Literal Intelligence Collection

Literal Intelligence Collection: National Intelligence and the NSA wireless intercept program Intelligence Collection: Sources and Challenges February 13, 2012 In the aftermath of 9/11 the intelligence community (IC) felt pressure from all directions. Employees of the IC, Congress, and the general public wanted questions answered as to why our nation didn’t know an attack was imminent. This â€Å"failure† of intelligence caused a shake up within the entire IC, leading to many future changes. One such change was in communications intelligence (COMINT) collection.According to Cummings (2006), â€Å"President George W. Bush said that he authorized NSA to intercept the international communications of people with known links to al Qaeda and related terrorist organizations in the weeks following the September 11th terrorist attacks† (p. 6). The President’s decision had many repercussions. I will discuss the parameters of the decision, the management issues assoc iated with it that lead to such controversy, and the impact it had on national intelligence and the NSA.What led to this drastic decision by the U. S. President? The United States was blind-sighted in the September 11, 2001 terrorist attack which resulted in the death of 2,977 innocent Americans. This was the largest attack in the history of the U. S. on our soil and although the signs were there for the intelligence community to see, it was mistakenly not put together. Much of the attack stemmed from communications between terrorist or those connected and working with terrorist within our Country, and this was unacceptable.In order to defend against such communications, according to Lichtblau & Risen (2005), â€Å"Under a presidential order signed in 2002, the intelligence agency has monitored the international telephone calls and international e-mail messages of hundreds, perhaps thousands, of people inside the United States without warrants over the past three years in an ef fort to track possible ‘dirty numbers’ linked to Al Qaeda, the officials said. The agency, they said, still seeks warrants to monitor entirely domestic communications†.The sole purpose of the NSA program was to safeguard our national security in a more expansive, efficient manner. The center on law and security (2007) states â€Å"†¦this requirement to demonstrate all of the substantive and procedural elements of FISA to the Attorney General's satisfaction before any surveillance can begin, would fatally impair the President's ability to carry out his constitutional responsibility to collect foreign intelligence to protect our Nation from attack† (p. 9).Any implementation involving citizen’s privacy is assured to draw controversy, and the root of the problem with this program was a management issue. The President, DCI, and the Director of the NSA should have informed the head of the Senate Select and Congressional oversight committees with a mor e in depth understanding of the changes and the secrecy. A plan should have been in place to deal with leaks to the public of the changes, and a more detailed description of the amendment to the policy should have been created and kept under lock and key.Intelligence collection involves many activities that citizens (lacking all of the facts), may deem unconstitutional. The problem with this is most of the time the facts are not available to the general population, media, and even certain members of the Congressional oversight committees, for fear of an operation leak. Much of what the IC does must remain secret, at least until the aftermath (which could be years later). In regards to the topic at hand, authorization of warrantless wireless intercept by the NSA, the main problem arose due to management failures in the implementation of such a controversial topic.The center on law and security (2007) states, â€Å"Critics of the NSA program do not necessarily object to the type of s urveillance, but rather to the way in which it has been authorized, and to the absence of any oversight† (p. 10). The Congressional oversight committees serve as a checks and balance to the IC and the President informed the heads of the committees (Gang of Eight) of his plan to authorize wireless intercepts on Americans. Cummings (2006) states, â€Å"†¦the executive branch had limited its briefings of the legislative branch to the Gang of Eight.They further asserted that the executive branch had prohibited them from sharing any information about the program with congressional colleagues† (p. 7). In the aftermath, it seems the Gang of Eight did not understand the necessity of secrecy behind this information. The President should have explained the reasoning behind the secrecy and why the information was limited to the Gang of Eight. If the Gang of Eight understood the parameters and restrictions in place, they could better defend the plan when future problems arose. Preparations hould have been in place for dealing with the public if and when the time came that the media caught wind of the wireless intercept. At some point the President should expect that the public would have to be addressed with some details defending his actions. There should have been regulations in place, describing the limits the NSA still had to endure when it came to U. S. citizens. When reports came out in 2005, there was much confusion as to what exactly the President had authorized, and if there were limits in place for the NSA. A failure to properly address the issue allowed the media to run wild with stories, further outraging critics.Silence and secrecy only added to the problem of distrust of the IC. In preparation, President Bush should have had a detailed description of the amendment to the policy, with restrictions still in place for the NSA. This policy should have been dated at the time it went into effect, signed by the President, the DCI, the Director of NSA and the Gang of Eight and kept in the possession of the Director of the NSA. Having a signed document would serve the future purpose of showing there was knowledge of the parameters of the amended policy.If this policy had to become public (open source) at some point, it would hopefully show that Management had made an organized effort of implementing change and involved as many officials as possible under the current circumstances. The National Security Agency (NSA) has the task of protecting U. S. national security systems through the use of signal intelligence (SIGINT), to include COMINT. Prior to the President giving authorization to warrantless domestic eavesdropping following 9/11, the NSA had to obtain a court approved warrant in order to eavesdrop on a U.S. citizen’s communications, otherwise known as a FISA (Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act) warrant. According to the center on law and security (2007) â€Å"FISA warrants require ‘probable cause’ to suspect that an individual is acting either for a ‘foreign power’ (including terrorist organizations) or as an ‘agent of a foreign power,’ a target (a cell phone, a computer, a BlackBerry, or a landline phone, for example), and that foreign intelligence be a ‘significant purpose’ of the warrant† (p. ). NSA is no stranger to negative public perception regarding their unconstitutional practices. This wireless intercept program put the agency’s reputation at stake once again. Reports of the NSA having access to most American’s phone records detailing their calls and communications is cause for concern for critics. Due to a lack of proper implementation, notifications and opportunity for oversight, the NSA and the IC has to climb another uphill battle to win back the trust of Americans.Dilanian (2011) states, â€Å"U. S. intelligence officials insist that the new surveillance powers have been crucial to stopping terrorist p lots†. Hopefully, some of the more recent successes in the community can erase the impact of failures and the intelligence community can improve their reputation once again. References Cummings, Alfred (2006). Statutory procedures under which Congress is to be informed of U. S. intelligence activities, including covert actions: NSA domestic surveillance.Congressional Research Service Dilanian, Ken (2011). 9/11, ten years after, more surveillance; A legacy of watchful eyes; The government eavesdrops on U. S. citizens as never before. Los Angeles Times Aug 30, 2011. Tuesday Home Edition. Lichtblau, E. & Risen, J. (2005). Bush lets U. S. spy on callers without courts. The New York Times, Dec 16, 2005. doi: 942423341 The Center on Law and Security at the NYU school of Law (2007). The NSA wiretapping program. For The Record, 1(Jan) 1-16.

