hand, they both have secret service agencies that gather and analyze foreign intelligence. The US have central intelligence agency which operates outside America borders while UK has secret intelligence service (MI6) to protect it against external threats. These two agencies collect data to protect the countries from external security threats. At the same time, they manage economic and political information which help both nations in putting up measures to protect their interests. Finally, both countries have defense intelligence agencies that their military in battlefield and combat operations. All these agencies work hand in hand on both countries to keep their citizens and country's resources safe.

There are differences in the USA and Britain's counterintelligence security services. The first appears on the democratic nature of both countries. The overall oversight of counterintelligence in the USA is the president and the National Security Council. At the same time, the head security adviser of the president is the CIA director. This makes CIA the most critical intelligence agency in America. On contrary Britain's security council is chaired by the prime minister while its members include the cabinet. The two countries have different leadership systems regarding the security systems. In America, the Congress also approves various covert operations authorized by the president. Additionally, the two houses oversight other intelligence service agencies. On contrary Britain's intelligence services are under the security committee chaired by the prime minister.

The other difference between the US and Britain's, counterintelligence agency is visible on the plurality in intelligence service departments. In America, there are several security agencies set up to tackle different issues. The American counterintelligence is specialized as compared to other intelligence agencies in the world. For example, the domestic agencies include DEA, FBI and NSA. All these agencies conducted different roles but geared towards ensuring the security of the country. Despite these intelligence agencies, each state contains its security apparatus who enforce the law as well as working hand in hand with several federal intelligence security services. On the contrary, Britain's counterintelligence is mostly centralized. Security service (MI5) is the overall intelligence service in charge of domestic intelligence information. The whole security committee is chaired by the prime minister and it embers include the cabinet members. The distinction between the operations of both security agencies is clear between America and Britain. Ultimately, the functions of counterintelligence in security service perform the same tasks in both countries.

Bibliography

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Theoharis, Athan G. Chasing spies: How the FBI failed in counterintelligence but promoted the politics of McCarthyism in the Cold War years. Ivan R Dee, 2002.

Wettering, Frederick L. "Counterintelligence: The Broken Triad." Strategic Intelligence: Windows Into a Secret World, An Anthology. Los Angeles: Roxbury Publishing Co (2004): 327.