The impact of Alqaieda

CIA STRUGGLES AND RISE OF AL-QAEDA Name Course Date CIA Struggles and Rise of Al-Qaeda Introduction US intelligence is believed to be the most powerful, robust and up to date in the world. Going by the expenditure on intelligence alone, it is correct to assume it should be able to foresee and foretell potential attacks from whatever part of the world. However in the build up to the 9/11, the intelligence system failed and was not able to predict the attack. Additionally, the central intelligence agency (CIA) is blamed to have missed the point when al-Qaida was forming and recruiting members. This paper argues that the CIA struggles were solely the reasons for blossoming of al-Qaida, the 9/11 attack and other intelligence mishaps in the post-cold war. The paper starts by analyzing the how a struggling CIA fuelled al-Qaeda success then argues that poor information sharing between CIA and other agencies failed to stop al-Qaeda from strengthening its ranks. Finally, the paper looks at CIA priorities in the post-cold war and its relation to al-Qaeda and then stakes a claim that the 9/11 attack was purely a result of Intelligence failure. CIA struggles and how it fuelled al-Qaida success As the threat of terrorism and al-Qaeda grew, the central intelligence agency which is charged within diligence gathering continued to struggle and made blunders that led to collateral damages and loss of lives in the 9/11 attack. After the Soviet war and the advent of the information age, al-Qaida began as a small network of dispersed units that synchronized the information age with doctrine, strategy, and technology. According to Coll (278) al-Qaida had a web of informal connection that was made mostly of Sunni Islamic terrorists, and Osama bin Laden had managed to organize an unknown number of sleeper cells that were on standby awaiting instruction to attack. During this time, the central intelligence agency (CIA), a body that was charged with gathering information and neutralizing the threat of terrorism was in deep struggles. The CIA was at its all-time low. The agency was faced with constant budgetary cuts, an issue that hindered its restructuring thus rendering it only capable of concentrating on a monolithic enemy. Much of the CIA's work was focused on tracking bin Laden as an individual and not collecting intelligence on the activities of al-Qaida. However the CIA managed to trap Bin Laden’s phone, the efforts were insignificant because Bin Laden changed his communication methods constantly.[Coll, Steve. Ghost Wars: The Secret History of the CIA, Afghanistan, and bin Laden, from the Soviet Invasion to September 10, 2001. Penguin, 2004.] The CIA had no station in Afghanistan in which it could collect information about al-Qaida movements. At this time al-Qaida was gathering intelligence and building its stable while the Langley-based agency was unable to collect valuable intelligence from sources within al-Qaida (234). Moreover, the entire intelligence community failed to understand al-Qaida. It is believed that CIA faced structural problems that hindered analysis. The lack of quality intelligence collected from the al-Qaida meant that the United States oper...