Post 9-11 Issues Faced by the Intelligence Community

Post 9-11 Issues Faced by the Intelligence Community

Introduction

The September 11, 2001's attacks on the Pentagon and the World Trade Center vividly verified the vulnerability of the intelligence threats faced by the United States in the new century. As a result of the security threats to the country, the American Congress has approved heavy budgets for intelligence. Alongside that in December of 2004, the US government undertook the most extensive and costly reorganization of their Intelligence Community under the Intelligence Reform and Terrorism Prevention Act of 2004. Consequently, a Director of National Intelligence was appointed who now leads the American Intelligence Community [1].

Discussion

The Director of National Intelligence runs all matters of national security and intelligence. He is also the intelligence adviser to the President. The Director of National Intelligence also administers and directs the major information collection systems' acquisition. Furthermore, the Department of Homeland Security was set up alongside other major restructuring of the American intelligence community. The Department of Homeland Security concentrates on the Intelligence Community. The department has the statutory authority to allocate budgets on a priority basis for managing the information collection. This information collection is carried out by human agents and a whole range of technical systems who work for the creation of nationwide analytical intelligence products [2].

In the wake of the 9/11, the American nation was badly shaken. They needed to take drastic steps in order to strengthen their national intelligence's efficiency and effectiveness. It was the post 9/11 events that prompted the adoption of various stringent measures by the government for ensuring national security. Some of the examples of these events include the state of chaos and rising uncertainty among the American public.

After the National Security Act of 1947, the most significant measure that reformed the intelligence community was the passage of the US Intelligence Reform and Terrorism Prevention Act of 2004. This legislation has restructured the US intelligence community. The aim of this Act was to ensure effective coordination among the various intelligence agencies of US. The focus of this Act was on the counterterrorism efforts. Most conspicuously, this act established not only the position of Director of National Intelligence but gave him the extensive authority to enforce coordination of the American intelligence efforts.

All of this has been done to counter the threats of terrorism along with the military threats posed by ...