Introduction:
Develop a research paper to address domestic intelligence collection and analysis of your selected terrorist group from your Red Cell Midterm Assignment. Building on the information that you started in your midterm, prepare a new research paper that addresses which intelligence collection disciplines and agencies are essential to effectively collect on and analyze information about the red cell threat you chose in 5-7 full pages of content (not counting title or reference pages).
2. Domestic Intelligence Collection and Analysis:
Specify the most effective intelligence collection and analysis methods against the terrorist organization likely to conduct an attack within the United States that you selected by clearing answering all 3 of the following:
A) What domestic intelligence collection efforts would be best utilized on the organization you selected? (Intelligence Collection disciplines discussed in week 5) Do not focus on overseas intelligence collection programs; this is an HLSS course and we are focused ONLY on collection within the U.S. homeland.
B) Which members of the IC would be the best collectors of intelligence on this particular organization within the country? (the intelligence and law enforcement agencies of the intelligence community we discussed in week 2) You may address agencies that collect overseas and within the homeland as the terrorism nexus overlaps both domains. You may also consider some of the field agencies of DHS (since DHS I&A is just an office and does not collect) as some of the operating components do collect like ICE, CBP, USCG, and the Secret Service (who does focus on terrorism financing). Again, this is a Homeland Security course, so focus on the agencies that can support the homeland (like the FBI), NOT primarily overseas intelligence collection of foreign targets. Clearly focus your paper only on domestic intelligence and law enforcement and remember the CIA does not collect intelligence on Americans domestically, they are a foreign intelligence agency (as are ALL of the military intelligence branches). See the readings from week 5 as well as this link to Executive Order 12333 (2008) https://fas.org/irp/offdocs/eo/eo-12333-2008.pdf. However, the NSA is very different as they can and do collect both foreign and domestic communications (when authorized by a court [like FISA] or under certain conditions by the Attorney General to support the FBI). See https://www.nsa.gov/about/faqs/sigint-faqs.shtml
C) What intelligence analysis strategies would be the most effective and why? (choose only from the analytical strategies discussed in the week 6 lesson and specifically the reading A tradecraft primer: Structured analytic techniques for improving intelligence analysis or found at this link https://www.hsdl.org/?abstract&did=20945). Remember that critical thinking (brainstorming) and situational logic DO NOT in themselves constitute an analytical approach — be specific and pick at least two specific strategies you think will help analyze what can be collected on a clandestine terrorist group attempting to attack the U.S. homeland.
Note: Only focus here in this progress paper on intelligence collection disciplines, the most appropriate IC agencies to play a role, and the most effective analytical techniques to employ in this scenario. As a paper for this HLSS course, these questions are to be answered as it relates to collecting and analyzing intelligence on the terrorist group plans and activities within the U.S. as they prepare to attack. Do not address how to stop this attack, that will be the topic of your recommendations in your final paper due in week 7. That final paper will address what law enforcement and security officials here in the homeland can do to detect, identify, and warn on and potentially stop the hypothetical attack. You should readdress your hypothetical attack from your midterm using only a paragraph or two (unless you were specifically told that you did not address the attack in sufficient detail in your midterm).
Technical Requirements:
Make sure you read the instructions carefully and that you focus your paper on answering the assigned questions. This assignment is a research paper, not an opinion paper, so you need to use scholarly sources to support your thesis (see this library article How do I write a good thesis statement). Use formal academic writing and do not use the first person such as ‘I’ or ‘my’; see this site on academic writing style (scholarly voice). Make sure you use APA style 7th edition in-text parenthetical citations at the end of every sentence where you are quoting another’s ideas (or any information) that is not your own thoughts and words, like this (Bergen, 2015, para. 14). Citations are required for paraphrases as well, but not the page or paragraph number in that case. I highly recommend you use the APUS writing guide which can be found in the university library or at this link: APUS Research Writing and Style Guide. You are welcome to use supplementary sources to compliment the assigned readings based upon your research, but make sure you use only scholarly and credible sources (do not use open websites and you never want to use wikipedia for a college level paper). Also, dictionaries and encyclopedias as well as general news sites (like CNN) are NOT appropriate for college level research papers. A good example of what NOT to use is NSA.Gov1.info — not only is it not the NSA webpage, the site loaded with bogus information and if you scroll down to the bottom it says “This is a parody of nsa.gov and has not been approved, endorsed, or authorized by the National Security Agency or by any other U.S. Government agency.” Also, do not cite the weekly lessons as those are only basic information to start off the topic with. You need to use mainly scholarly and reputable academic books and journal articles. Refer to the guide provided to you at this link titled Dr Gardners Toolbox of Top Research and Writing Tips that includes a section on “How to find scholarly research sources for HLSS Courses.” Also, see the APUS Library Homeland Security Program Guide for good sources, as well as the APUS Research Primer and the APUS Library Research FAQs. For formatting, the best option is to use the attached example paper as a template (for formatting purposes only). I also recommend you use the this Dr Gardner Toolbox with writing tips already mentioned when crafting your paper, especially the section on How to write an effective college level research paper for HLSS Courses.
Academic Requirements:
– Make sure your paper content meets the minimum acceptable length listed above with 5-7 full pages of text, not including the Title or Reference pages.
– Written according to the APA 7th edition style and format (parenthetical in-text citation formats only; not end notes or footnotes);
– Use Times New Roman 12 point font;
– 1 inch margins on all sides with no paragraph indentation other than the first line by .5 inches
– Double space all text (no extra lines or spaces after a paragraph or section headings and no added font sizes or lines either)
– A respectable number of credible resources used, cited in the paper as in-text citations, and included on the reference page. A good rule of thumb is at least 2 scholarly sources per page of content (so a minimum of 2 new scholarly sources per page in a research paper is acceptable for this assignment). Use those academic and credible sources provided to you throughout the course, as well as other scholarly material obtained from conducting your own research. Freely utilize appropriate and reputable academic sources, summarize in your own words and cite accordingly. You are free to use material from your own forum posts from this course in your paper, and you do not have to cite yourself if you do so. However, do not cite the lessons in your paper as this is only basic information and not meant to be cited in a research paper.
– The paper must be free of typographical, spelling and grammatical errors (make sure to proof read before submission)
– Turn your paper in as a Word Document and title your assignment “LastnameHLSSXXXMidterm” or ‘Progress’ or ‘Final’ on the end as appropriate.
– The HLSS Assignment Rubric embedded within the assignment will be used to evaluate this paper.
Finally, be mindful of excessive direct quotes as the paper should not contain just a string of quotations from sources. Make sure you comply with all academic integrity standards expected by APUS and as slide 14 of the APUS Academic Integrity presentation posted in course syllabus (and the week 1 introduction forum) states “Quotes cannot make up more than 10% of the text of your assignment.” So paraphrase where you can and provide your own analysis and synthesis of your research (direct quotes only when necessary to support your thesis). The bottom line for academic integrity is to write an original work for this assignment (not copied from anywhere on the internet or a recycled content of your own previous papers) to properly cite your references. See the syllabus tab within this course for more important information on academic integrity and the repercussions of plagiarism. Turnitin plagiarism checking software will be used on all papers (automatically).