Gender Roles in Beowulf and The Decameron Essay

The Anglo- Saxon epic Beowulf and Giovanni Boccaccio’s Decameron tell very different stories, but nevertheless can be said to share one common literary element: the representation of gender. Both Beowulf and many of the stories in the Decameron represent women as being the subject to men in all respects. Beowulf is a masculine epic altogether, in which women are absent, silent or otherwise merely a tool that serves the world of men. In The Decameron on the other hand, although women are present in all the stories, Boccaccio makes them the victims of his irony most of the times, picturing them either as adulteresses or as very simple beings that completely lack cleverness, like the woman who lets herself be persuaded by her lover that he is the angel Gabriel himself. However, in both Boccaccio’s tales and in Beowulf the role of the women is even more interesting to notice when the authors intend to give a positive representation of them, in the form of ideal women. The ideal women for the two texts, Griselda in Boccaccio’s hundred story and Wealhtheow in Beowulf offer indeed a good insight into the way in which women were represented: they are intended to be positive figures, but they are ideal only insomuch as they are perfect tools that serve in the men’s world. Thus, Beowulf is as Gillian Overing notes, an absolutely masculine epic, which focuses only on heroism. The world of men is accurately constructed: it is entirely composed of men’s wishes, men’s actions and so on: â€Å"Beowulf is an overwhelmingly masculine poem; it could be seen as a chronicle of male desire, a tale of men dying†¦There is no place for women in the masculine economy of Beowulf. â€Å"(Overing, 69) Beowulf is the hero and later the king, who saves the Danish people of the powerful monster Grendel and of his mother. The very few women who appear in the story are mostly mentioned directly as instruments in the world of men, as â€Å"peace-weavers† more exactly, like Hrothgar’s daughter for example, who is mentioned directly as a â€Å"promise† to a certain man, as a means to bring peace to the kingdom: â€Å"Oft to the heroes Hrothgar’s daughter,/ to earls in turn, the ale-cup tendered, –/she whom I heard these hall-companions/ Freawaru name, when fretted gold/ she proffered the warriors. Promised is she,/ gold-decked/ maid, to the glad son of Froda. / Sage this seems to the Scylding’s-friend,/ kingdom’s-keeper: he counts it wise/ the woman to wed so and ward off feud,/ store of slaughter. But seldom ever/when men are slain, does the murder-spear sink/ but briefest while, though the bride be fair! † It is quite clear that this woman will probably fail even in her modest role, as a peace maker, according to the prediction of the anonymous author. Wealhtheow, queen to Hrothgar is the only woman who is given a voice in the poem at all. Her two speeches, one addressed to her king and the other to Beowulf mark very important moments in the poem, and she almost seems to have a certain power. She advises her king not to adopt Beowulf as a son, since he already has two sons of his owns, and pledges him to his word by offering a cup. She then goes to Beowulf and offers another symbolic object, a neck-ring as a reward for his feats of heroism and urges him to fight again and confront death: â€Å"Enjoy this neck-ring with safety, Beowulf, beloved youth, and make use of this corselet, of our people’s treasure; prosper well, declare yourself with strength, and be kind of counsel to these youths. I shall remember to reward you for that. You have brought it about that men shall praise you from far and near for a long time to come†¦. Here every nobleman is true to the other, mild of heart, loyal to his lord; the thanes are united, the people willing; the wine-drinking warriors do as I bid. † (â€Å"Beowulf†, 1216-1231) In both these instances, the Danish queen seems to hold some power over the events and the world of men, since she performs such symbolic acts and since she herself declares that the warriors obey her. However, it is quite obvious that she