The Attack On Pearl Harbor And 2001 Attacks On The World Trade Center

The Intelligence Community has had successes and failures, many of which have made history. One of the most prominent failures in U.S history was the attacks on September 11, 2011. Now most people would start to read this essay and think they know everything about what happened that day because it has been so publicized. However, for me it was different. Yes, I was alive when it happened, but I was too young to understand. The September 11th attacks have been of particular interest to me due to the fact that they happened right in my backyard. One of them even occurred in the same state in which I live. For this reason I wanted to know why an event of this magnitude occured in the U.S. The safety of Americans has changed since then leaving many people affected. The collection and analysis of intelligence in our nation changed dramtically after the 9/11 attacks.

After the ending of the Cold War, many world incidents absorbed the focus of the United States such as; Yugoslav Crisis, Bosnia War, Invasion of Kuwait, and China growing influence. Additionally, the United States was in a period of Economic Prosperity and extreme technological growth. All of these factors lead to a decreased focus and importance on members like intelligence, Bin Laden and the growing terror threat. This is shown in the 9/11 report where it is stated, The Presidential Daily Briefing consisted of intelligence reports “without much analyze or context(9/11

After World War II American intelligence had the need to be transformed. The inexperience along with bureaucracy and poor coordination among American intelligence officers obligated the United States intelligence community to change dramatically in order to confront the new challenges that emerged after the end of WWII. From Early America through WWI the intelligence system of the United States of America was involved in operations in which they had to construct intelligence systems virtually from scratch (Andrew 1995). Human intelligence was already developed, but with certain limitations and other intelligence disciplines were underdeveloped and very seldom sophisticated. After WWI America recessed and settled in a period of peace. The

In reference to the foreign policy, in the mid-20th century after World War II, United States was in Cold War with Soviet Union. The United States referred as the Capitalist West and the Soviet referred as the Communist East. The two power nations clashed in many ways. Thus, Soviet accused America’s atomic bomb as leverage to control the Soviet and the world. These differences made each nation distrust each other. President Truman then, feared that the Soviet will continue its expansion, had the Congress passed the National Security Act of 1947. It gave the President increased power, where to conduct foreign policy. The Department of Defense and Central Intelligence Agency was created, both agencies collaborated on the monitoring

Perhaps the most important change in how the federal government was reorganized after September 11th is the creation of both the Director of National Intelligence (DNI) position and the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI) in 2004 with the passage of the same IRTPA that created TSA. This concept had been first suggested in 1955 after a study by Congress then and was recommended time and again but only became a reality after the September 11th attacks drove the need for major intelligence reform home and the 9/11 Commission continued the push for the creation of such a position (ODNI, n.d., paras. 1-5). As one can see from the mission and vision of the ODNI, the importance cannot be overstated. The mission includes leading intelligence integration while having the IC produce the most insightful intelligence products possible and the vision is fully integrating the IC thus making the nation more secure (ODNI, n.d., paras. 1-2).

The 9/11 attacks opened the avenue for a scrutiny of the performance and ability of the intelligence community to detect any threats to the safety of the United States. The media, politicians, reformists and other interested parties would not comprehend how such an attack would happen without the knowledge of the intelligence community. However, it is important to consider the fact that the attack was one of its kind and could not be approached with the resources and expertise used in other initiative such as the cold war. Therefore, the need to restructure the intelligence community arose from the view that it was still operating in the mindset and spirit of the cold war even in the modern era that had seen a revolutionary change of warfare

By disregarding cues of possible terrorist attacks and constant mistakes within the American Intelligence for not planning ahead, the United States failed to achieve its number one goal as a governing body: not keeping its citizens safe. It is important to dig into the issue of the disaster of 9/11 and completely understand the reason for failed prevention efforts. Moreover adding to these issues was the lack of communication and information shared between the two agencies, the Federal Bureau of Investigations and Central Intelligence Agency.

