the question is in the attachment, please check and change any wrong wording Punctuation and grammar, style of the wording, and include conclusion
Then, write a paper of approximately 2000 words (+/- 10%). In the paper, you should identify at least five of the key intelligence activities depicted in the film. Why are they important? How do you know? One of the learning objectives in the course is to make connections between what we have done in class and what is happening in the “real” world. How is the film in conversation with our readings and class discussions? Finally, how does the film depict the intelligence mission? To the extent possible, you should also discuss some of the ways in which the movie differs from real events and what we can learn from these differences. Intelligence-wise, what are some lessons we can learn? The paper should have one-inch margins, using a normal font and font size, such as Times New Roman 12, with appropriate citations.
Intelligence Report
Name: Gorgees Zia
Student ID: 44830769
Unit name: PICT3012
Date: 24/05/2020
Film analysis: Counterintelligence (Breach)
The film ''Breach'' is a personal perspective movie in the American intelligence community. The movie is based on a true story about an American FBI agent who spied for more than 20 years for Soviet military intelligence, the Soviet state intelligence service, and the Russian intelligence service. For almost 5 years the intelligence community were investigating into Robert Hanssen's espionage and in 2001 he was arrested by FBI agents, Kelley (2008). This essay mainly will discuss five different key intelligence activities depicted in the film and this includes (counterintelligence, HUMINT, SIGINT, surveillance, and lastly covert action). The essay will have five sperate sections which are related to the intelligence activities and it will explain each activity on how and why they are important in the intelligence community. Additionally, the essay it emphasises how the CIA counterintelligence and other intelligence activities are involved and what are their missions according to the movie. Every intelligence agency in the intelligence community has its own roles and purposes to achieve their interest. Also, within the five sections, the essay will look at how is the movie has common or similar themes and topics of the readings and class discussions that we had this semester.
In the last section of the essay, it will discuss how the film depict in intelligence mission, such as the Breach movie is a short story of Robert Hanssen's espionage to the Russians in the intelligence community. Also, within the last section, the report will discuss some lessons that have brought my attention to see how the movie differs from real facts.
The film illustrates from 2000 to 2001 of Robert Philip Hanssen''s life in the intelligence community, as he was traitor for selling and spaying a lot of information about America's military secrets, intelligence secrets and other programs such as continuity of government for the Russians since 1985. According to Kelley (2008), ''Hanssen was certainly one of the most complex and disturbing spies of U.S. history''. As he was transferred to a different department with his new assistant (Eric O'Neill), so, Robert was under investigation by many different intelligence communities. And lastly, he was arrested at the beginning of 2002 in the early morning near a park.
After watching the film, the main five intelligence activities have brought my attention in the ''Breach'' film were,
Counterintelligence: Is one of the most important intelligence activities in the community as they fight against any national threats and other threats such as espionage to ensure the U.S. is always safe by having defensive and offensive counterintelligence. According to Deady (2009), ''counterintelligence is the information gathered and activities conducted to protect against any espionage and other intelligence activities, sabotage or assassinations by foreign powers or persons''. The importance of counterintelligence in the community has its own role in catching and finding whether foreigners or American espionage on the U.S. interests. According to the movie, the counterintelligence team played an essential part in collecting information, monitoring, and detecting about Robert's espionage in the last few years with the Russians. During watching the movie, it says that the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), which is in the counterintelligence department, they have paid around 7 million U.S. dollars for a file on him from Russians defectors. The counterintelligence agency which was covered in week 2 of the semester in the (Introduction to the American intelligence topic), also it was mentioned in the lecture and the reading the counterintelligence has the biggest role in protecting vital information and the country from national threats. Therefore, it shows that from the reading how the counterintelligence work closely with other agents such as human sources and signals intelligence to gather secrets information and data, (Van Cleave, 2013), as well as in the movie, it defines the counterintelligence worked with the HUMINT and SIGINT agencies to track Robert during his espionage. In the film, it demonstrates how the counterintelligence agency faces many challenges or threats whether from internal or external.
HUMINT or human intelligence, is one of the oldest methods in collecting information such as by meeting between person to person, in this activity operators collects information in a variety of ways and techniques, and they are the best known as intelligence collectors because they have special talents on gathering the information required. As Steele (2010), said that ''Human Intelligence is intelligence gathered by means of interpersonal contact, a category of intelligence derived from information collected and provided by human sources''. They are one of the most essential and biggest agencies in the intelligence community as they play a major role in protecting the U.S. interests by working with national security policy, as well as they have well known the best spies and in the recruitment of foreign agents in the intelligence community. Additionally, some human intelligence agents work in liaison roles to connect with other agencies or foreign militaries. In the film, it shows many people within this agency took part in Robert's case such as those people who were meeting from time to time to collect information about what time Robert badged in his office through the times. Also, Eric or Robert's assistant, described as human intelligence, as he was recruited by agents to provide them with secrets and information on Robert's espionage in the intelligence community because HUMINT collectors can include members of official delegations for gathering details. This intelligence activity relies mostly on a collection of information, this topic which was covered in week 5 of ''Collection and Analysis'', the method of ''collection'' in this agency can have a huge impact in the intelligence community's work, in one of the reading Lowenthal says (2017), "Collection is the bedrock of intelligence, without collection, intelligence is little more than guesswork".
