final nat Flashcards
(25 cards)
CIA Five directorates
Directorate of Operations (DO)
Intelligence Collection
Covert operations
Directorate of Analysis (DA)
Science and technology
Support
Digital innovation
The main tasks of an Operations Officer (from the DO)
Identify potential assets to be recruited
Recruit, train and run intelligence assets (agents)
The operations officer also collects her own intelligence
Support counterintelligence activities (expose moles, prevent penetration of her country’s sensitive institutions by foreign agents, assist FBI investigations, etc.)
Carry out covert operations or support other US personnel involved in covert activities
Intelligence’s contribution to policy
IC educates PMs and helps shape their worldview
Assists in defining key national interests
Identifies threats and opportunities
Explains policy options (and implications and repercussions of each options)
Monitors and reports back on the policy’s effect and advises the PM on the need to change, maintain or terminate the policy
Types of Covert Action on a continuum
Going from least intrusive, risky or expensive, to most intrusive, risky or expensive, we can rank different types of covert action as follows:
Propaganda
Political covert action
Economic covert action
Paramilitary covert action
Lethal military covert action (most intrusive, risky and expensive)
1953 Iran (Operation Ajax): Prime Minister Mosaddegh is replaced by the Shah, Reza Pahlavi
Threats: PM Mosaddegh adopted anti-West policies that threatened US interests, including the nationalization of the Anglo-Iranian Oil Company;
The PM adopted socialist-leaning policies (land reform, higher taxes, expropriation of private companies, etc.) which some feared would bring Iran closer to the USSR;
The PM’s regime showed signs of increasing authoritarianism (emergency powers were granted to the PM).
Opportunities:
The political support for the PM was mostly urban. His anti-monarchy attitude and his authoritarian ways evoked the opposition of pro-monarchy groups and alienated part of the rural population. Large scale protests were frequent as were casualties during the street clashes
The Iranian economy depended on oil. Iran needed the US and the UK technology and financial networks to sell it.
A US-friendly alternative leader, the Shah, who had temporarily fled to Rome during the unrest, was available to lead the country following the coup.
Outcome of Operation Ajax:
The British saw part of their Iranian oil business restored, joined by US oil companies.
The Shah chose more pliant Prime Ministers who adopted a pro-Western stance on most issues.
Iran became a solid strategic ally and partner of the US in the Middle East (including its acceptance of the state of Israel).
The Shah restored order and preserved stability until the unrest in the late 1970s that eventually brought about the Revolution and his ouster.
Among the longer-term consequences of Operation Ajax, one may mention the following:
The Shah, Reza Pahlavi, was viewed as a puppet of the US and this helped mobilize Iranians against him during the 1978 Revolution
the Iranians viewed the US as hostile and imperialistic. The 1978 revolutionaries labeled the US the Great Satan and, still today, Iranian demonstrators chant “death to America”.
The Iranian hostage crisis: for 444 days, 50+ US citizens were held hostage in Iran and most of the population was supportive of this situation, seeing it as retribution for the US role in keeping the Shah in power.
The current Middle Eastern policies of the Iranian government are hostile to the US and US regional allies such as Israel and Saudi Arabia.
Any Iranian nuclear weapon plans are probably also inspired by its hostility towards the US and suspicion of US intentions.
1954 Guatemala (Operation PBSuccess)
President Jacobo Arbenz is ousted
1961 Cuba
Bay of Pigs Fiasco, during the first few weeks of the John Kennedy Presidency. 1500 Cuban expatriates trained and equipped by the CIA land on Cuba to start an insurrection against the Communist leader, Fidel Castro. They are crushed by the Cuban forces, and there is no insurrection
1960s and 1970s (Cuba)
: Operation Mongoose aimed at Fidel Castro
Chile 1973:
the overthrow of Pres. Allende and the rise of General Pinochet as dictator of Chile. Pinochet inaugurated almost two decades of military dictatorship and brutal repression.
