Dear Delegates,
Welcome to the Pentagon at the sixth annual Canada International Model
United Nations Conference. This committee will have delegates representing
different departments of the US Department of Defense (DoD) who will be working
towards the common goal of protecting the United States of America and its citizens
both at home and abroad.
This committee will have one set topic, “Modern Surveillance and
Counterintelligence Operations,” and will then move into a crisis. As this is an
advanced committee dealing with extremely complicated matters, it is extremely
important that delegates understand all content that is included in this
backgrounder regarding their roles and the issues which will be discussed. A
broader knowledge base on intelligence and a strong awareness of global security
issues is also recommended for all delegates, however, not a requirement. We
recommend that delegates read the entire backgrounder as well as doing additional
research on their own to get a full and deep understandings of the topic so there is
no confusion during debate. Without adequately understanding the intricacies and
function of the issues which will arise and your job on the DoD team, it will be
extremely difficult to represent and protect the best interest of your branch of the
department.
In addition to the information presented in this backgrounder, intelligence
briefings will be emailed out to delegates prior to and during the conference. We
expect all delegates to read these briefings in full and come ready to talk about any
issue that is raised. This will be crucial to the success of you as a delegate, but also
the committee as whole
If you have any questions regarding positions, companies, topics or anything
else in this backgrounder or regarding this committee, please email us and we will
do our best to provide all necessary materials to answer any worries or concerns.
Thank you for electing to serve under President Donald J. Trump to make the United
States of America safer. On behalf of myself and my chair Kevin Nan, we look
forward to meeting everyone in May so that we can Make American Great Again!
Sincerely,
Alexander McGuigan
Director of the Pentagon | CAIMUN 2017
Important figures in the administration of the forty-fifth President of the United
States of America, Mr. Donald J Trump.
Position
Name
Party From
Donald J Trump
President
R
New York
Mike Pence
Vice President
R
Indiana
Rex Tillerson
Secretary of State
R
Texas
Steve Mnuchin
Treasury Secretary
R
New York
Gen (ret.) James
Mattis
Secretary of Defense
I
Washington
Jeff Sessions
Secretary of Justice
R
Alabama
Ryan Zinke
Secretary of the Interior
R
Montana
Wilbur Ross
Secretary of Commerce
R
New Jersey
Andrew Puzder
Secretary of Labor
R
Ohio
Tom Price
Secretary of Health
R
Georgia
Dr. Ben Carson
Secretary of Housing
R
Michigan
Elaine Chao
Secretary of Transportation
R
Kentucky
Gov. Rick Perry
Secretary of Energy
R
Texas
Betsy DeVos
Secretary of Education
R
Michigan
Gen (ret.) John F Kelly
Secretary of Homeland Security
I
Massachusetts
Nikki Haley
Ambassador to the United
Nations
R
South Carolina
Position
Name
Party
From
Donald J Trump
President
R
New York
Mike Pence
Vice President
R
Indiana
Reince Priebus
White House Chief of Staff
R
Wisconsi
n
Steve Bannon
Counselor to the President
R
Virginia
Kellyanne Conway
Counselor to the President
R
New
Jersey
H. R. McMaster
National Security Advisor
R
Rhode
Island
K. T. McFarland
Deputy National Security
Advisor
R
Wisconsi
n
Andrew Bremberg
Domestic Policy
R
Tom Bossert
Homeland Security
R
Press Secretary
Sean Spicer
R
Virginia
Public Liaison
Omarosa Manigault
R
Ohio
Don McGahn
White House Counsel
R
New
Jersey
Speaker of the House: Paul Ryan (R-Wisconsin)
Republican
Seats: 241 (Majority)
Majority Leader: Kevin McCarthy (R-California)
Majority WHIP: Steve Scalise (R-Louisiana)
Democratic
Seats: 194 (Minority)
Minority Leader: Nancy Pelosi (D-California)
Minority WHIP: Steny Hoyer (D-Maryland)
President of the United States Senate: Mike Pence (R-Indiana)
President pro tempore: Orrin Hatch (R-Utah)
Republican
Seats: 52 (Majority)
Majority Leader: Mitch McConnell (R-Kentucky)
Majority WHIP: John Cornyn (R-Texas)
Democratic
Seats: 48 (Minority)
Minority Leader: Chuck Schumer (D-New York)
Minority WHIP: Dick Durbin (D-Illinois)
The main responsibility for conducting human intelligence has been in the
hands of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) for quite a long time.1 The agency has
looked to recruit both Americans and foreign nationals in order to collect
intelligence and run espionage operations throughout the world. The main objective
of the program was to collect information and make it available to policy makers so
that they could make decisions in order to protect the interests of the United States.
