Caleb Sommers
December 16, 2013
Mrs. Goldblatt
The Central Intelligence Agency
The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) was not always called the CIA. It was during World War II that it was first named the OSS (CIA). It was created to sabotage enemy forces and collect and analyze information that was seized from Nazi Germany and The Empire of Japan. Although dismantled after WWII by President Truman, it did not take long for Truman to realize the need for a postwar centralized intelligence organization (CIA). In 1947, President Truman signed, National Security Act establishing the CIA (CIA). The National Security Act gave the CIA power of coordinating the nation’s intelligence activities and correlating, evaluating and disseminating intelligence affecting national security (CIA). The CIA is broken up into four main groups the National Clandestine Service, Directorate of Intelligence, the Directorate of Science & Technology, and the Directorate of Support which all carry out different jobs for the CIA (CIA). The CIA is more beneficial to the United States of America because they protect us from terrorism threats, the influx of drugs, and impact our lives with the creation of everyday uses (CIA). Some people may say that the CIA is a waste of money and that they do not accomplish anything but ruining the United States reputation, but since 2001 the United States has not had any recurrences of terrorist attacks of the magnitude of the 9/11 attacks because the CIA has made the U.S. aware and has protected the American people since 2001 (Hitz, F).
What are covert and clandestine operations? A covert operation is a planned secret mission used to affect a political or military outcome. A clandestine operation is an operation carried out by government departments or agencies such as the CIA in a way assure secrecy and concealment (COV). The difference between the two operations is that Covert Operations are when the government denies that they have taken any part in what happened and that can be undertaken by presidential directive and with formal Congressional notification (SAM), and a Clandestine Operations are not “officially deniable” and require less oversight (SAM). Both the operations involve a lot of time and money. Also they involve many people and machines ever known to the rest of the world (Williams, M).
The CIA has experienced some astonishing success by the way of spy commandos and drone warfare (Hitz, F). One example of the CIA’s success was the operation that killed terrorist leader Osama Bin Laden. The CIA has had success in the other areas than just terrorism; they have had success with stopping the flow of drugs into the United States. Such as drugs coming from Afghanistan which is the world leader in opium production which is used as heroin (UN). Also they impact the flow of drugs coming out of Central and South America where mass productions of cocaine are made. Lastly the need for certain objects on missions has forced the CIA to develop them for missions that are now used in the everyday lives of people around the world. For example the lithium-iodine battery was created so the CIA didn’t have to change batteries in recording so often (CIA).
On the other hand people would say that the CIA is not beneficial to the United States because they just ruin the good reputation of the United States. For example when the CIA has a failed operation and it looks bad on the United States. Also the CIA uses a large amount of government funds, last year the CIA budget was around 28 billion dollars so people would say that the CIA is a waste of tax payer money (Hitz, F.).
There are however negative effects of the CIA. Such as the bad reputation the United States got when the former NSA worker Edward Snowden leaked that the NSA and CIA had been spying on other nations during world leader meetings. Also the covert and clandestine operations that are run by the CIA in other countries that fail also have a negative effect on how we look to people in other nations. These failed operations can cost us the relationship and trust with have with other nations. Another negative effect of the CIA is when you hear about drone strikes that have killed a certain amount of innocent civilians, drone strikes are usually done by the CIA. The most talked about negative effect is the amount of money used to continue running the CIA’s operations in various countries. Last year alone the CIA committed over 40 billion dollars to its covert and clandestine operations in various countries.
The positive effects of the CIA really do explain why we have one. The CIA has continued to keep the U.S. out of harm’s way since the attacks on the world trade center and pentagon. They have protected us from the many international threats that the United States faces every day. Operations performed by the CIA whether they are covert or clandestine have made the U.S. aware of attacks so the threat of an attack is neutralized. The CIA eliminates and neutralizes threats to national security, and also the influx of drugs into the United States.
Even though the CIA can damage the relationships between the United States and other countries they can also help strengthen relations between the U.S. and other countries as well. What people don’t know is that the CIA has many good effects on Americans. For example the CIA has had many operations that have been done to stop the flow of drugs from all over the world into the United States. Another example is that there have not been any recurrences of terrorist killing in the United States on a mass scale. Why? A simple answer is that we are no longer the unaware, unprotected country we were in early September 2001. Also the CIA impacts our everyday lives of Americans without them even knowing it, with uses such as the lithium-iodine battery or the fact that the CIA helped assist radiologists with detecting breast cancer, the CIA provided technology originally developed for the analysis of satellite imagery. Specifically, the technique involved aligning and comparing digital x-ray images taken over time to identify any changes (CIA). The use of these methods is believed to have considerably reduced the number of deaths from breast cancer (CIA). Lastly people don’t really think about it but everyday your life is threatened and the CIA plays a major role in making sure that everything and everyone in our Homeland stays safe.
Do the negative effects outweigh the positive effects of the CIA? The damage done to the United States reputation is far too great to allow the CIA to continue to conduct operations in other countries. Also is the money to conduct an operation overseas too much for our nation to continue to allow them to happen. Or do the positives outweigh the negatives? The fact that there have been recurrences of an attack at the same magnitude as 9/11 since the CIA has been given more power shows the success that they are having. Also there have been more successful missions than not that have strengthened the relationships with other nations.
The CIA is more beneficial to the United States because they protect the United States from terrorism threats, the influx of drugs, and impact our lives with the creation of everyday uses. Some may say that the CIA is a waste of money but since 9/11/2001 there have been no recurrences of a major terrorist attacks on that scale .Although there has been many different arguments on whether the CIA is more beneficial to the United States of America or not; The facts that back up the CIA being more beneficial far outweigh the costs of them not being beneficial to the United States. Since 2001 there have been no recurrences of terrorists’ attacks of the magnitude of the 9/11 attacks. The CIA has also neutralized many different threats to the national security of the United Sates .The CIA has made the United States aware of everything that has been harmful to the US. With the many controversies surrounding the CIA, they have done a very good job over the past years with handing the work load of the nation’s threats. The success of the CIA has only made them the target of controversy because when something keeps going right people will always try to find something wrong to try and create a problem or discussion.