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Intelligence Services (intelligence + services)
Selected AbstractsIntelligence bound: the South African constitution and intelligence servicesINTERNATIONAL AFFAIRS, Issue 1 2010LAURIE NATHAN This article explores the functions and impact of the South African constitution in relation to the country's intelligence services. The constitution has proved to be a powerful instrument for transforming, controlling and constraining the services, safeguarding human rights and contributing to the management of political conflicts and crises. Yet the constitution's relevance for the intelligence community is also contested and contradictory. Paradoxically, the executive, parliament and the intelligence services believe that it is legitimate for the services to deviate from constitutional provisions because their mandate to identify and counter threats to national security is intended to protect the constitution. The article contributes to filling a gap in the literature on security sector reform, which is concerned with democratic governance but ignores the role of a constitution in regulating the security organizations and determining the nature of their governance arrangements. Intelligence agencies around the world have special powers that permit them to operate with a high level of secrecy and acquire confidential information through the use of intrusive measures. Politicians and intelligence officers can abuse these powers to manipulate the political process, infringe the rights of citizens and subvert democracy. While a constitution cannot eliminate these risks, it can establish an overarching vision, a set of principles and rules and a range of mechanisms for promoting intelligence transformation and adherence to democratic norms. [source] Something Old, Something New: A Historical Perspective on the Butler ReviewTHE POLITICAL QUARTERLY, Issue 4 2004SIMON CASE Simon Case and Catherine Haddon demonstrate the value of contemporary history by looking at the recent Butler Report into intelligence on weapons of mass destruction (WMD) in its historical context. Intelligence failures form the most visible activity of the intelligence services, yet from the policy-maker's perspective it is important that the intelligence process remains undisturbed so that the intelligence product remains useful. The intelligence effort on Iraqi WMD, as with previous changes in intelligence targets, shows the difficulties in establishing good intelligence on a new threat. Increases in demand and the centrality of intelligence put more pressure on the intelligence services. Butler has set a precedent for public awareness and therefore a desire for accountability that must be internalised by government and the intelligence services. The problems experienced over Iraq show the need for continual reappraisal by both producers and users of intelligence products, particularly in light of defence policy changes and the wider machinery of government. [source] Al-Qaeda terrorism in the Sahara?ANTHROPOLOGY TODAY, Issue 4 2009Edwin Dyer's murder, the role of intelligence agencies In this article, Jeremy Keenan analyses the recent spate of ,westerners' taken hostage in the Sahara, reportedly by Al-Qaeda of the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM). The article, drawing on Keenan's earlier analyses of some three dozen hostage-takings in the region since the launch of the US ,War on terror' in the region in 2003, raises questions about the extent to which AQIM is associated with the Algerian and other regional intelligence services; the extent to which western intelligence services have been compromised by their wider geo-political and commercial interests and their attempts to manipulate AQIM; and the ethical dilemmas facing anthropologists working in such regions as to how they should position themselves in the interface between anthropology and intelligence. [source] | ||||||||||