The impact of Intelligence on Policy making

Recently , regarding the Bush administration 's efforts to compel the Central Intelligence Agency to distort intelligence in to justify an unpopular policy to invade Iraq a second time , not only did the policy makers prevail in defining the analytic priorities but many have argued that they overstepped legitimate boundaries . It is precisely this type of excessive interference that causes a breakdown of trust and professionalism between intelligence agencies and policy makers more specifically , as argued by Bar-Joseph "there is , in other words , a definite link between the failure of intelligence officers and

br politicians to clearly separate their respective domains and intelligence and political fiascoes " HYPERLINK "http /www .questiaschool .com /PM .qst ?a o d (Bar-Joseph , 1995 br

. 73 . Two illustrations can serve to demonstrate this linkage in the United States , the Bay of Pigs and the second invasion of Iraq , and to further illustrate how such improper interventions might be prevented in the future

An Intelligence Intervention : Bay of Pigs

The conventional wisdom , that policy makers define analytic priorities and intelligence agencies implement policy , broke down spectacularly during the Bay of Pigs operation . In the instant case , the CIA was authorized to engage in efforts to overthrow Fidel Castro 's government These authorizations , in a variety of forms , were issued by both the Eisenhower and Kennedy administrations and culminated in Operation Zapata . The operation failed miserably and policy makers were made to look foolish and incompetent and , yet , one of the primary failings , in hindsight , was the manipulation of analytic priorities and intelligence by the Central Intelligence Agency . More specifically "the CIA interfered with the political process in to implement the project HYPERLINK "http /www .questiaschool .com /PM .qst ?a o d (Bar-Joseph , 1995 ,

. 77 . They did this by ignoring the analytic priorities defined by the Kennedy administration . Instead...