National Security Agency
The United States is known for many achievements and titles that sustains its moniker as the “World’s Only Superpower”, sustaining not just political and economic influence, but also its defense capabilities within its territories and to its allies. In terms of its national security and counterintelligence, the United States lauds itself for possessing an intelligence community that can identify and decode any threat and mobilize troops to neutralize the threat. With the numerous agencies comprising the US intelligence community, the National Security Agency sustains the country’s largest code-breaking network to ensure that the US government would be warned if there is a possible coded attempt against the country.
According to Bolton (2008), upon the time of the Cold War, US policymakers had developed a consensus that the Soviet Union is a potential threat to world stability and to the development of the world system. In light of this realization, the US government had pushed for the creation of a powerful intelligence community that can track down any potential threat to America’s safety . According to Bullock, Haddow, and Coppola (2011) and Larsen and Smith (2005), the NSA or the National Security Agency was the successor to the Armed Forces Security Agency established in 1949. However, due to the lack of power the agency had over its units, the AFSA had been revised on October 24, 1952 to create the National Security Agency under the memorandum “Communications and Intelligence Activities” and the National Security Directive 6 that transfers AFSA’s powers to the NSA under President Truman. The NSA possesses national and military responsibilities that enables it to become the country’s cryptologic organization, built externally without legislative backing. The NSA, according to the Office of the US Director of National Intelligence (2012) is also supported by the National Security Agency Act of 1959, which amends the memorandum that created the NSA, to add further clauses on how the Director of the NSA would be selected and the connection of the NSA to other intelligence agencies and its training programs . Larsen and Smith added that the NSA handles coordination, communication, and safeguarding of the country’s information system and become the foreign intelligence center for all members of the intelligence community. The NSA also pioneers on communication and data processing, becoming the country’s premier source for codemakers and codebreakers, employing mathematicians throughout the globe. It also handles the cipher systems used by the US to protect information systems and find the weakness of foreign systems and coding . The NSA was then revised in 1971 to be known as the NSA/CSS (Central Security Service), to handle communication and coordination between military services. An additional directive or the Information Assurance Directorate sustains the NSA’s role to sustain information assurance and signals intelligence for all branches of government. Another known directorate under the NSA is the Signals Intelligence Directorate, handling foreign signals intelligence .
Today, Knight (2003) and Smith () stated that the NSA is regarded as the technological powerhouse of the US intelligence community, and also its more secretive part. Knight stated that people tend to create conspiracy theories regarding the NSA because of its capacity and its activities beyond the organization, basing itself in Maryland. The NSA has also the highest budget and influence in billions, appropriations reaching up to other agencies . In the 2001 attacks, the NSA, alongside the National Reconnaissance Office and the National Imagery and Mapping Agency were advised under the Scowcroft Proposal to be released from DCI control and place under the CIA. However, the proposal was denied as it would only bring rivalries within the intelligence community .
References
Bolton, M. K. (2008). U.S. National Security and Foreign Policymaking After 9/11: Present at the Re-creation. Lanham: Rowman and Littlefield.
Bullock, J., Haddow, G., & Coppola, D. (2011). Introduction to Homeland Security: Principles of All-Hazards Risk Management. Burlington: Butterworth-Heinemann.
Knight, P. (2003). Conspiracy Theories in American History:. Santa Barbara: ABC-CLIO.
Larsen, J., & Smith, J. (2005). Historical Dictionary of Arms Control and Disarmament. Lanham: Scarecrow Press.
Office of the US Director of National Intelligence. (2012). Intelligence Community Legal Reference Book, Winter 2012. Washington, D.C: Government Printing Office.
Smith, W. T. (2003). Encyclopedia of the Central Intelligence Agency. New York: Infobase Publishing.
