Bombs, Bugs, Drugs, and Thugs: Intelligence and America's Quest for Security

• NCJ Number: 198697
• Author(s): Loch K. Johnson
• Date Published: 2000
• Length: 319 pages
• Sale Source: New York University Press
• Publication Format: Book (Softbound)
• Publication Type: Legislation/Policy Analysis
• Language: English
• Country: United States of America

Annotation

This book explores the current state and future challenges of American strategic intelligence in its efforts to ensure security for the Nation and its citizens.

Abstract

The author advises that intelligence, the means by which information is acquired and assessed for the purpose of protecting the Nation from harm, is a process that has several phases, from planning, collecting, and processing to analysis and dissemination. He advises that if the United States is to be successful in thwarting future terrorist operations, extensive reforms must be undertaken to correct the weaknesses in each of the aforementioned phases. The introductory section of this book emphasizes the importance of intelligence for national security, briefly describes the various U.S. intelligence agencies and their functions, reviews some recent events that took American intelligence by surprise, and provides a brief critique of the status of American intelligence efforts. The author concludes that across all U.S. intelligence agencies, analytic depth is shallow; even after newcomers are trained and sent overseas, it takes years for them to mature into effective officers with a productive network of assets in foreign capitals. Lacking, also, are adequate connections between the various collectors and analysts inside the intelligence community at home, on the one hand, and U.S. military and civilian personnel overseas, on the other hand. Also missing is an effective pooling of the findings and insights produced by all the intelligence agencies. The intelligence agencies need better technology, more officers in the streets of foreign capitals, additional analysts at home, and a greater integration of all phases of intelligence, from the gathering and analysis of information to its timely dissemination. The preferred model is a smaller, more efficient intelligence service. In addition to providing an assessment of the current status of U.S. intelligence and recommending steps to strengthen the intelligence enterprise in all of its phases, this book presents an intelligence agenda for a new world. Appended discussion of America's intelligence leadership, chapter notes, a 400-item bibliography, and a subject index