1980 “Desert One”
Operation Eagle Claw, the goal of the operation was to rescue the American hostages who had been taken captive at the U.S. Embassy in Tehran, Iran, following the Iranian Revolution. The operation was a failure, and resulted in the deaths of eight American servicemen and several Iranian civilians. The failure of the operation led to significant criticism of the Carter administration
1980s Nicaragua:
the “Iran Contra” scandal involved selling weapons to the Iranian government and using the money to support the Contras
1980s Afghanistan:
the CIA helps the Mujahedeen fight the Soviet armed forces who invaded Afghanistan in 1979
2011: Neptune Spear
The goal of the operation was to capture or kill Osama bin Laden, the leader of the terrorist organization Al-Qaeda, who was believed to be hiding in Pakistan. The operation was successful, and bin Laden was killed by U.S. Navy SEALs during a raid on his compound in Abbottabad, Pakistan
Starting in the late 1970s, significant oversight and restrictions were imposed on CA, largely in response to the following three developments:
Controversies about covert action in the Vietnam War: war was extended secretly to Laos and Cambodia;
Nixon’s Watergate scandal: it was alleged that the CIA, NSA etc. had been used against anti-war activists. Congress’ Church Committee carried out long investigations
The Iran Contra covert action became the scandal that threatened to bring down Ronald Reagan’s Presidency
Federal statutes now require:
A Presidential Finding: Presidents can no longer claim they did not know about or did not authorize a Covert Operation;
Congressional notification in a timely manner is required of all covert actions (and continuous reporting as to its progress or lack thereof)
What is a Presidential FINDING?
[Covert actions require] Findings by the President that such “action is necessary to support identifiable foreign policy objectives of the United States and is important to the national security of the United States” … No covert action may be conducted except under the authority of, and subsequently to, such Finding by the President.
Three major controversies about covert actions carried out in the context of the so-called “war on terror:”
Extraordinary Renditions
Interrogation methods: enhanced interrogation techniques
Targeted killings with DRONES
The CIA and the DOD:
They are both involved in forms of covert action but their actions are defined differently and have different restrictions/oversight:
CIA: oversight under Title 50 of the US Code
DOD operations: less oversight under Title 10 of the US Code
Currently, the degree of cooperation between the two is such that the line is blurred
Current vs strategic intelligence
Current Intelligence: is intelligence about current and recent developments, i.e., the here and the now. An example of current intelligence is the President’s Daily Brief (PDB)
Strategic Intelligence: is longer-term, more detailed and in-depth intelligence about:
A country (e.g., Iran, the DPRK, China’s economic troubles, Ukraine, etc.), or
a region (the Middle east, the Arctic and the growing competition for its exploitation, Central America) or
a topic (nuclear proliferation, climate change, immigration flows).
An example of strategic intelligence are the National Intelligence Estimates (NIE) periodically produced by some of the best analysts of the Intelligence Community.
Iran Contra
NSC and CIA operatives secretly sold weapons to the Iranian government and used the money to support the Contra insurgents fighting against the Communist regime in Nicaragua. The operation was deemed illegal and it triggered a Congressional investigation
1980 Afghanistan
the USSR invaded Afghanistan in 1979. The CIA supplied weapons, intelligence and training support to the Mujahedeen fighting the Soviet armed forces.
The Persian Gulf War (1990-1991, “Operation Desert Storm”)
In 1990, while dealing with the upheaval in Europe and the dissolution of the USSR, US
President George HW Bush (Sr.) was faced with an unexpected military crisis. Iraq, ruled by
Saddam Hussein, invaded and occupied its neighbor, the small, relatively unprotected, oil-rich
Kuwait. With United Nations authorization, the US led a large multinational force to liberate
Kuwait. The conflict, known as Operation Desert Storm or the First Persian Gulf War, lasted only
a few weeks. The US-led coalition destroyed a large part of the Iraqi forces and liberated Kuwait
in the spring of 1991. Iraqi casualty estimates were very high (more than 30,000) while the US
led coalition suffered around 300 dead. Desert Storm was generally viewed as a significant
foreign policy success for the George HW Bush Administration.
