THE AMERICAN WAY

In all the Western Democracies, except USA, there are between 5 to 7 intelligence and research agencies.

The first agency is the intelligence and special operations abroad such as the CIA, the British MI6 or the Israeli Mossad.

The second agency is an internal security service to encounter terrorism, espionage, political subversions and to protect the democratic system, like the MI5 in UK or the Shin.Bet in Israel. In USA the FBI is in charge of internal security but also of fighting crime, which is an entirely different domain. In some countries, like Norway, internal security is supervised by a special branch in the police.  

The third agency is the criminal investigation like the Scotland Yard in UK. In USA fighting crime on federal level is divided between several agencies. The FBI, that is also in charge of internal security, DEA - Drug Enforcement Administration to fight drug crimes, the ATF - Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives information, the Secret Service that is in charge to protect the USA Dollar and the financial system, although known of being responsible of protecting the USA president. Even the Federal post service in USA has its own criminal investigation agency in charge on crimes committed in and through the postal service. In USA fighting crime on federal level is, in many extents, a bureaucratic nightmare.

The fourth agency is the diplomatic service, which collect and analyzes diplomatic reports from all over the world.

The fifth agency is the military intelligence which is supposed to provide accurate intelligence needed for all the range of military activity.

In some countries there is a special Electronic and sigint (signals-intelligence) agency like the NSA –National security agency in USA. In Israel it is a part of the Military intelligence. Most of the Western Democracies included the fast growing usage of the internet, the monitoring and supervision of the cyber space and the fight against cyber infiltration into their sigint agency. USA formed a special new command - the Cyber-Command.

Evaluation of all information gathered by all the intelligence community is generally the job of the most prominent agency. In USA there are yet other two special agencies: The National Intelligence Council (NIC) is a part of USA intelligence community. Its role is to estimate the major directions and developments on the globe in the longer term of between 15 to 20 years ahead. The second is the Department of National Intelligence –DNI, which was formed after The 9/11 to supervise and coordinate 16 Intelligence agencies in USA adding much more bureaucracy to the already extremely complicated and chaotic system. The more agencies the more subjects will fall between the chairs.  

After The 9/11 USA went to the opposite direction - instead of minimizing the number of intelligence agencies, simplifying the system, the chain of command and minimizing the bureaucracy and drawing clear lines of responsibility and jurisdiction between all agencies. Two new departments were formed: the Homeland security and DNI to supervise and coordinate between the conglomerate of agencies. The chain of command became even more complicated and the intelligence community became an uncontrolled bureaucratic monster.

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21/07/2010 09:40:28