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Counterintelligence

Counterintelligence

Counterintelligence or counter-espionage is the act of seeking and identifying espionage activities. Major nations have organizations which perform this role. Methods include surveillance of suspects and their communications, undercover agents, monitoring the behavior of legally accredited 'diplomatic personnel' (some of whom are sometimes actually spies or spy handlers), and similar means. When spying is discovered, the agencies usually have arrest power, but it is often more productive to keep a careful eye on them to see what they know, where they go, and who they talk to. Furthermore, disinformation can be used to fool the spies and their sponsors, or make them cease their activities if they learn their information has become unreliable and/or their secrecy has been compromised. Intelligence and counter-intelligence activities occur not only between governments but between industries as well as criminal groups.

Counterintelligence agencies

- MI5 - United Kingdom
- Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) - USA
- Australian Security Intelligence Organisation (ASIO) - Australia
- Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS) - Canada
- Direction de la Surveillance du Territoire (DST) - France
- National Intelligence Agency (NIA) - South Africa
- FSB - Russian Federation
- KGB - Soviet Union
- Bundesnachrichtendienst (BND) - Germany
- Agência Brasileira de Inteligência (Abin) - Brazil

Espionage

:Spy and secret agent redirect here; for alternate use, see Spy (disambiguation) and Secret agent (disambiguation). Espionage is the practice of obtaining secrets (spying) from rivals or enemies for military, political, or economic advantage. It is usually thought of as part of an institutional effort (i.e., governmental or corporate intelligence). The definition has been restricted to a state spying on potential or actual enemies, primarily for military purposes, but this has been extended to spying involving corporations, known specifically as industrial espionage. Many nations routinely spy on both their enemies, and allies, although they maintain a policy of not making comment on this. Black's Law Dictionary (1990) defines espionage as: "...gathering, transmitting, or losing...information related to the national defense." A spy is an agent employed to obtain such secrets. The term intelligence officer is also used to describe a member of the armed forces, police officer or civilian intelligence agency who specialises in the gathering, fusion and analysis of information and intelligence in order to provide advice to their government or another organisation. Incidents of espionage are well documented throughout history. The writings of Sun-Tzu contains information on deception and subversion. The ancient Egyptians had a thoroughly developed system for the acquisition of intelligence, and the Hebrews used spies as well. More recently, they played a significant part in Elizabethan England (see Francis Walsingham). Feudal Japan often used ninja to gather intelligence. Many modern espionage methods were already then well established.[http://www.henrywotton.org.uk/] Espionage, when performed by a citizen of the target state, is generally considered to be a form of treason. In many countries espionage is a crime punishable by death or life imprisonment. For example, espionage is still a capital crime in the USA; however, the death penalty is rarely used in espionage cases in the U.S. See Espionage Act. In a person who owed allegiance to the British Crown who spied for a foreign country would face a maximum life sentence for treason if it could be proved they were aiding Britain's enemies. In fact a foreign spy may also be prosecuted for treason because temporary allegiance to the Crown is owed by everyone voluntarily in Britain except lawful enemy combatants. Spying for proscribed terrorist organisations violates the Terrorism Act 2000. During the Second World War German spies in Britain were executed for treachery, a special offense covering any aid given to the enemy, including by foreign nationals. The Cold War involved intense espionage activity between the United States of America and its allies and the Soviet Union and the People's Republic of China and their allies, particularly related to nuclear weapons secrets. Recently, espionage agencies have targeted the illegal drug trade and those considered to be terrorists.

Noteworthy incidents in the history of espionage

- Betrayal of Joan of Arc by English-serving spy Bishop Pierre Cauchon of Beauvais
- Daniel Defoe spies for England in Edinburgh, assisting in the bribery scandal which led to the Treaty of Union 1707.
- Benedict Arnold's West Point betrayal conspiracy
- Patriot Kelsie DeNooy leaks British invasion plan to General Washington.
- 1870s -- Infiltration of US labor unions by Pinkerton National Detective Agency
- 1940s -- Double Cross System British capture of German spy network in Britain in WW II
- 1940s -- Transfer of US nuclear weapons secrets in the Rosenberg Case
- 1940s - 1950s -- Cambridge Five Soviet spy ring in UK during and after WW II
- 1961 -- Failure of the Bay of Pigs Invasion
- 1968 - 1985 -- Walker spy ring sold U.S. KL-7 codes to Soviets
- 1970s - 1990s -- Alleged Chinese theft of American nuclear weapons designs (See Cox Report)
- 2005 -- Leandro Aragoncillo indicted as part of what the FBI refers to as the first case in history of espionage from within the White House.

Spies in various conflicts

- American Civil War spies
- :Category:World War I espionage
- :Category:World War II espionage
- Cold War espionage

Espionage organizations

:Main article List of intelligence agencies.
- Argentina: SIDE, DNIC, DNIEM, J-2, SIE, SIN, SIFA, SIPF, SIGN, SIPN, SIPSA
- Australia: DSD, ASIO, ASIS, ONA, DIO
- Canada: CSIS, CSE
- Cuba: DGI, Military intelligence, others [CI]
- France: RG, DST
- Germany: BND
- India: RAW, IB, JIC, DIA
- Israel: Mossad
- Italy: SISMI, SISDE
- Pakistan: ISI
- Netherlands: AIVD
- New Zealand: NZSIS
- South Africa: NIA, SASS, SANDF-ID
- Soviet Union: SVR, (formerly KGB external reconnaissance and predecessor names); Soviet Military Intelligence GRU
- UK: MI5, MI6, GCHQ, Special Branch
- USA: CIA, DIA, NSA, NRO :See also Intelligence agency and Special Operations Executive

Espionage technology and techniques

:Main article list of intelligence gathering disciplines.
- ECHELON
- Agent Handling
- Black Bag Operations
- Concealment device
- Cryptography
- Cut-out
- Dead drop
- Eavesdropping
- False flag operations
- Honey trap
- Interrogation
- Nonofficial cover - NOC
- One Time Pad
- One Way Voice Link
- Steganography
- Surveillance
- TEMPEST — Protection devices for communication equipment.

Spy fiction

:Main article: Spy fiction Since not much is publicly known about real-life secret agents, the popular conception of the secret agent has been formed largely by 20th and 21st century literature and cinema. Similar to the character of the private eye, the secret agent is usually a loner, sometimes amoral, an existential hero operating outside the everyday constraints of society. James Bond, the protagonist of Ian Fleming's novels who went on to spawn an extremely successful film franchise, is probably the most famous fictional secret agent of all. Spy Fiction has also become prevalent in video gaming, where the "wetworks" aspect of espionage is highlighted. Game situations typically involve agents sent into enemy territory for purposes of subversion. These depictions are more action-oriented than would be typical in most cases of espionage, and they tend to focus on infiltration rather than information-gathering. Some examples are Metal Gear and Splinter Cell.