also is an instrument just like the other women mentioned in the text. She does not perform her own will, but only acts as an ideal tool for men that takes the cup from one of them and gives it to another. It can be said that Wealhtheow is merely a mediator and a peace bringer in the poem, just like the other women represented. As Gillian Overing remarks, in Beowulf women serve only as mediators for the alliances between men, either through marriage or through symbolic, minor acts: â€Å"While we have no way of guessing at Beowulf’s sexuality, or at the poet’s or the hero’s personal views on marriage, we cannot ignore the strength of expressed masculine desire in the poem. Intensity and passion are located in the bonds of loyalty and friendship forged between men, and marriage is valued as an extension of this larger emotional context. †(Overing, 72) Thus, Wealhtheow is an ideal woman in Beowulf insomuch as she serves the purposes in men’s world, her will simply coinciding with the desires of men. In the last story of The Decameron, one of the very few that actually have a â€Å"happy† ending, Griselda the modest daughter of a shepherd is married to the Marquis of Saluzzo. Her role in the story is strikingly similar to that of Wealhtheow in Beowulf, even if the context is very different. In the story Gualtieri is a typical man, who as shown from the start, is preoccupied only with men’s business, such as hunting, and despises the idea of marriage: â€Å"†¦having neither wife nor child, [he] passed his time in naught else but in hawking and hunting, and of taking a wife and begetting children had no thought; wherein he should have been accounted very wise†¦Ã¢â‚¬ (Boccaccio, 837) As the author declares, the idea of taking a wife would be completely unwise, suggesting that women are merely troublesome acquisitions for men. However, Gualtieri is married at last, but chooses the daughter of a shepherd, so as to make sure she will be more likely to obey him in everything: â€Å"He then asked her, whether, if he took her to wife, she would study to comply with his wishes, and be not wroth, no matter what he might say or do, and be obedient†¦Ã¢â‚¬ (Boccaccio, 840) After a few happy years, he starts to deliberately torment his wife, through cruel acts, such as taking her children away and making her believe they are dead or humiliating her for her base condition in front of everyone. All this is done of course to try the wife’s patience and her limits in her total obedience to her husband. In the end, he makes her believe he is going to marry again, but instead brings her daughter, and the story ends well. The moral is quite evident: Boccaccio attempted to portray his idea of the perfect woman, that is the woman is nothing else but an instrument of man’s will. Griselda is so modest as to consider herself unworthy of any kind of regard, and so patient as to bear in silence her husband cruelty: â€Å"My lord, do with me as thou mayst deem best for thine own honour and comfort, for well I wot that I am of less account than they, and unworthy of this honourable estate †¦Ã¢â‚¬ (Boccaccio, 842) Her similarity to Wealhtheow is now apparent: both the queen in Beowulf and Griselda are ideal women only because they serve men properly, as instruments, that do not have any will of their own. Thus, the heroines of the two texts, although they appear in very different contexts, are obviously represented in the same way, that is, as instruments that are in harmony with men’s affairs and desires. Their perfection comes precisely from their nullity as characters, as persons of their own will. Both of them are wives first of all, and are defined only through this role. Although their authors intended a positive representation of women through them, they are in fact just useful devices for men, with no real consistence of their own. Works Cited: Risden, Edward L. tr. Beowulf. Troy: Whitston Publishing, 1994. Boccaccio, Giovanni. The Decameron. New York: Signet Classics, 2003 Overing, Gillian R. Language, Sign and Gender in ‘Beowulf. ’ Carbondale: Southern Illinois University Press, 1990.

