CIA And American Democracy

Running Head: CIA AND AMERICAN DEMOCRACY 1

CIA and American Democracy

Name

Institution

CIA AND AMERICAN DEMOCRACY 2

Question one

CIA is an acronym for The Central Intelligence Agency. It is basically an intelligence

service with its originality in the United States federal government dealing with foreign affairs.

Its main function is to gather, process and analyze the information for the national security

around the world by the use of human intelligence. The Central Intelligence Agency enables the

president as well as other government policymakers in the United States to make decisions

concerning the national security (Priest, & Arkin, 2010). Upon the president’s request, the CIA

can as well be involved in action covert. In so doing, it is evident that the CIA has been blamed

for producing what is called “Politicized Intelligence” which brought about the Iraq War.

Politicized Intelligence has a very wide meaning of which must be understood from the

political perspective. Ideally, if a certain president directs his or her staff so as they can generate

some intelligence in a manner to have a support of a preferred outcome at the same time

overriding the dispassionate analytic judgments of professionals who are intelligence is basically

what we call politicized intelligence. Politicized Intelligence is always evident when we skew the

intelligence analysis, either intentionally or unintentionally so as to give the policymakers the

outcomes they need. Mostly, it has been seen that the intelligence analysts are pressured so as

they can emphasize their findings in supporting policies and preferences. Again, intelligence has

been politicized whereby the policymakers dictate what they would like to hear as well as what

they are not willing to hear.

Preferably, spies are supposed to keep out of the politics. They just need to have secret

intelligence because some thought that it is shameful to be a spy (Priest, & Arkin, 2010).

Actually, the work of the intelligence agencies must not be influenced by politics. Research has

brought it clear that intelligence on the Iraq Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMD) was

CIA AND AMERICAN DEMOCRACY 3

politicized resulting in the invasion which occurred in the year 2003. Sometimes when the

politicians pressure the intelligence agencies and induce them to produce the analysis in support

of their policies, definitely politicization occurs. Politicized Intelligence had a great impact on

the Iraq war. The Iraq Weapons of Mass Destruction was much politicized as the intelligence

from America tried to get know how about the weapons. The United States intelligence tried to

dig dip in Iraq so as they can know where the al-Qaeda was getting its weapons (Jeffreys-Jones,

2014). The American intelligence community had an important role in the Iraq war. The

American military stood to overthrow Saddam Hussein because he had wounded many people

and he was known to have some Weapons of Mass Destruction with him. Therefore, through

frequent intervention by the intelligence agencies from the United States, Saddam tried to

retaliate any interference brought by these people in his country and as a result, Iraq was invaded

by Americans.

Through the intelligence detectives, America was able to get the knowledge of the Iraq

weapons of mass destruction through some spies. Curveball it the man who initiated the prewar

intelligence before the invasion of Iraq. Rafid Ahmed Alwan al-Jababi, which was the real name

of Curveball, was a man from Iraq who leaked the information concerning the WMD. This Iraq

man leaked the information to the German authorities at the same time handing himself to the

German authorities and he claimed that he had knowledge of the weapons which were developed

by during the regime of Saddam Hussein. The intelligence that was passed to the German official

by Curveball was thereafter passed to the intelligence community of America. Having this know-

how, the Americans intelligence started interrogating and fabricating the intervention of Iraq. In

general, the report by Curveball on the chemical and biological weapons developed under

Hussein made the Americans go to war against Iraq and hence Iraq was invaded.

CIA AND AMERICAN DEMOCRACY 4

It is evident that the CIA produced intelligence was politicized. For instance, Paul Pillar,

who was a senior CIA analyst gives us an insight on how the administration of Bush politicized

the intelligence of CIA on the Iraq Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMD) that is, giving us the

relationship between al Qaeda and Iraq (Risen, 2008). The administration of Bush was using

policies in driving the intelligence production which is also told by Chief of British intelligence

and by this the Americans and Iraq had to go to war.

Question Two

Around the 1970s and 1980s, there were some legislative laws passed by the Congress

which their main aim was to increase the accountability of CIA and NSA so as they can respect

the rule of law. In the wake of intelligence accountability, lawmakers have had various responses

on Capitol Hill. There are some lawmakers who mainly explained the value intelligence had on

the people of America. Some Congress members by far differed with the decisions that the

executive branch made on the intelligence. There some congressional acts as well as laws which

made accountability to increase. For instance, intelligence sharing was one of the congressional

acts which were practiced. This law made sure that sensitive information was shared so as to the

responsible protect it. According to the NSA, each committee was supposed to strictly limit this

information to the leaders and also the staff directors of any given committee (Priest, & Arkin,

2010). By doing this, the accountability was highly maintained as no committee could let it

information leak anyhow.

The other congressional act was to unify the reform intelligence and the armed services.

Here, the CIA through the Congress was trying to modernize the antiquated defense set up by

unifying them. Again, the Congress passed another law which by far increased the accountability

on the rule of law that is, it made sure that the domestic intelligence was separated from the

CIA AND AMERICAN DEMOCRACY 5

foreign intelligence. The National Security Act (NSA) also was equally important as it was a

central document in the United States with regard to the cold war policy because the country

accepted itself as a world leader. Also, for accountability purposes, the Congress came up with a

law on protecting the computer systems like those of government networks from the access of

unauthorized people. These congressional acts among many made the strengthened the rule of

law as they improved on accountability.

This was a global war on terrorism launched by the American government after the

September eleven (11) assaults which occurred in the United States in the year 2001. This term

was used by George W. Bush when he was addressing the Congress (Risen, 2008). The word

was used to depict the countries which were enemies of America particularly those associated

with al-Qaeda. Through this war on terror, Barack Obama said that they had to do away with it

and hence the intelligence agencies were to focus on particular groups of networks whose

intention was to destroy the U.S.

Generally, the war on terror strengthened the accountability and the rule of law because

people were very careful and fearful of it. People were sensitized to its consequences and hence

they have knowledge of it hence remain very cautious so as they may not become victims of

circumstances. War on terror had a lot of effects, for example, it made many children to maimed,

orphaned and also some were killed (Isikoff, & Corn, 2006). Many citizens in America have

been made victims by the war on terror as no freedom in posting whatever one wants as there

were some who are charged for making any posting in the website. Lives of many people in the

United States have also been tainted by the war on terror. Racial profiling is also another fear

that is brought by the war on terror among many more others.

CIA AND AMERICAN DEMOCRACY 6

References

Isikoff, M., & Corn, D. (2006). Hubris: The inside story of spin, scandal, and the selling of the

Iraq War. Broadway Books.

Jeffreys-Jones, R. (2014). The CIA and American democracy. Yale University Press.

Priest, D., & Arkin, W. M. (2010). Top Secret America—A Washington Post investigation. A

hidden world, growing beyond control: The government has built a national security and

intelligence system so big, so complex and so hard to manage, no one really knows if it’s

fulfilling its most important purpose: Keeping citizens safe. Washington Post, 1.

Risen, J. (2008). State of war: The secret history of the CIA and the Bush administration. Simon

and Schuster.

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