Undercover

:This article is about the investigatory practice. For the 1990s TV series, see Under Cover (TV series). For the 1980s Christian rock band see Undercover (band). For the 1983 Rolling Stones album, see Undercover (album). Undercover is also the title of a 2003 album by the German band the Puhdys Being undercover or wearing plainclothes is disguising one's identity for the purposes of gaining the trust of an individual or organization to learn secret information. This method is used by police and intelligence agencies. To wear plainclothes is to wear "ordinary clothes", instead of wearing a uniform typically associated with the occupation, in order to avoid detection or identification as a member of law enforcement. Many countries allow the use of undercover law enforcement officers solely or primarily for the enforcement of laws against recreational use of certain drugs. Many of these officers are allowed to commit crimes if it is necessary to maintain the secrecy of the investigation, or in order to collect adequate evidence for a conviction. Some people have criticized this practice as failing to ensure equality under the law because it grants police officers the right to commit crimes that no other citizen could commit without potential consequences.

Arrest

An arrest is the action of police or other authority, or even in some circumstances a private civilian, to apprehend and take under guard a person, usually because the person is suspected of committing a crime. The term is Norman in origin and is related to the French word Arrêt, meaning "stop". In many legal systems, an arrest requires mere verbal information to suspects that they are under arrest on suspicion of a given crime; the laying of hands or restraints upon the person of the suspect is usually not required to effect an official and valid arrest. Contrary to popular belief, reading of the Miranda warning or similar information to an arrestee is not required upon arrest. It is required only prior to questioning by a detaining authority, and then again only in the US, most Commonwealth and other common law jurisdictions, and other countries where the right to legal counsel, the right to silence, and the right against self-incrimination have been clearly established. If the crime is serious, the usual procedure followed by police is to take suspects to a police station or a jail where they will be incarcerated pending a judicial bail determination or arraignment hearing. In other instances, the police will issue a notice to appear specifying where a misdemeanor or infraction suspect is to appear for his arraignment. Not all arrests are criminal. If a legislature lacks a quorum, most jurisdictions give the members who are present the power to order a call of the house, which orders the arrest of the members who are not present. A member thus arrested is not charged with a crime or placed in prison; the arresting officer instead brings the member to the legislative chamber so that a quorum can be present and business can proceed. Ordinarily only human beings can be arrested, but recent and somewhat controversial changes to criminal codes have allowed for the arrest not only of the usual "contraband, evidence, fruits, and instrumentalities" of crime, but also of inanimate objects such as money, automobiles, houses, and other personal property under asset forfeiture.

External links

- The (United Kingdom) Police and Criminal Evidence Act 1984 (PACE) gives authority for the Home Secretary to issue codes of practice, much of which relates to the treatment of suspects on arrest and subsequent detention. The current set of Codes took effect during August 2004. Category:Criminal law Category:Law enforcement ja:逮捕

MI5

MI5, officially called the Security Service, is a British counter-intelligence and security agency. Its remit covers the protection of British parliamentary democracy and economic interests, and fighting serious crime, terrorism and espionage within the United Kingdom. It is mainly concerned with internal security, whilst the Secret Intelligence Service (MI6) looks after external security. The Republic of Ireland is the only exception to this, as it is the only state to share a land border with the United Kingdom. Within the government community, MI5 is colloquially known as Box (after its official wartime address of PO Box 500 and its current address—PO Box 3255, London SW1P 1AE) or simply Five. The organisation is based since 1995 at Thames House, Millbank, London. Previous headquarters have been 140, (aka "Russian House") Gower Street, 1976-95; Leconfield House, Curzon Street, 1945-76; and 124-26, Cromwell Road, 193?-37. The sites at Gower and Curzon streets are now demolished. As well as the current MI5 and MI6, there have been a number of British military intelligence groups designated as MI-(section number) existing at various times since the First World War, which have now been abandoned or subsumed by MI5, MI6 or GCHQ. These included MI1 (Directorate of Military Intelligence), MI2 (intelligence in the Soviet Union and Scandinavia), MI3 (Germany and Eastern Europe), MI4 (aerial reconnaissance during the Second World War), MI8 (interception and interpretation of communications), MI9 (covert operations and PoW escape), MI10 (weapons and technical analysis), MI11 (Field Security Police), MI12 (German specialists), MI14 (German specialists), MI17 (secretariat for MI departments) and MI18 (Prisoner of War debriefing). MI(R) was responsible for the creation of the secret Home Guard Auxiliary Units. Most British military intelligence is now gathered and analysed by the Defence Intelligence Staff, part of the Ministry of Defence, with support from MI6, GCHQ and allied intelligence organisations.

History

Early years

Like the SIS, the Security Service has its basis in the Secret Service Bureau, founded in 1909 as an organisation to control secret intelligence operations. The Bureau was originally split into a naval and army section. The naval section came to specialise in espionage activities in foreign countries, while the army section increasingly undertook counter-espionage activities within the UK. This new split was formalised. After a series of bureaucratic designation changes in which it was known as MO5 (Directorate of Military Operations Section 5) and gained various subdepartments denoted by letters of the alphabet, the domestic section came to be known as MI5 (Directorate of Military Intelligence Section 5), a name it retains today (albeit informally). Its founding head was Vernon Kell, who remained head until the early part of the Second World War. Its role was originally quite restricted; it existed purely to ensure national security through counter-espionage. It originally worked in concert with the Special Branch of the Metropolitan Police; the Security Service was responsible for overall direction and the actual identification of foreign spies, while the Special Branch provided the manpower for the investigation of their affairs and their arrest and interrogation. Metropolitan Police The Security Service was very successful (against admittedly weak opposition) in the pre-war years. It was founded in a climate of hysteria over a supposedly huge network of German spies—numbers in the hundreds of thousands were quoted—who were apparently ready to perform espionage and sabotage activities in advance of a German invasion. In reality, no invasion was planned, and Germany had a mere handful of incompetent amateur spies active in Britain—just over 20. MI5 was quickly successful in identifying this group, and Kell took the intelligent decision not to arrest them but to keep them under surreptitious observation until the outbreak of war. He reasoned that if they were arrested Germany would simply send more in their place, who would be unknown to the authorities. Instead he waited until the eve of war—he was given twelve hours' notice of its outbreak—to arrest the entire network, thus depriving Germany completely of reliable intelligence from within Britain.

