In 1955, Congress recommended that the CIA’s director take charge of all intelligence for the US. They didn’t. After several other failed efforts, the creation of the National Counterterrorism Center in the wake of 9/11 was supposed to finally accomplish this goal.
But as the failed Christmas bombing in Detroit showed, they simply didn’t. After 55 years of struggle, the nation has 16 distinct spy agencies, and information flows slowly between them, if at all.
But when a failure happens, each springs to life, pointing fingers at the others as the source of the problem. With the groups all vying for slices of the intelligence budget, it behooves them to look like successes, but also to make their rivals look like failures.
Officials are expressing hope that the lap bomber, who didn’t actually kill anybody, may serve as a wake-up call for the problem and finally rectify it. Yet over a half century of history suggests otherwise, and that whatever move they make, information sharing will remain a reluctant endeavor.
"Spy Agency Cooperation: Over Half a Century of Failure." As a citizen who knows that federal law enforcement and intelligence agencies routinely spy unconstitutionally on the communications (snail mail, email, telephone conversations, etc.,) and financial transactions (business, banking, charities, etc.,) of all Americans, all I can say is this: GOOD! God help us when they really start to get their act together. Gee, fellow Americans, whatever happened to our god-given and constitutionally protected rights to privacy?
It is important to note that terrorism poses only a marginal threat to our nation and its citizenry. Most people have a better chance of drowning in the bathtub than dying in a terrorist attack, and even repeated terrorist attacks do not pose an existential threat to the our form of government or way of life.
On the other hand, the state security tradeoffs manifest a classic case of diminishing marginal returns: for each incremental unit of money and rights expended by the citizenry gain it ever decreasing improvements in actual security and safety. There is simply no amount of security that will stop a determined terrorist from finding a way to trade his life for others.