SIGINT or signals intelligence agency, which refers to all communications intelligence, electronic intelligence, and other signal intelligence, in the SIGINT facility agents monitor all communications satellites whether by emails, telephones, audios, messages, videos and other communications. According to Stark (2016), he illustrates ''SIGINT agency involves the collection of communications data such as call logs, text messages, and geographical location data''. The most importantly of this agency uses different systems of communication to get access to files and privileged phone calls and monitoring particular or targeted conversations of some people. Also, SIGINT has the ability to stop calls and communications data and analyse those details available so they can obtain evidence of their targets. For example, in the film, it demonstrates how SIGINT agency was involved to track Robert's espionage to the Russians, such as the agency had set up video, audio, heat sensors, and motion sensors in his office to trace Robert’s espionage. Also, they have been monitoring him by investigating in his emails, telephone calls, as well as his audios, kept under watch with the Russians intelligence. In the film, it tells us how the intelligence communities in real life integrate and collaborate with each other for common interest or case. A similar example of what was covered in Week 9 such as ''Culture Clashes within the IC'', each culture has its own procedures and policies but one of the surprising things is the collaboration between all cultures within the IC and especially for espionage.
Surveillance or mass surveillance in the IC has a vital role in watching and recording actions of all citizens in the United States. This agency is very similar to the SIGINT agency but most agents in this activity they watch and follow the target to see what they do, who they meet with, and where they go to which can be done by physical actions rather than using technologies also it can be done by different methods. For example, Lemieux (2019), explains the FBI in this activity runs a special program to allow the FBI to ''decrypt the communication used by a suspect email''. The crucial part of the surveillance team is that they monitor, record and document the actions of the target usually they take photos of the suspect to which places they go to and people they meet, whether they trace them by foot or by vehicle. In the film, surveillance activity again has had the biggest task compare to other agencies as they appeared most of the times in the film. It was showing that in the movie how the surveillance team were monitoring Robert in real life such as employing several types of equipment like hidden camera and videos, listening device and navigate trackers. As there was a scene when Robert went to DIA for a meeting, two men of surveillance agency were following him. Basically, this agency relies upon collection and analysis of information, which was covered in week 5, the collection of information is extremely important for the surveillance team to identify the suspect.
Covert action is a major part U.S. intelligence, intelligence services increasingly regard themselves as action-oriented, or as one former practitioner has put it, they are 'hunters and not just gathers' (Cogan 2004). According to DeVine (2019), Covert actions ''as distinguished from the covert collection of information, are used
to influence political and military, where it is intended that the role of the U.S. Government will not be apparent to the public''. Most importantly about the Covert operators, they could hide their identity and play a different character to track the target, or their main job is to ''conceal the identity of or permit plausible denial by the sponsor'', (DeVine, 2019). In the film, Eric the assistant of Robert played a vital role in the movie as he was hiding his identity to Robert so he can collect information from him. Eric was sponsored by other agencies such as human and FBI intelligence to track Robert's espionage and also to report about his daily life. The Covert action topic was discussed in Week 8 of ''Ethical Dilemmas'', it believes that the Covert action intelligence enables them to work in secretive ways to gather useful resource from the suspect, also this activity can sometimes have a huge impact on the intelligence culture such as Eric, he had difficult times with his wife as he was hiding secrets about his work.
The film is based on real events from the U.S. intelligence community, the main purpose of this movie to give the audiences a short story of a spying agent's life in the IC for the Russians. The film has a strong focus on the last few months of the main character which is Robert Philip Hanssen because he was one of the biggest traitors in U.S. intelligence history. The film shows clear images of characters and how intelligence communities collaborate in such a case. As well as the film, uses the English language, slow tone and music. The film depicts the intelligence mission mostly in the intelligence buildings to demonstrates how confidential is the work of IC agents. Also, the movie focuses on Robert's life with his wife and grandchildren, therefore Eric's life with his wife and the tensions between them because of his job as a Covert action. After watching the movie, it has demonstrated there are many intelligence agencies in the intelligence community, and the collaboration and the integration between different intelligence activities have shown that they work together for common interests. Furthermore, The real story of Robert is very unusual and rarely happens in the IC, one of the best lessons, for example, Robert has spied for Russians for many years and no one realised, as he was one of the smartest agents in the intelligence community. The intelligence community should have had Covert action such as Eric to track Robert's espionage from long time ago.