How can Sainsburys develop an effective marketing plan to position Research Proposal

How can Sainsburys develop an effective marketing plan to position themselves in the UK SUPERMARKET - Research Proposal Example een noticed that there is a lack of new entrants in the market because of economic fluctuations and stagnation of technological advancement in the country. Based on the data achieved from the last year i.e. 2012, it was found that the revenue generated through the supermarket retailing segment was around  £134 billion, which reveals an average annual growth of 1.3 percent from 2008-13 (IBIS World, 2013). This segment offers employment to approximately 945,694 people in the UK. According to IGD Research the supermarket segment performed its best in 2001, as a growth of 6.5 percent was registered; this kept diminishing since then and came down to 3.3 percent in 2003. The market fluctuated ever since and in 2011 it was recorded to be around 3.8 percent (Institute of Grocery Distribution, 2012). Tesco has the highest market share in the UK, which is about 30 percent, then comes Asda and J Sainsbury (Grocery News, 2013). The problem statement of this research study is to identify the current status of the supermarket segment in the UK. In order to develop an effective marketing plan for Sainsbury’s, a comprehensive analysis of various supermarkets would be done, especially those which are successfully doing business in the country. The customer’s attitude would be evaluated to understand their views on supermarkets present in the UK. The objective of this study at first is to identify the existing players in the market and evaluate the market trend accordingly. Secondly, secondary as well as primary data would be collected in order to understand the needs and preferences of the customers in case of shopping from supermarkets. Lastly, a marketing plan has to be designed for a supermarket chain called Sainsbury’s, so that it can effectively grab market share and be among the market leaders in the UK. This study mainly focuses on designing an effective marketing plan for Sainsbury’s, so that it can grab a higher market share in the UK and carry on profitable

The development program for graduate students Research Paper

The development program for graduate students - Research Paper Example For example: students can help in figuring out whether the communication skills of instructors are of desired standard by rating how easily they understand what their instructors are teaching. Students can even help in figuring out whether the instructor has the analytical skills and the experience required to teach a particular subject to the undergraduate sections. Secondly, the instructors can themselves provide insight regarding the issues they experience while teaching students. Thirdly, grades of students in their exams can even help identify whether the students are able to understand the teacher or not. While determining who to train, it is necessary to figure out who lack the skills require teaching. If both the future as well as the current instructors lacks those skills, they should be trained. Those teachers whose students are not getting good grades plus those teachers who are rated low in the context of classroom communication and students understanding should even be

Youth Culture and Moral Panic Portfolio Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words - 1