Inter-war period

After this auspicious start, the history of MI5 becomes darker. It was consistently successful throughout the rest of the 1910s and the 1920s in its core counter-espionage role. Germany continued to attempt to infiltrate Britain throughout the war, but using a method that depended on strict control of entry and exit to the country and, crucially, large-scale inspection of mail, MI5 was easily able to identify all the agents that were dispatched. In post-war years attention turned to attempts by the Soviet Union and the Comintern to surreptitiously support revolutionary activities within Britain, and MI5's expertise combined with the early incompetence of the Soviets meant the bureau was successful once more in correctly identifying and closely monitoring these activities. However, in the meantime MI5's role had been substantially enlarged. Due to the spy hysteria, MI5 was formed with far more resources than it actually needed to track down German spies. As is common within governmental bureaucracies, this meant it expanded its role in order to use its spare resources. MI5 acquired many additional responsibilities during the war. Most significantly, its strict counter-espionage role was considerably blurred. It became a much more political role, involving the surveillance not merely of foreign agents but of pacifist and anti-conscription organisations, and organised labour. This was justified on the basis of the common (but mistaken) belief that foreign influence was at the root of these organisations. Thus by the end of the war MI5 was a fully-fledged secret police (although it never had the powers of arrest), in addition to being a counter-espionage agency. This expansion of its role has continued, after a brief post-war power struggle with the head of the Special Branch, Sir Basil Thompson. MI5 also managed to acquire responsibility for security operations not only in Great Britain but throughout the British Empire, and with the decline in the Empire the Security Officers based in the British High Commissions returned to London and joined the Service, which gave it a significant role in Ireland. MI5 now has a role similar to that of the United States' FBI, if not as extensive, which includes crime-prevention activities as well as political surveillance and counter-espionage. This expansion had happened almost entirely without supervision; MI5 had no responsibility to Parliament, and was often able to act with considerable independence even from the Cabinet and Prime Minister. Since 1994, MI5 activities have been subject to scrutiny by Parliament's Intelligence and Security Committee. MI5's Irish operations during the Anglo-Irish War were an unmitigated disaster. Its operation was penetrated by the Irish Republican Army, and even before Michael Collins ordered a ruthless purge of MI5's Irish agents—almost all of whom were assassinated—it was unable to provide useful intelligence on the Irish republican movement during the Home Rule and independence controversies. MI5's decline in counter-espionage efficiency began in the 1930s. It was to some extent a victim of its own success; it was unable to break the ways of thinking it had evolved in the 1910s and 1920s. In particular, it was entirely unable to adjust to the new methods of the NKVD, the Russian secret intelligence organisation (later KGB). It continued to think in terms of agents who would attempt to gather information simply through observation or bribery, or to agitate within labour organisations or the armed services, while posing as ordinary citizens. The NKVD, however, had evolved more sophisticated methods; it began to recruit agents from within the Establishment, most notably from Cambridge University, who were seen as a long-term investment. They succeeded in gaining positions within the Government (and, in Kim Philby's case, within British intelligence itself), from where they were much more easily able to provide the NKVD with sensitive information. The most successful of these agents—Harold 'Kim' Philby, Donald Maclean, Guy Burgess, Anthony Blunt and John Cairncross—went undetected until after the Second World War, and were known as the Cambridge Five.

Second World War

MI5 experienced further failure during the Second World War. It was chronically unprepared, both organisationally and in terms of resources, for the outbreak of war, and utterly unequal to the task which it was assigned—the large-scale internment of enemy aliens in an attempt to uncover enemy agents. The operation was badly mishandled and contributed to the near-collapse of the agency by 1940. One of the earliest actions of Winston Churchill on coming to power in early 1940 was to sack the agency's long-term head, Vernon Kell. He was replaced initially by the ineffective Brigadier A.W.A. Harker, as Acting Director General. Harker in turn was quickly replaced by David Petrie, an SIS man, with Harker as his deputy. With the ending of the Battle of Britain and the abandonment of invasion plans (correctly reported by both SIS and the Bletchley Park ULTRA project), the spy scare eased, and the internment policy was gradually reversed. This eased pressure on MI5, and allowed it to concentrate on its major wartime success, the so-called "double-cross" system. This was a system based on an internal memo drafted by an MI5 officer in 1936, which criticised the long-standing policy of arresting and sending to trial all enemy agents discovered by MI5. Several had offered to defect to Britain when captured; before 1939, such requests were invariably turned down. The memo advocated attempting to "turn" captured agents wherever possible, and use them to mislead enemy intelligence agencies. This suggestion was turned into a massive and well-tuned system of deception during the Second World War. Beginning with the capture of an agent called Owens, codenamed SNOW, MI5 began to offer enemy agents the chance to avoid prosecution (and thus the possibility of the death penalty) if they would work as British double-agents. Agents who agreed to this were supervised by MI5 in transmitting bogus "intelligence" back to the German secret service, the Abwehr. This necessitated a large-scale organisational effort, since the information had to appear valuable but in actual fact be misleading. A high-level committee, the Wireless Board, was formed to provide this information. The day-to-day operation was delegated to a subcommittee, the Twenty Committee (so called because the Roman numerals for twenty, XX, form a double cross). The system was extraordinarily successful. A postwar analysis of German intelligence records found that of the 115 or so agents targeted against Britain during the war, all but one (who committed suicide) had been successfully identified and caught, with several "turned" to become double agents. The system played a major part in the massive campaign of deception which preceded the D-Day landings, designed to give the Germans a false impression of the location and timings of the landings Operation Mincemeat.

