Free Essay Example on Signals Intelligence (SIGINT)?

What is your opinion about the domestic technical collection, i.e., Signals Intelligence (SIGINT)?

With the increasing number of terror attacks and threats in the contemporary world, any normal-thinking citizen would love to stay in a country where he feels safe and does not have to worry over what could happen next. This is possible through a robust military defense system that is well-equipped with real-time data. The price we have to pay for this is forfeiting some of the privacy we initially enjoyed. However, this is a price that is worth it and comes along with numerous advantages.

Is your time best spent reading someone else’s essay? Get a 100% original essay FROM A CERTIFIED WRITER!

Order now

The real strength and value of SIGINT as a source of intelligence can only be witnessed when information gathered from it is used together with those collected from other sources. Such other sources include Human Intelligence, Technological Intelligence, etc.

Should we still use the Full Scope Polygraph for CIA employees?

Part of the efforts to ensure a credible and reliable security task force is to ensure that the individuals we entrust to work there are trustworthy and reliable. The Full Scope Polygraph plays a significant role in helping us understand the employees. Factors such as their susceptibility to bribes and their strength of allegiance ought to be tested to the limit.

Further, it is essential to determine whether their previous actions or affiliations could be a loophole on the defense of the nation. The amount of trust and respect that CIA employees command is due to the efficiency of this process. This level of trust and respect helps them do their job diligently. Full Scope Polygraph for CIA employees should, therefore, remain in use.

Explain how HUMINT operations have helped thwart at least one terrorist attempt against the US in the past ten years.

Joshua Goldberg, who was a Jewish American man, assumed the identity of an Australian supporter of ISIS. Unknowingly, he confided in an FBI confidential informant his intentions to set-off a bomb at Kansas City during the 911 memorial event on September 11, 2015. Joshua tried to convince the informant to coat the shrapnel of the weapon in a manner that would maximize the number of casualties. He was stopped in a good time and arrested.

Second, the FBI arrested a Moroccan man called El Khalifi, who was plotting a suicide bombing attack. He was under the impression that he was working with al-Qaeda operatives. However, this "al-Queda operatives" were working in cahoots with undercover FBI agents. He was given a jail sentence of 30 years in September 2012.

An undercover operative tracked Goodwin, who was intending on executing a joint "suicide by cop" attack. He was to do this together with his wife against a facility that housed the office of the local police and the Sheriff's Department. According to the informant, the two had faced numerous burglary charges but had vowed not to go to prison. Goodwin had an array of weapons. From automatic rifle to thousands of rounds of ammunition and sophisticated explosives. Further, they had organized a biological attack using botulism and anthrax viruses. The biological attack was to be meted on public schools and hospitals that were local.

When the first arrest was effected, only a few weapons were retrieved. Unsatisfied by this, the informant opted to involve federal agents to investigate the matter further. A further search ensured the retrieval of all evidence.

In all the scenarios mentioned above, the FBI confidential informants had been guided by the team under HUMINT.

References

Matthew M. Aid & Cees Wiebes (2001) Introduction on The Importance of Signals Intelligence in the Cold War, Intelligence and National Security, 16:1, 1-26, DOI: 10.1080/714002838