Youth Culture and Moral Panic Portfolio - Essay Example This has left the public ill-prepared to consider the vital greater changes that affect identities across different ages. In his work, â€Å"Folk Devils and Moral Panics,† Stanley Cohen first introduced the term â€Å"moral panic† to refer to the idea as an irregular episode, which when it happens, subjects the society to spells of worry about the principles and values which it upholds that may be a threat. He described its features as â€Å"a situation, group, person, or episode who are viewed as a threat to societal interests and values† (Cohen, 1980). The â€Å"amplifications† that are portrayed by the media serve to appeal to the public to concur with pre-existing opinions on the course of action to be carried out. These opinions are frequently found among members of the â€Å"moral barricade† like the editors, bishops, and politicians. Combined with the views of the â€Å"experts† who are driven to offer their diagnosis, they come to a consensus on how to cope with the situation and the problem either deteriorates or disappears. Even though Cohen in his findings state that the media often exaggerated the occurrences and consequently inciting the panic to be assimilated by the police, some of these panics cause more serious consequences in the society. It is significant to note that â€Å"moral panics† are not just developed by the newspapers, but on many occasions they are debated in the papers. For example, the Guardian in 1993 stated, â€Å"The moral panic and the Facts†, an article that discussed a Conservative Party Conference on welfare expenses turned to be a moral panic on the side of single mothers. The single women thought they were being blamed for unruly youth. Ironically, the media criticized this conference for concentrating on myths which had been dealt with some time back in a Cabinet briefing paper, yet they themselves were accused of partaking in weird hunts.   

The Engineers Concern about the Overhead Rate Going Up and Up in Assignment

The Engineers Concern about the Overhead Rate Going Up and Up in Managerial Accounting - Assignment Example A single hour of the labor carries an additional burden amount of $1,500 (Wagener, 2010). Moreover, the underlying labor cost contributes up to five percent of the prevailing cost of the product thus making it the main propeller of the all the cost of Fabricator Inc. Since one cost is utilized as the main pricing standard and in the case of the Fabricator Inc they use labor, their main concern that the underlying set standard might be cumbersome to accomplish (Warren, Reeve, Duchac, & Warren, 2012). Therefore, lost labor in its entity is inadequacies as an example is depicted by the prevailing management as either poor pricing or production (Warren, Reeve, Duchac, & Warren, 2012). Even though overhead is fundamental and normally demanded the production process, bid pricing that is mainly driven by labor as the standard would eventually be more expensive. The most effective means would be utilizing activity-based costing because Fabricator Inc mainly specializes in executing underlying customer orders and every order is unique and possesses different requirement. Utilizing single overhead rate is thus not acceptable (Wagener, 2010). The engineer has also mentioned that the standard was being worked around by the corresponding design engineering thus rendering the prevailing standard utilized by Fabricator Inc unreliable (Kaplan & Anderson, 2007). The engineer meant that high job cost standard for the project biding might infrequent the prevailing project managers mandated by pricing a job forbid when he said that a relatively large overhead rate is a disadvantage to the company in terms of placing bids and seeking new business (Lal & Srivastava, 2009). Any errors in the estimate for the labor hours would definitely possess massive implications in the operation of the company (Warren, Reeve, Duchac, & Warren, 2012). Moreover, miscalculation or rather a failure by few hours  could definitely imply that the company would either be losing the bid or correspondingly be losing money in case the job is acquired.  

Terrorism Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words - 14

Terrorism - Essay Example sequent to these, the following discussion aims at highlighting a case related to terrorism as shown in the movie â€Å"A Mighty Heart,† as well as my own personal opinions about terrorism. The movie a mighty heart features the world of Daniel Pearl, a reporter of the Wall Street Journal. He embarked on researching a story on a shoe bomber known as Richard Reid (Pearl, 11). The story led him to a place called Karachi where an informant was to give him details of an elusive source. As Daniel left for the meeting, he told his wife he could get late for dinner. However, Daniel never returned from this meeting. Supporters of Omar Sheikh kidnapped and beheaded him. This movie depicts one of the many incidences that have led to the death of innocent people. Daniel was in the course of doing his work, thus giving service to the society when he met his death. He was to expose facts associated with terror attacks in the U.S., thus assist in the fight against terrorism. However, the terrorists could not spare him for his bravery, leading to his demise. In response to this, I think people who opt to trend on such important missions should take such precautions as requesting for g overnment protection. In my opinion, terrorism bears adverse effects on the lives of people. It denies them the freedom to conduct their activities in a free manner as it evokes fear among them. It also hinders them from accomplishing their dreams in life as shown in the case of Daniel in the mighty heart movie. More to these, terrorism hinders the exploitation of people’s potential, thus hampering the process of development in any nation. When terror attacks are directed, for example, towards individuals, the family members of the targeted person experience a lot of suffering. The person may go missing for a considerable period leaving the family members in a confused state. The members go through a lot of emotional turmoil as they hope for a reunion with their beloved one. Eventual death of such