Post-war

The Prime Minister's personal responsibility for the Service was delegated to the Home Secretary Maxwell-Fife in 1952, an arrangement that persists to this day. A directive issued by the Home Secretary set out the Service's tasks and the role of its Director General but it was not put on a statutory basis until 1989, when the Security Service Act was introduced. In fact, it was not until the end of the 1980s that the government admitted the Service's existence, although it was hardly a secret by that time. The Service has recruited openly through newspaper advertisements since 1997 and has had an Internet website since around 2000. The current Director-General is Eliza Manningham-Buller. The post-war period was a difficult time for the Service, which conspicuously failed to detect the "Cambridge Five" spy ring and attracted much criticism as a result. It also faced an ongoing challenge from the Soviet KGB, which was extremely active in Britain, and from the rise in Irish international terrorism. The Service was instrumental in breaking up a large Soviet spy ring at the start of the 1970s, with 105 Soviet embassy staff known or suspected to be involved in intelligence activity being expelled from the country in 1971. The growing threat of terrorism led to the Service's attention increasingly shifting to monitoring Republican and Loyalist terror groups in Northern Ireland and collaborating with other countries' agencies to combating international threats. The Service was, however, severely embarrassed in 1983 when one of its officers, Michael Bettaney, was caught trying to sell information to the KGB. He was subsequently convicted of espionage. The Service also faced controversy when it emerged that it was monitoring trade unions and left-wing politicians; Labour Prime Minister Harold Wilson was convinced that it was conspiring against him, and the Labour Home Secretary Jack Straw discovered that the Service for which he was responsible had kept a file on him since his days as a student radical. (In his book "Spycatcher", the former Security Service officer Peter Wright claimed that up to 30 members of the Service had plotted to undermine Wilson; this allegation was exhaustively investigated and it was concluded, as stated publicly by Ministers, that no such plot had ever existed, and Wright himself finally admitted in an interview with BBC1's "Panorama" programme in 1988 that his account had been unreliable.) Even inside the Service itself there were problems. Many defectors told of a high-level penetration in existence. Peter Wright and many other colleagues believed that all the facts pointed the former Director-General himself, Roger Hollis. The Trend inquiry of 1974 cleared Hollis of that accusation. Subsequently, the evidence of the former KGB officer Oleg Gordievsky confirmed this judgement.

The Security Service's role in counter-terrorism

The end of the Cold War—and even more the start of the "War on Terror"—reinforced the shift towards international collaboration against terrorism. After a bitter struggle with the Metropolitan Police Special Branch, MI5 took responsibility for leading the investigation of all Irish republican activity in Great Britain. It has proved itself to be extremely successful in infiltrating the Provisional IRA, with Service operations (working closely with many police Special Branches) leading to 21 convictions for terrorism-related offences between 1992 and 1999. Some commentators have suggested that MI5's ability, aided by high technology, to infiltrate and monitor PIRA activities was one of the major reasons for that organisation's decision to participate in the Northern Ireland peace process, although MI5 had been waging a war of wits against republican paramilitary groups since the early 1970s. MI5 does not appear to tackle Loyalist paramilitary groups, such as the UDA, UVF and LVF with as many resources, as most of their activities are confined to Northern Ireland. However, this looks set to change, as it was announced in March 2005 that MI5 is to take charge of all security intelligence work in Northern Ireland from 2007. In 1996, new legislation formalised the extension of the Security Service's statutory remit to include supporting the law enforcement agencies in the work against serious crime. This aroused some controversy at the time, as it was seen by civil libertarians as a worrying evolution into a quasi-"secret police" function, as well as an intrusion onto the jealously-guarded turf of other law enforcement agencies. However, it takes a reactive, not self-tasking, remit acting at the request of law enforcement organisations. With the rise of Islamic militants, this area of work is decreasing, and may be passed back to Special Branch or to a newly-created law enforcement organisation. MI5 is now at the forefront of the battle against terrorism in Britain. Numerous raids against suspected militants, and the internment of key suspects in HM Prison Belmarsh in London, have been credited to Security Service intelligence. It has also been reported that Security Service officers have been involved in interrogations of British terrorism suspects interned at the United States' military base at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba and perhaps also Diego Garcia.

External link

- [http://www.mi5.gov.uk Official Security Service website]
- [http://www.mi5careers.info MI5 Security Service Careers] Category:United Kingdom law enforcement agencies Category:Westminster Category:United Kingdom intelligence agencies ja:イギリス情報局保安部

Federal Bureau of Investigation

The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) is a Federal police force and intelligence agency which is the principal investigative arm of the United States Department of Justice (DOJ). Title 28, United States Code (U.S. Code), Section 533, which authorizes the Attorney General to "appoint officials to detect... crimes against the United States", and other federal statutes give the FBI the authority and responsibility to investigate specific crimes. At present, the FBI has investigative jurisdiction over violations of more than 200 categories of federal crimes and thus has the broadest investigative authority of any federal law enforcement agency. The FBI Ten Most Wanted Fugitives list has been used since 1949 to notify the public of wanted fugitives.

Mission

The mission of the FBI is to uphold the law through the investigation of violations of federal criminal law; to protect the United States from foreign intelligence and terrorist activities; to provide leadership and law enforcement assistance to federal, state, local, and international agencies; and to perform these responsibilities in a manner that is responsive to the needs of the public and is faithful to the United States Constitution. Information obtained through an FBI investigation is presented to the appropriate U.S. Attorney or DOJ official, who decides if prosecution or other action is warranted. Top priority has been assigned to five areas: counterterrorism, foreign counterintelligence, combating drugs/organized crime and investigating violent crimes and white-collar crimes. The FBI has had a mixed history, both in upholding the law and sometimes in breaking it.

Personnel

- Special Agents - The force of Special Agents has grown over the years, and now exceeds 11,000 out of a total workforce of 17,000. Some of these Special Agents are stationed in foreign countries and work in U.S. Embassies as "Legal Attaches", or as they are known in the FBI: LEGATS. Both new and veteran agents are routinely trained at the FBI Academy in Quantico, Virginia.
- The FBI Police - The FBI also maintains a force of 1,000 uniformed Security police officers in the FBI Police for protecting the J. Edgar Hoover Building, FBI Academy at MCB Quantico and the New York Field Office.

Present mission of the FBI

MCB Quantico As of June 2002, the FBI's official top priority is counterterrorism. The USA PATRIOT Act granted the FBI increased powers, especially in wiretapping and monitoring of internet activity. One of the most controversial provisions of the act is the so-called "sneak and peek" provision, granting the FBI powers to search a house while the residents are away, and not requiring them to notify the residents for several weeks afterwards. Under the PATRIOT Act's provisions the FBI also resumed inquiring into the library records of those it suspected of terrorism, something it had supposedly not done since the 1970s. The bureau is also charged with the responsibility of enforcing compliance of the United States Civil Rights Act of 1964 and investigating violations of The Act in addition to prosecuting such violations with the United States Department of Justice (DOJ). The FBI also shares concurrent jurisdiction with the DEA in the enforcement of the Controlled Substances Act of 1970. As of July 2005, the FBI's counterterrorism duties are to be consolidated in the new National Security Service, remotely similar to the UK's MI5.

