INTELLIGENCE OVERSIGHT
The United States has developed an intelligence program based around the Cold War and has since evolved to cover the gathering and analysis of information around the world. With the knowledge that is gained from intelligence gathering on politically or economically unstable nations, there is a risk of possible abuse of the information to threaten other governments or governmental officials. The problem with trying to control intelligence is that to much management might hinder operations and to little supervision might allow an organization's abuse of the information collected. The current intelligence oversight organizations that are used by the government are well established to give a sense of balance between the two problems.
The topic of September 11th has brought about great controversy within the intelligence community on what could have been done and what hadn't been done to avoid the terrorist attack. While there is no doubt that the attack was an intelligence failure, there is no direction in which the finger can be pointed to exact the blame on an individual agency or intelligence department.
079 Capitol Hill United States Congress 1993
English: The western front of the United States Ca...
The entrance to the Central Intelligence Agency he...As a result of the terrorist event, there have been countless meetings about updating the intelligence oversight committees within the executive and legislative branches.
The two branches of the government that are responsible for intelligence oversight are the executive and legislative branches. The judicial branch has no involvement in oversight issues, unless a prosecution becomes necessary. The executive and legislative branches share the responsibilities of controlling the budget, policy needs, operations, and the protocol of activities. The two branches are necessary to keep the balance of power that has become an essential ingredient within a democracy. If one branch were to have sole power to act upon any wish, then there would be no way to control intelligence operations, which could lead...