This became increasingly relevant following the September 11th, 2001 terrorist
attacks, which forced the CIA to significantly increase both manpower and
1 Richelson, J. T. (2015, July 7). The Pentagon’s Spies: The Evolution of Spy Units through Obama
Administration.
expenditure dedicated to operations related to tracking and capturing terrorist
suspects including Osama Bin Laden. During the course of the Cold War, the
Department of Defense had erected a similar program in order to increase
intelligence on Soviet military and political activity of interest to American military
officials.
Following the capture of the U.S. embassy in Tehran and the subsequent
apprehension of American hostages, the Army created the Field Operations Group
(FOG) to gather intelligence in order to coordinate a possible rescue mission. After
the operation failed, the Army put in place a plan to turn FOG into a permanent
organization which would be renamed the United States Intelligence Support
Activity (USAISA).
The creation of USAISA was kept secret from the public and congress,
however, leaks to the press eventually revealed details of the program. The program
came under intense scrutiny when reports surfaced that an investigation of USAISA
showed it to be out of control. Despite this, the program was allowed to continue
until 1998. In 1989, the program was terminated with the understanding that a new
program would take its place in the coming years.
Following the termination of USAISA, the DoD was looking to centralize the
management and operations of their intelligence gathering operations. The DHS
was established in order to control all operations regarding the gather of
intelligence by the DoD. This program was used in Haiti, Somalia, and Central Africa.
By definition, counterintelligence are operations or actions designed to
prevent spying, the gathering of intelligence, or sabotage by another actor who is
generally a foreign nation. One of the largest and longest lasting counterintelligence
operations run by the United States occurred during the cold war in order to
prevent communism from spreading in the nation, or Soviet spies from gaining vital
intelligence which could help them come out victorious. One of the largest
organizations that was targeted during the Cold War was the United States Air Force
(USAF). In order to prevent communist infiltration, they set up the US Air Force
Office of Special Investigation (OSI) which was tasked with investigation matters of
potential spying.2 OSI worked to detect and prevent intelligence collection by
foreign actors, and trained personnel on how to go about dealing with relevant
situations.3 During the Cold War, OSI was used in Korea, Vietnam, and Japan; in
North America it was used for the ‘Alaska Project’ which was to prevent a possible
Soviet invasion of the North Pole.4
2 Counterintelligence in the Cold War and Beyond. (2015, June 1).
3 Counterintelligence in the Cold War and Beyond. (2015, June 1).
4 Counterintelligence in the Cold War and Beyond. (2015, June 1).
Moving forward, the U.S. faces challenges with regards to its collection of
data and intelligence. A major cause of this is the lack of confidence expressed in the
DoD to carry out these operations legally.5 Despite this, the need for intelligence
gathering capability within the U.S. government has never been higher. With the rise
of terrorism, rogue states and unconventional weaponry as well as war, the
American government needs to ensure that it is able to handle any situation around
the globe with the utmost care and attention. This information is an essential part of
the success of the military and special operations teams around the globe, and the
more detailed and accurate information which can be obtained, the increased
likelihood of successful missions.
Under the Obama administration, the expansion of intelligence gathering has
allowed the government to be able to collect more information than ever before.
Programs such as PRISM, which was the codename for a massive US spying
operation conducted by the National Security Agency, have been used under the
name of security and patriotism in some sense to try and rationalize the lack of
constitutional approval of such actions. This information, however, has been
valuable to intelligence agencies who have been able to better paint profiles of
individuals who they believe might be involved in nefarious activities.