History of the FBI

The FBI originated from a force of Special Agents created on July 26, 1908, by Attorney General Charles Joseph Bonaparte during the presidency of Theodore Roosevelt. At first it was named the Bureau of Investigation (BOI) and it did not become the FBI until 1935. Under J. Edgar Hoover, who became director of the Bureau on May 10, 1924, the agency spent much of its energy on investigating political activists who were not accused of any crime (e.g., Albert Einstein as a socialist). The FBI Scientific Crime Detection Laboratory (better known as the FBI Crime Lab) officially opened on November 24, 1932. During the 1930s, the agency played a prominent role in apprehending a number of well-known criminals who had conducted kidnappings, robberies and murders throughout the nation. These included John Dillinger, "Baby Face" Nelson, Kate "Ma" Barker, Alvin Karpis and George "Machine Gun" Kelly. It also played a decisive role in reducing the scope and influence of the Ku Klux Klan. Beginning with the 1940s and continuing into the 1970s, the agency investigated cases of espionage against the United States and its allies. Eight Nazi agents who had planned sabotage operations against American targets were arrested. Although Hoover initially doubted the existence of a close-knit organized crime network in the United States, the bureau later conducted operations against known organized crime syndicates and families, including those headed by Sam Giancana and John Gotti. Hoover's investigation of Martin Luther King was also notorious. The FBI found no evidence of any crime, but attempted to use tapes of King involved in sexual activity for blackmail. Further, the FBI sent anonymous letters to King encouraging him to commit suicide. In the 1990s, it turned out that the FBI's crime lab had repeatedly done shoddy work. In some cases, the technicians, given evidence that actually cleared a suspect, reported instead that it proved the suspect guilty. Many cases had to be reopened when this pattern of errors was discovered.

Bureau of Investigation (BOI) Directors (1908–35)

- Stanley Finch (1908–12)
- A. Bruce Bielaski (1912–19)
- Acting director: William E. Allen (1919)
- William J. Flynn (1919–21)
- William J. Burns (1921–24)
- J. Edgar Hoover (1924–72)

Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) Directors (1936–present)

On July 1, 1932, the Bureau was renamed the United States Bureau of Investigation. One year later on July 1, 1933, it was linked with the Bureau of Prohibition and became known as the Division of Investigation. Finally, in 1935, the bureau was renamed the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI). After J. Edgar Hoover's death, the FBI imposed a policy limiting the tenure of future FBI directors to a maximum of ten years. The FBI Directors from this period on are:
- J. Edgar Hoover (1924–72)
- Acting director: Clyde Tolson (May 2–3, 1972)
- Acting director: L. Patrick Gray (1972–3)
- Acting director: William D. Ruckelshaus (1973)
- Clarence M. Kelley (1973–78)
- Acting director: James B. Adams (1978)
- William H. Webster (1978–87)
- Acting Director: John Otto (1987)
- William S. Sessions (1987–93)
- Acting Director: Floyd I. Clarke (1993)
- Louis J. Freeh (1993–2001)
- Acting Director: Thomas J. Pickard (2001)
- Robert S. Mueller III (2001–present)

Publications of the FBI

- Uniform Crime Reports

Flim is avaible

PBS - National Geographic Special: The FBI, does provide important footage of the FBI's headquaters exspecially of the Strategic Information and Operations Center (SIOC) [http://www.fbi.gov/hq/siocfs.htm]. There is information in this that is hard to get elsewhere. It does not have everything.

External links

- [http://www.fbi.gov Official FBI website]
- [http://www.fbi.gov/mostwant/topten/fugitives/fugitives.htm Official FBI ten most wanted list]
- [http://www.fbi.gov/mostwant/topten/tenfaq.htm Frequently asked questions] This has been used as a source.
- [http://www.fbi.gov/mostwant/topten/topten.pdf History of the Top Ten List]
- [http://www.fbi.gov/fbihistory.htm The history of FBI]
- [http://foia.fbi.gov/ FBI Disclosures under Freedom of Information Act]
- [http://www.fas.org/irp/agency/doj/fbi/index.html Federal Bureau of Investigation] at fas.org

	North:RCMP
West: N/A	FBI	East: Scotland Yard
	South: N/A

Category:U.S. intelligence agencies Category:United States Federal law enforcement agencies Category:United States Department of Justice Category:Anti-communism Category:Political repression zh-min-nan:Liân-pang Tiāu-châ-kio̍k ja:連邦捜査局

United States

:For alternative meanings, see the disambiguation page for US, USA, United States, or American. The United States of America is a federal democratic republic situated primarily in central North America. It comprises 50 states and one federal district, and has several territories. It is also referred to, with varying formality, as the United States, the U.S., the U.S.A., the States, or simply and most commonly, America. The official founding date of the United States is July 4, 1776, when the Second Continental Congress—representing thirteen British colonies—adopted the Declaration of Independence. However, the structure of the government was profoundly changed in 1788, when the states replaced the Articles of Confederation with the United States Constitution. The date on which each of the fifty states adopted the Constitution is typically regarded as the date that state "entered the Union" (became part of the United States). Since the mid-20th century, following World War II, the United States has emerged as a dominant global influence in economic, political, military, scientific, technological, and cultural affairs.

Geography and climate

The United States shares land borders with Canada (to the north) and Mexico (to the south), and territorial water boundaries with Canada, Russia, the Bahamas, and numerous smaller nations. It is otherwise bounded by the Pacific Ocean and the Bering Sea, in the west; the Arctic Ocean, in the northernmost areas; and the Atlantic Ocean, the Gulf of Mexico, and the Caribbean Sea, in the eastern and southeastern areas. Forty-eight of the states are in the single region between Canada and Mexico; this group is referred to, with varying precision and formality, as the continental or contiguous United States, sometimes abbreviated CONUS, and as the Lower 48. Alaska, which is not included in the term contiguous United States, is at the northwestern end of North America, separated from the Lower 48 by Canada. The archipelago of Hawaii is in the Pacific Ocean. The capital city, Washington, District of Columbia is a federal district located on land donated by the state of Maryland. (Virginia also donated land, but it was returned in 1847.) The United States also has overseas territories with varying levels of independence and organization. When inland water is included in the total area, only Russia and Canada are larger than the United States; if inland water is excluded, China ranks third and the U.S. ranks fourth. The United States' total area is 3,718,711 square miles (9,631,418 km²), of which land makes up 3,537,438 square miles (9,161,923 km²) and water makes up 181,273 square miles (469,495 km²). The United States' landscape is one of the most varied among those of the world's nations: among its many features are temperate forestland and rolling hills, on the east coast; mangrove, in Florida; the Great Plains, in the center of the country; the Mississippi–Missouri river system; the Great Lakes, four of the five of which are shared with Canada; the Rocky Mountains, west of the Great Plains; deserts and temperate coastal zones, west of the Rocky Mountains; and temperate rain forests, in the Pacific northwest. Alaska's tundra, and the volcanic, tropical islands of Hawaii add to the geographic diversity. Hawaii The climate varies along with the landscape, from tropical in Hawaii and southern Florida to tundra in Alaska and atop some of the highest mountains. Most of the North and East experience a temperate continental climate, with warm summers and cold winters. Most of the South experiences a subtropical humid climate with mild winters and long, hot, humid summers. Rainfall decreases markedly from the humid forests of the Eastern Great Plains to the semi-arid shortgrass prairies on the high plains abutting the Rocky Mountains. Arid deserts, including the Mojave, extend through the lowlands and valleys of the southwest, from westernmost Texas to California and northward throughout much of Nevada. Some parts of California have a Mediterranean climate. Rainforests line the windward mountains of the Pacific Northwest from Oregon to Alaska.

