The Post-9/11 U.S. Intelligence Community

Fifteen years ago, 19 hijackers and four planes shattered American illusions of security. An outside attack seemed remote to most Americans, and there appeared to be no immediate threat to their daily lives.  September 11th quickly dispelled that sense of safety, and as the dust settled and the death toll rose, the question soon became, how did we miss this?

Unsurprisingly, the onus of that question fell on the U.S. intelligence community (IC), which many blamed for the largest intelligence failure in U.S. history. Fair or not, this accusation began a series of inquiries and reforms which has changed the face of American intelligence. Today, 15 years later, how have these reforms changed the way our IC works, and are we safer? 

“The Cipher Brief has become the most popular outlet for former intelligence officers; no media outlet is even a close second to The Cipher Brief in terms of the number of articles published by formers.” —Sept. 2018, Studies in Intelligence, Vol. 62

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