The terrorist attack that occurred on September 11, 2001 (9/11) is arguably the greatest tragedy the United States has ever faced. This attack was widespread, coordinated and devastating in nature. Many people claim that the government failed to protect us from this event and that it should have been prevented. Over the Course of this paper, we will examine that claim. We will examine how the Intelligence community failed to prevent the 9/11 terror attack. This paper will also examine how the Intelligence community could have used its assets more effectively. The two biggest factors in this attack were the lack of information sharing and lack of action taken on received intelligence. After discussing how those two factors facilitated the 9/11

The U.S. government responded to Pearl Harbor and the 9/11 with Congressional commissions to provide full accounts on how these fateful events transpired and used the data to make changes within the Intelligence Community (IC) in hopes to prevent future such attacks. The Roberts authority, which focused on the events of Pearl Harbor, precipitated the creation of the OSS or Office of Strategic Services in 1942, the precursor to the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA). Similarly, the 9/11 Authority appealed to Congress

The intelligence community has undergone some major changes in the past thirty years. During the cold war this section of defense had massive funding. There needed to be an ability to predict what the Soviet Union was planning to do and what they were actually doing in order to prevent a nuclear war. After this period in time ended there was again large changes. The budget to the intelligence community was cut astronomically because there was perceived to be less of a threat to the United States (“9/11 Intelligence Failures Report”, 2002). This misperception was actually due to a lack of ability to shift to a new changing threat. This mind set allowed many unwelcomed risks to enter into the United States.

This stipulation proves that the federal government expected a great need for protection against communism during this time. Another requirement was that one employee, either the Director of Central Intelligence, the deputy Director of Central Intelligence, or the Deputy Director of Central intelligence for Community Management must be a commissioned officer of the armed forces, or have experience with military intelligence. The intertwining of the military and intelligence services was necessary to fight Cold War communism, as it was not a war in the traditional sense, with battles, but the US still needed protection against spies and potential attacks. Also established by the National Security Act was a Counterintelligence Policy Board, which coordinated national intelligence programs to chart protect against foreign threats, designate resources to programs, and provide counterintelligence options to the president. The National Security Act as a whole demonstrates that intelligence services were then considered an integral part of national security. Intelligence centered-programs gained a large say in the safety of American ideals including democracy and capitalism as Soviet espionage became a major danger in the eyes of the federal

Intelligence was only gathered on foreign military forces up until J Edgar Hoover’s FBI was tasked with watching radical groups who may have something to do with national security as we know it today; only the FBI’s role in IC ended with the outbreak of WWII (Moore

The intelligence failures at Pearl Harbor influenced the National Security Act of 1947 by showing the need for a new structure within the government. According to O’Toole (2014), as a result, the National Security Act of 1947 led to the creation of the Department of Defense which aligned all military services under the Secretary of Defense, it also created the National Security Council and created the Central Intelligence Agency as an independent agency reporting to no one other than the President. One of the most important parts was the CIA reporting directly to the President. During Pearl Harbor, the failure wasn’t in the lack of information, but the failure was in the one mindedness of the Navy. According to O’Toole (2014), they were stuck on the idea that the Japanese couldn’t attack due to the thought that their base was impenetrable.

Intelligence has been successfully used since the Revolutionary War when George Washington employed espionage, counterintelligence and covert actions against the British Army. “Paul Revere was one of the first famous “intelligence” operatives, spreading the word throughout the countryside when British troops were first spied” (CIA). Intelligence continued to play an important role in subsequent wars. Stonewall Jackson used detailed maps of the Appalachians to compensate for the Confederacy’s lack of firearms and manpower and, during World War II, President Roosevelt used intelligence to gain critical information about other world leaders.

Intelligence is a dependable instrument of its own to generate information that establishes the base of National Security in the United States. Intelligence has been used since the beginning of history to provide information on enemy threats and how to prevent a mass disasters. It has been used for wars, national security, military tactics, etc. Intelligence has been available since the revolutionary war and our first president George Washington and other leaders of the world have used intelligence to protect their countries. Intelligence is the dominant and the backbone of homeland Security and it is ceaseless learning about it. National Intelligence agents train tirelessly to fight and create