Intelligence operations

The original question asked was “When might a secret intelligence operation or covert action be the most appropriate action to take?”

Write a 250 word response to the following post.

A secret or covert intelligence operation might be the most appropriate action to take when the job would work best if not publicized. Covert action encompasses various aspects of psychological warfare, including the use of black propaganda that hides the origin of the information; deception, especially in military operations; and disinformation, circulating false information to disrupt or discredit an adversary (Hulnick 1999). The use of covert operations has been around since the first U.S. President and has created controversy ever since.

Hulnick lays out many examples of covert operations, the reasoning, and the outcome. He states that open funding by Congress would have been impossible and that is a main reason some of these operations were chosen to be kept secret. He also states that critics believe covert operations are not necessary and the United Stated should not engage in those practices. Yet, all the investigations of secret intelligence operations the Church Committee, the Rockefeller Commission, the Joint Investigation of the Iran-Contra Affair have all concluded that covert action is and ought to remain an important part of the U.S. national security arsenal and that the capability to carry out such operations should be maintained, but carefully controlled (Hulnick 1999).

Although there have been covert operations that have failed, I think they are still necessary to get some specific jobs done. If there could be tension, damage, or exploitation, the use of a covert intelligence operation would work best. I found this website with some listings of covert operations which I thought was interesting: https://nsarchive.gwu.edu/subjects/covert-action.

References

Hulnick, A. 1999. Fixing the Spy Machine: Preparing American Intelligence for the Twenty-First Century. Praeger Security International. Psi.praeger.com.

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