War On Terrorism Order

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War on terrorism

Describe, discuss and evaluate the post-9/11/01 role of the CIA in the “War on Terror.”

Introduction

9/11/01 is a horrific day to remember for Americans. It was on this date that the worst

terrorist attack took place in the country. The attack was planned and coordinated by al-Qaeda

terrorist group under the leadership of famous Osama bin Laden and other leaders. Suicide

hijackers who had earlier been sent to the USA to study civil aviation by Osama and Khalid

Sheik Mohammed, the master planner managed to crash four airplanes. A total of 2996 people

lost their lives while 6000 more were injured. Buildings in the world trade center square in New

York City where the planes were crashed were significantly damaged and destroyed. The attack

led to the destruction of around $10 billion worth of infrastructure. This was a significant hit

which raised questions how the USA armed with a reputable central investigations agency (CIA)

would be caught unawares. It was an embarrassment for the CIA and the intelligence community

to have not acted to prevent the occurrence of the incident through their intelligence. This paper

seeks to examine the role of the CIA in the post and its impacts.

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The CIA had first gotten intelligence about the attack in 1999. This was after NSA had

managed to get a phone call record of Mihdar being contacted by wallid Attash about a meeting

scheduled to take place in Kuala Lumpur. The duo were al-Qaida terrorists and was planning to

wage an attack in America. The information was passed to CIA who after further investigations

established that Mihdar had a USA visa and had even managed to get in America. Unfortunately,

the CIA took no step to notify the FBI of the impending attack so that the agency could, in turn,

take action to counter the terrorist attack. This was done after the CIA agents broke hotel room in

Dubai that had provided accommodation to mihdar. CIA was also furnished with intelligence by

the Malaysian special branch (MSB). The MSB had observed a meeting of Al-Qaida members

that had taken place on 5th January 2000. In attendance was MIdhar and Khalid who were the

masterminds. After the meeting, the duo flew to Bangkok to further materialize what had been

discussed in the meeting. The CIA had all this information but was reluctant in furnishing other

agencies that would help prevent escalation of the planned attack. Secondly, the CIA never told

state department to include midhar on its watch list or most wanted persons. Richard Clarke and

George Tenet who were counterterrorism official and director of the CIA respectively around

June in 2000 were sure that some terrorist attacks were going to take place, but the suspected that

would escalate most probably in Israel and Saudi Arabia. In July 2000 Clarke cautioned the USA

security and intelligence agencies of an impending attack, he also asked the same information to

be relayed to embassies and various police departments.

CIA is also noted to have failed to respond to a mail sent on 13th July 2000 from Tom

Wilshire who was its agent and was seeking approval to notify the FBI about midhar presence in

the country. The CIA who had photos of the al-Qaida meeting refused to give more details about

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the pictures to CIA and denied other criminal investigators access to the information and details

(Hratch p. 129). Additionally, an FBI agent in Phoenix sent an intelligence message in July 2000

to the agency headquarters informing them of Osama bin laden plan to send Arab students to

American Aviation colleges who after learning how to fly would, in turn, be used to carry out

aircraft attacks.

How effective was the role of the Agency? In what ways, if any,

The agency role led to successful planning an attack on Americans. This is due to the fact

that despite CIA being well informed and aware of the attack the agency acted unwisely by

keeping the information to itself. The role of CIA as it is and was at the time is to spy and collect

any information concerning terrorist attacks, plans and groups then pass the same to counter

terrorist groups such as FBI. Unfortunately, this fails to happen in a number of events. First CIA

failed to give details it had got about the Kuala Lumpur meeting to other counterterrorism

agencies. Secondly, FBI was reluctant to inform the FBI about Midhar whereabouts. Had the FBI

been notified about the terrorist whereabouts in the country it was possible for the agency to do a

manhunt until it apprehends the man. Failure of CIA to direct the state department to place

midhar on its watch list was a move that was ill-advised and informed. If CIA had carried out its

mandated role effectively by relaying intelligence information to relevant authorities, the attack

could have been prevented.

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Did the War on Terror change the CIA?

After the embarrassment and shame on the agency, there was a significant change in the

war on terror. Each president has been altering the structure of the CIA to make fit to his

perceived level of terrorist threat. There have been remarkable changes among them the 2004

reorganization which saw the creation of the office of the Director of National Intelligence (DNI)

(Hratch, pg. 8). A wide array of multi-agency centers has also been developed under the DNI

office, they include but not limited to National counterterrorism center, The national counter-

proliferation center, and The national intelligence council. Having lost its prime function of

coordinating intelligence the CIA has progressively seen its roles devolved or assigned to other

newly established agencies in the intelligence community. Such agencies include but not limited

to US army intelligence, The Defense intelligence agency, The national reconnaissance office,

The national security agency and US Airforce intelligence. This changes to the CIA was took

place after an internal review of CIA was done, and the reason that prevented the CIA from

blocking the attack were investigated.

Finally, how well did the CIA serve the security of the United States? Explain.

After the attack, the CIA went back to serious business to investigate the motives behind

the attack. This included collecting intelligence information about the perpetrators and supporters

of the Islamic terrorist groups. Among the parties that CIA help to ascertain that were liked with

the attack were the Taliban and Saddam Hussein. To prevent more attacks and keep the USA

secure the CIA provided its intelligence information to the USA army deployed in Afghanistan.

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The army armed with the information as well as other arms was able to overthrow the Taliban

regime. This also happened with Saddam Hussein who was brought down by America.

Furthermore, the CIA intelligence led to the capture and killing of the Al-Qaida group leader

Osama bin Laden. Additionally, the CIA was able to collect intelligence information that led to

the apprehension of the master planner of the attack, that is Mohammed Khalid. The arrest of this

people sent a message the USA was a mighty nation, and any terrorist attempts would be met by

force something that sent cold chills to the terrorist groups which makes them avoid attacking the

USA again.

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Work cited

Hratch Zadoian. M: A short history of the US intelligence community. Queens college,cunny

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