History

American history started with the migration of people from Asia across the Bering land bridge approximately 12,000 years ago following large animals that they hunted into the Americas. These Native Americans left evidence of their presence in petroglyphs, burial mounds, and other artifacts. It is estimated that 2-9 million people lived in the territory now occupied by the U.S. before European contact, and the subsequent introduction of foreign diseases such as small pox that greatly diminished the native populations. Some advanced societies were the Anasazi of the southwest, who inhabited Chaco Canyon, and the Woodland Indians, who built Cahokia, located near present-day St Louis, a city with a population of 40,000 at its peak in AD 1200. Vikings first visited North America around 1000, but did not settle permanently. Following the discovery voyages of Christopher Columbus around 1492, other Europeans began to explore and settle there. During the 1500s and 1600s, the Spanish settled parts of the present-day Southwest and Florida, founding St. Augustine, Florida in 1565 and Santa Fe (in what is now New Mexico) in 1607. The first successful English settlement was at Jamestown, Virginia, also in 1607. Within the next two decades, several Dutch settlements, including New Amsterdam (the predecessor to New York City), were established in what are now the states of New York and New Jersey. In 1637, Sweden established a colony at Fort Christina (in what is now Delaware), but lost the settlement to the Dutch in 1655. This was followed by extensive British settlement of the east coast. The British colonists remained relatively undisturbed by their home country until after the French and Indian War, when France ceded Canada and the Great Lakes region to Britain. Britain then imposed taxes on the 13 colonies, widely regarded by the colonists as unfair because they were denied representation in the British Parliament. Tensions between Britain and the colonists increased, and the thirteen colonies eventually rebelled against British rule. British Parliament, George Washington (1789-1797).]] In 1776, the 13 colonies split from Great Britain and formed the United States, the world's first constitutional and democratic federal republic, after their Declaration of Independence of that year, and the Revolutionary War (1775 to 1783). The original political structure was a confederation in 1777, ratified in 1781 as the Articles of Confederation. After long debate, this was supplanted by the Constitution in 1789, forming a more centralized federal government. Prior to all these was the Albany Congress in 1754, in which a union was first seriously proposed. From early colonial times, there was a shortage of labor, which encouraged unfree labor, particularly indentured servitude and slavery. In the mid-19th century, a major division occurred in the United States over the issue of states' rights and the expansion of slavery. The northern states had become opposed to slavery, while the southern states saw it as necessary for the continued success of southern agriculture and wanted it expanded to the territories. Several federal laws were passed in an attempt to settle the dispute, including the Missouri Compromise and the Compromise of 1850. The dispute reached a crisis in 1861, when seven southern states seceded¹ from the Union and formed the Confederate States of America, leading to the Civil War. Soon after the war began, four more southern states seceded. During the war, Abraham Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation, mandating the freedom of all slaves in states in rebellion, though full emancipation did not take place until after the end of the war in 1865, the dissolution of the Confederacy, and the Thirteenth Amendment took effect. The Civil War effectively ended the question of a state's right to secede, and is widely accepted as a major turning point after which the federal government became more powerful than state governments. Thirteenth Amendment). The title of the painting, from a 1726 poem by Bishop Berkeley, was a phrase often quoted in the era of Manifest Destiny, expressing a widely held belief that civilization had steadily moved westward throughout history. [http://americanart.si.edu/t2go/1lw/1931.6.1.html (more)] ]] During the 19th century, many new states were added to the original 13 as the nation expanded across the continent. Manifest Destiny was a philosophy that encouraged westward expansion in the United States. As the population of the Eastern states grew and as a steady increase of immigrants entered the country, settlers moved steadily westward across North America. In the process, the U.S. displaced most American Indian nations. This displacement of American Indians continues to be a matter of contention in the U.S. with many tribes attempting to assert their original claims to various lands. In some areas American Indian populations were reduced by foreign diseases contracted through contact with European settlers, and US settlers acquired those emptied lands. In other instances American Indians were removed from their traditional lands by force. Though some would say the U.S. was not a colonial power until the Spanish-American War when it acquired Puerto Rico, Guam and the Philippines, the dominion exercised over land in North America the United States claimed is essentially colonial. The Philippines became independent in 1946. During this period, the nation also became an industrial power. This continued into the 20th century, which has been termed "the American Century" because of the nation's overriding influence on the world. The US became a center for innovation and technological development; major technologies that America either developed or was greatly involved in improving include the telephone, television, computer, the Internet, nuclear weapons, nuclear power, aviation, and aeronautics. In addition to the Civil War, another major traumatic experience for the nation was the Great Depression (1929 to 1939). The nation has also taken part in several major foreign wars, including World War I and World War II (in both of which the US later joined the Allies). During the Cold War, the US was a major player in the Korean War and Vietnam War, and, along with the Soviet Union, was considered one of the world's two "superpowers". With the collapse of the Soviet Union, the US emerged as the world's leading economic and military power. Beginning in the 1990s, the United States became very involved in police actions and peacekeeping, including actions in Kosovo, Haiti, Somalia and Liberia, and the first Persian Gulf War driving Iraq out of Kuwait. After attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon on September 11, 2001, the United States and other allied nations found themselves involved in what has come to be called the "War on Terrorism," which has primarily encompassed military actions in both Afghanistan and Iraq.

Government

Iraq of the United States.]]

