336 PART FOuR • POliCymAking
By 2001, the agency had
come under fire again. Problems
included the discovery that
one of its agents was spying
on behalf of a foreign power,
the inability of the agency to
detect the nuclear arsenals of
India and Pakistan, and, above
all, its failure to obtain advance
knowledge about the 9/11 ter-
rorist attacks.
The intelligence Community
and the War on Terrorism.
With the rise of terrorism as a
threat, the intelligence agencies
have received more funding and
enhanced surveillance powers, but
these moves have also provoked
fears of civil liberties violations.
Legislation enacted in 2004 estab-
lished the Office of the Director of
National Intelligence to oversee
the intelligence community.
A simmering controversy
that came to a head in 2009 concerned the CIA’s use of a technique called waterboard-
ing while interrogating several prisoners in the years immediately following 9/11. Before
9/11, the government had defined waterboarding as a form of torture, but former vice
president Dick Cheney, a public advocate of the practice, denied that it was. One con-
cern was whether Bush administration officials would face legal action as a result of the
practice. In May 2009, President Obama, even as he denounced waterboarding, assured
CIA employees that no member of the agency would be penalized for following Justice
Department rulings that had legitimized harsh interrogation methods.The department of defense. The Department of Defense (DOD) was created in 1947
to bring all of the various activities of the American military establishment under the juris-
diction of a single department headed by a civilian secretary of Defense. At the same time,
the Joint Chiefs of Staff, consisting of the commanders of the various military branches
and a chairperson, was created to formulate a unified military strategy. In 2013, however,
the department’s funds were cut again.
Although the Department of Defense is larger than any other federal department, it
declined in size after the fall of the Soviet Union in 1991. In the subsequent ten years, the
total number of civilian employees was reduced by about 400,000, to approximately 665,000.
Military personnel were also reduced in number. The defense budget remained relatively flat
for several years, but with the advent of the war on terrorism and the use of military forces in
Afghanistan and Iraq, funding was again increased, and with it, the size of the civilian staff.Congress Balances the Presidency
A new interest in the balance of power between Congress and the president on foreign
policy questions developed during the Vietnam War (1965–1975). Sensitive to public frus-The Pentagon takes its name from its unusual shape. When the media refer
to “The Pentagon,” they are making reference to the Department of Defense. (Hisham
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