The most common type of counterintelligence is physical intelligence, which
can be very difficult and time consuming. Physically intelligence would involve
sending spies into the field or running on the ground operation to gain intelligence
for the United States government. Results can also be quite sparatic, meaning that a
wide range of information can be discovered. This is one of the many reasons that
cyberspace is becoming the new front for fighting the intelligence war. It is
becoming more and more difficult to detect and prevent cyberattacks, with systems
much easier to hack into than to foolproof. It is for this reason the US government is
allocating large sums of money to boosting the firewall around cyber-networks.
The online war is also creating a massive problem for keeping operations and
operatives secure. The distribution of information has allowed other governments
and even news agencies to compile a list of clandestine operatives and their
personal information from agencies such as the CIA. With this information, other
nations are able to better track the identities and movements of operatives, as well
as understand what it may be they are looking for. This puts the lives of personnel at
risk, something that it is of the utmost priority to deal with quickly for the US
intelligence community.
5 Greenberg, M. R., & Haass, R. N. (n.d.). Making Intelligence Smarter.
Part of the reason that this information becomes available is that it is leaked
by employees of groups within the inner circle of the government. A contractor
working for the state department, Edward Snowden was able to access and
subsequently reveal large amounts of information which many feel put the
American people’s security at risk. It is for this reason that intelligence agencies are
looking for more ways to limit access to information for those who do not need it,
and attempt to create a culture which helps to create information secure.
The general consensus on the Republican side of the floor is to increase security
programs as much as possible. Generally, the GOP would like to take all possible
measures in order to protect the national and security interests of the country
through almost any means necessary. This would mean an increasing in intelligence
and military operations both in cyberspace and the real world. In addition, the
testing of new programs would be something that would be pushed and approved
by the Republican houses.
For the most part, Democrats would like to try and preserve the rights of the
individual when it comes to legislation. In this sense, they are largely against
programs that will invade on the privacy of people, even if it does improve the
security of the nation. This, however, was contradicted by President Barack Obama’s
expansion of PRISM, the NSA program which collected data on mass from people
around the world. Even with the large concerns surrounding privacy, even some
Democrats have conceded the need to step up monitoring given the numerous risks
which face the United States each day.
1. To what extent should the United States be working with allied nations and
partner organizations [such as the North Atlantic Treaty Organization
(NATO)] to share intelligence in an attempt at collectively dealing with global
security threats?
2. What nation, organization, or global player is the largest threat to the
national security of the United States of America? What level and type of
threat does that group pose?
3. Is the responsibility of the United States to be “the world’s police”? To what
extent does the U.S. have a responsibility to get involved in global conflict?
4. What new measures can the United States implement to decrease the risk of
a potential cyber-attack?
5. What role should human intelligence and assets play in collecting
information regarding national or global security?
“Freedom is never more than one generation away from extinction. We didn't
pass it to our children in the bloodstream. It must be fought for, protected, and
handed on for them to do the same, or one day we will spend our sunset years
telling our children and our children's children what it was once like in the
United States where men were free.”
- President Ronald Reagan
Counterintelligence in the Cold War and Beyond. (2015, June 1). Retrieved December 21, 2016,
from
http://www.nationalmuseum.af.mil/Visit/MuseumExhibits/FactSheets/Display/tabid/509/Art
icle/197643/counterintelligence-in-the-cold-war-and-beyond.aspx
Greenberg, M. R., & Haass, R. N. (n.d.). Making Intelligence Smarter. Retrieved December 22,
2016, from https://fas.org/irp/cfr.html#summary
Richelson, J. T. (2015, July 7). The Pentagon’s Spies: The Evolution of Spy Units through Obama
Administration. Retrieved December 16, 2016, from http://www.globalresearch.ca/thepentagons-spies-the-evolution-of-spy-units-through-obama-administration/5460984
Thomas, S. (2009, January 9). The First State of the Union Address. Retrieved December 22,
2016, from http://ahp.gatech.edu/first_state_union_1790.html