Republic and suffrage

The United States is an example of a constitutional republic, with a government composed of and operating through a set of limited powers imposed by its design and enumerated in the United States Constitution. Specifically, the nation operates as a presidential democracy. There are three levels of government: federal, state, and local. Officials of each of these levels are either elected by eligible voters via secret ballot or appointed by other elected officials. Americans enjoy almost universal suffrage from the age of 18 regardless of race, sex, or wealth. There are some limits, however: felons are disenfranchised and in some states former felons are likewise. Furthermore, the national representation of territories and the federal district of Washington, DC in Congress is limited: residents of the District of Columbia are subject to federal laws and federal taxes but their only Congressional representative is a non-voting delegate.

Federal government

The federal government is the national government, comprising the Legislative Branch (led by Congress), the Executive Branch (led by the President), and the Judicial Branch (led by the Supreme Court). These three branches were designed to apply checks and balances on each other. The Constitution limits the powers of the federal government to defense, foreign affairs, the issuing and management of currency, the management of trade and relations between the states, and the protection of human rights. In addition to these explicitly stated powers, the federal government—with the assistance of the Supreme Court—has gradually extended these powers into such areas as welfare and education, on the basis of the "necessary and proper" clause of the Constitution.

The Congress

necessary and proper The Congress of the United States is the legislative branch of the federal government of the United States. It is bicameral, comprising the House of Representatives and the Senate. The House of Representatives consists of 435 members, each of whom represents a congressional district and serves for a two-year term. House seats are apportioned among the states by population; in contrast, each state has two Senators, regardless of population. There are a total of 100 senators, who serve six-year terms. The powers of Congress are limited to those enumerated in the Constitution; all other powers are reserved to the states and the people. The Constitution also includes the necessary-and-proper clause, which grants Congress the power to "make all laws which shall be necessary and proper for carrying into execution the foregoing powers."

The President

necessary-and-proper clause At the top level of the executive branch is the President of the United States. The President and Vice-President are elected as 'running mates' for four-year terms by the Electoral College, for which each state, as well as the District of Columbia, is allocated a number of seats based on its representation (or ostensible representation, in the case of D. C.) in both houses of Congress (see U.S. Electoral College). The relationship between the President and the Congress reflects that between the English monarchy and parliament at the time of the framing of the United States Constitution. Congress can legislate to constrain the President's executive power, even with respect to his or her command of the armed forces; however, this power is used only very rarely—a notable example was the constraint placed on President Richard Nixon's strategy of bombing Cambodia during the Vietnam War. The President cannot directly propose legislation, and must rely on supporters in Congress to promote his or her legislative agenda. The President's signature is required to turn congressional bills into law; in this respect, the President has the power—only occasionally used—to veto congressional legislation. Congress can override a presidential veto with a two-thirds majority vote in both houses. The ultimate power of Congress over the President is that of impeachment or removal of the elected President through a House vote, a Senate trial, and a Senate vote. The threat of using this power has had major political ramifications in the cases of Presidents Andrew Johnson, Richard Nixon, and Bill Clinton. The President makes around 2,000 executive appointments, including members of the Cabinet and ambassadors, which must be approved by the Senate; the President can also issue executive orders and pardons, and has other Constitutional duties, among them the requirement to give a State of the Union address to Congress once a year. Although the President's constitutional role may appear to be constrained, in practice, the office carries enormous prestige that typically eclipses the power of Congress: the Presidency has justifiably been referred to as 'the most powerful office in the world'. The Vice President is first in the line of succession, and is the President of the Senate ex officio, with the ability to cast a tie-breaking vote. The members of the President's Cabinet are responsible for administering the various departments of state, including the Department of Defense, the Justice Department, and the State Department. These departments and department heads have considerable regulatory and political power, and it is they who are responsible for executing federal laws and regulations. George W. Bush is the 43rd President, currently serving his second term.

The Courts

George W. Bush The highest court is the Supreme Court, which consists of nine justices. The court deals with federal and constitutional matters, and can declare legislation made at any level of the government as unconstitutional, nullifying the law and creating precedent for future law and decisions. Below the Supreme Court are the courts of appeals, and below them in turn are the district courts, which are the general trial courts for federal law. Separate from, but not entirely independent of, this federal court system are the individual court systems of each state, each dealing with its own laws and having its own judicial rules and procedures. A case may be appealed from a state court to a federal court only if there is a federal question; the supreme court of each state is the final authority on the interpretation of that state's laws and constitution.

State and local governments

supreme court of each state. Note that Alaska and Hawaii are shown at different scales, and that the Aleutian Islands and the uninhabited Northwestern Hawaiian Islands are omitted from this map.]] The state governments have the greatest influence over people's daily lives. Each state has its own written constitution and has different laws. There are sometimes great differences in law and procedure between the different states, concerning issues such as property, crime, health, and education. The highest elected official of each state is the Governor. Each state also has an elected legislature (bicameral in every state except Nebraska), whose members represent the different parts of the state. Of note is the New Hampshire legislature, which is the third-largest legislative body in the English-speaking world, and has one representative for every 3,000 people. Each state maintains its own judiciary, with the lowest level typically being county courts, and culminating in each state supreme court, though sometimes named differently. In some states, supreme and lower court justices are elected by the people; in others, they are appointed, as they are in the federal system. The institutions that are responsible for local government are typically town, city, or county boards, making laws that affect their particular area. These laws concern issues such as traffic, the sale of alcohol, and keeping animals. The highest elected official of a town or city is usually the mayor. In New England, towns operate directly democratically, and in some states, such as Rhode Island and Connecticut, counties have little or no power, existing only as geographic distinctions. In other areas, county governments have more power, such as to collect taxes and maintain law enforcement agencies.

