Resources

Read/review the following resources for this activity:

• Textbook: Chapters 7, 8
• Lecture 1
• Link (website): The Man Who Sold the War’: Marketing Iraq
• Link (PDF): National Security Strategy (2017)
• Link (video): Intercollegiate Studies Institute
• Link (website): Covert action
• Link (website): The Operation that Killed Bin Laden

Introduction
Covert Actions are secret by definition but given the resources required and impact on national security, it seems problematic not to have accountability. However, accountability cannot occur with complete secrecy.

Initial Post
Using the categories in chapter 8, correlate that information to what you may find in a newspaper or journal article and analyze the successes or mistakes of an unclassified account of counterintelligence. Use the chapter information to make your points.

Secondary Posts
Read postings provided by your instructor or fellow students. Read and respond to the conclusions drawn by your classmates. Remember to read the feedback to your own major postings and reply throughout the week.

Writing Requirements

• In addition to one initial post, respond to at least two peers.
• Initial Post Length: minimum of 250 words
• Secondary Post Length: minimum of 200 words per post
• Using APA format, provide at least one citation with corresponding references page and use appropriate in-text citation(s) referring to the academic concept for the initial post.

• For the secondary post respond to the two students post below:

Student 1: “After going over the categories in Chapter 8, my instinct told me to go for propaganda, but it has more to do with the media so I’ll move on in a different direction. “Propaganda can be used to support individuals on groups friendly to one’s own side or to undermine one’s opponents. It can also be used to create false rumors of political unrest, economic shortages, or direct attacks on individuals, to name a few techniques” (Lowenthal, 2017, p. 256). If you stop and think about it for a minute, propaganda has been used in almost every war the United States has been involved in. Out government has almost glamorized citizens supporting sending men and women into theater. If you go to Google and type in “war propaganda” and click on images, you can see how the art has gotten much better over the years. These aren’t just posters encouraging men to join the service, these posters are also aimed at women and children. There were posters during WWI and WWII encouraging women to step up and take care of the job’s men would typically do so that as many men as possible could go off to war. And children were encouraged to save all of their change to help Uncle Sam. And the kicker is, they worked! I don’t think these propaganda posters were a mistake, I mean they made regular citizens feel that they were helping out and doing their part. But as with anything the U.S. government does, there are always opponents and there is a rather large collection of anti-war propaganda posters, quite a few made me laugh”.

References

Lowenthal, M. M. (2017). Intelligence: From Secrets to Policy. Los Angeles: CQ Press.

Student 2: “Chapter 8 in the textbook, there are different categories that are set for the different parts of the covert action ladder. They are listed in the book as Paramilitary, Coups, Sabotage, Economic activity, political activity, and propaganda (lowenthal, 2017). Covert action shows a potential policy for decision who make something quicker than diplomacy. The first and most important task in any discussion of covert action is to clarify what it is and what it is not. It is important to note at the outset that the very term “covert action” is a uniquely American one, and a relatively recent one at that, having evolved since World War II. Covert action was not even defined in US law until the passage of the 1991 Intelligence Authorization Act, which defines it as activity meant “to influence political, economic or military conditions abroad, where it is intended that the role of the United States Government will not be apparent or acknowledged publicly” (i.e., preserving plausible deniability) (50 USC 413(b)(e)). Thus, it has been described as the “quiet option” or the “third option,” presenting a potential policy route for decision makers who want something quicker or more muscular than diplomacy but less expensive and obtrusive than military force (Kibbe, 2010)”.

Kibbe, J. D. (2017, December 13). Covert Action. Retrieved from https://oxfordre.com/internationalstudies/view/10.1093/acrefore/9780190846626.001.0001/acrefore-9780190846626-e-135.