Intelligence Reform: Are U.S. spy agencies prepared for 21st-century threats?

New and evolving national security threats are raising questions about the U.S. intelligence community's effectiveness. A decade after the nation's 16 spy agencies were consolidated under the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, security experts are expressing concerns about interagency rivalries and questioning whether the intelligence community is prepared to deal with domestic and foreign threats, including cyberattacks and recruitment of young Westerners by the Islamic State (ISIS). Meanwhile, Congress has been wrangling over whether to allow the National Security Agency to continue collecting bulk cellphone data from Americans, a practice the spy agency says is necessary to safeguard the nation from terrorism but that civil libertarians say erodes one of the very principles of democracy it is intended to protect -- citizens' right to privacy. At the same time, critics say international reactions to alleged CIA torture of terrorism suspects in the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan continue to undermine the intelligence community's effectiveness on the world stage. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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