Political divisions

With the Declaration of Independence, the thirteen colonies proclaimed themselves to be nation states modeled after the European states of the time. Although considered as sovereigns initially, under the Articles of Confederation of 1781 they entered into a "Perpetual Union" and created a fully sovereign federal state, delegating certain powers to the national Congress, including the right to engage in diplomatic relations and to levy war, while each retaining their individual sovereignty, freedom and independence. But the national government proved too ineffective, so the administrative structure of the government was vastly reorganized with the United States Constitution of 1789. Under this new union, the continued status of the individual states as sovereign nation states fell into dispute in 1861, as several states attempted to secede from the union; in response, then-President Abraham Lincoln claimed that such secession was illegal, and the result was the American Civil War. Since the Union victory in 1865, the independent status of the individual states has not been broached again by any state, and the status of each state within the union has been deemed by mainstream officials and academics to be settled as being subordinate to the union as a whole. In subsequent years, the number of states grew steadily due to western expansion, the purchase of lands by the national government from other nation states, and the subdivision of existing states, resulting in the current total of 50. The states are generally divided into smaller administrative regions, including counties, cities and townships. The United States–Canadian border is the longest undefended political boundary in the world. The U.S. is divided into three distinct sections:
- the "continental United States," also known as "the Lower 48" and more accurately termed the conterminous, coterminous or contiguous United States
- Alaska, which is physically connected only to Canada
- the archipelago of Hawaii, in the central Pacific Ocean. The United States also holds several other territories, districts, and possessions, notably the federal district of the District of Columbia, which is the nation's capital, and several overseas insular areas, the most significant of which are American Samoa, Guam, the Northern Mariana Islands, Puerto Rico, and the United States Virgin Islands. The Palmyra Atoll is the United States' only incorporated territory; it is unorganized and uninhabited. The United States Navy has held a base at a portion of Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, since 1898. The United States government possesses a lease to this land, which only mutual agreement or United States abandonment of the area can terminate. The present Cuban government of Fidel Castro disputes this arrangement, claiming Cuba was not truly sovereign at the time of the signing. The United States argues this point moot because Cuba apparently ratified the lease post-revolution, and with full sovereignty, when it cashed one rent check in accordance with the disputed treaty.

Foreign relations and military

sovereign] The immense military and economic dominance of the United States has made foreign relations an especially important topic in its politics, with considerable concern about the image of the United States throughout the world. Reactions towards the United States by other nationalities are often strong, ranging from uninhibited admiration and mimicking of all things American to anti-Americanism. US foreign policy has swung about several times over the course of its history between the poles of strict isolationism and imperialism and everywhere in between. Three of the nation's four military branches are administered by the Department of Defense: the Army, the Navy (including the Marine Corps), and the Air Force. The Coast Guard falls under the jurisdiction of the Department of Homeland Security in peacetime, but is placed under the Department of the Navy in time of war. The combined United States armed forces consist of 1.4 million active duty personnel, along with several hundred thousand each in the Reserves and the National Guard. Military conscription ended in 1973. The United States Armed forces are considered to be the most powerful military (of any sort) on Earth and their force projection capabilities are unrivaled by any other nation. The 2005 defense budget amounted to $401.7 billion, which is an increase of 4% over 2004 and of 35% since 2001. Over 50% of that number is spent in research & development. (For comparison, in 2004 the European Union (considered as the second-largest military force) had a combined total of 1.6 million troops, and a defense budget of €160 billion, with less than 10% of that being spent on R&D.)

Largest cities

The United States has dozens of major cities, including 11 of the 55 global cities of all types — with three "alpha" global cities: New York City, Los Angeles, and Chicago. The figures expressed below are for populations within city limits. A different ranking is evident when considering U.S. metro area populations, although the top three would be unchanged. Note that some cities not listed (such as Atlanta, Boston, Las Vegas, Miami, Nashville, New Orleans, Seattle, and Washington, D.C.) are still considered important on the basis of other factors and issues, including culture, economics, heritage, and politics. The twenty largest cities, based on the United States Census Bureau's 2004 estimates, are as follows:

Economy

The United States has the largest single-country economy in the world, with a per-capita gross domestic product of $40,100. In this market-oriented economy, private individuals and business firms make most of the decisions, and the federal and state governments buy needed goods and services predominantly in the private marketplace. gross domestic product The largest industry of the U.S. is now service, which employs roughly three quarters of the U.S. work force. The United States has many natural resources, including oil and gas, metals, and such minerals as gold, soda ash, and zinc. In agriculture, the U.S. is a top producer of, among other crops, corn, soy beans, and wheat; the United States is a net exporter of food. The U.S. manufacturing sector produces goods such as, cars, airplanes, steel, and electronics, among many others. Economic activity varies greatly from one part of the country to another, with many industries being largely dependent on a certain city or region; New York City is the center of the American financial, publishing, broadcasting, and advertising industries; Silicon Valley is the country’s primary location for high-technology companies, while Los Angeles is the most important center for film production. The Midwest is known for its reliance on manufacturing and heavy industry, with Detroit, Michigan, serving as the center of the American automotive industry; the Great Plains are known as the "breadbasket" of America for their tremendous agricultural output; the intermountain region serves as a mining hub and natural gas resource; the Pacific Northwest for fish and timber, while Texas is largely associated with the oil industry; the Southeast is a major hub for both medical research and the textiles industry. Several countries continue to link their currency to the dollar or even use it as a currency (such as Ecuador), although this practice has subsided since the collapse of the Bretton Woods system. Many markets are also quoted in dollars, such as those of oil and gold. The dollar is also the predominant reserve currency in the world, and more than half of global reserves are in dollars. The largest trading partner of the United States is Canada (19%), followed by China (12%), Mexico (11%), and Japan (8%). More than 50% of total trade is with these four countries. In 2003, the United States was ranked as the third most visited tourist destination in the world; its 40,400,000 visitors ranked behind France's 75,000,000 and Spain's 52,500,000. Labor unions have existed since the 19th century, and grew large and powerful from the 1930s to the 1950s. See Labor history of the United States. Since 1970 they have shrunk in the private sector and now cover fewer than 8% of the workers. However union membership has grown rapidly in the public sector, especially among teachers, nurses, police, postal workers, and municipal clerks. There have been few strikes in recent years. The United States' imports exceed exports by 80%, leading to an annual trade deficit of $700,000,000,000, or 6% of gross domestic product. It is the largest debtor nation in the world, with total gross foreign debt of over $13,000,000,000,000 (2005 estimate); and it absorbs more than 50% of global savings annually. Since the 1980s, the U.S. has increased the use of neoliberal economic policies that reduce government intervention and reduce the size of the welfare state, backing away from the more interventionist Keynsian economic policies that had been in favor since the Great Depression. As a result, the United States provides fewer government-delivered social welfare services than most industrialized nations, choosing instead to keep its tax burden lower and relying more heavily on the free market and private charities. Sixteen states and the District of Columbia have minimum wages higher than the national level ($5.15 per-hour), including the highest, Washington State at $7.35. Twenty-six states are the same as the federal level; two--Ohio and Kansas--are below; and six do not have state laws. America's wealth is relatively highly concentrated. The average C.E.O. earns 500 times the typical amount a worker grosses, this is up from 25 times in the late 1970s. In terms of wealth the top 1% of Americans own 40% of all assets and 50.1% of the country's income goes to the top twenty percent of households. Average wages for the majority of employees have been largely stagnating since the 1970s. America's poverty line defined as a family of four earning less than $19,157 is at 12.7% of the general population. Approximately one out of every five children in the United States grows up below the official poverty line. Among racial groups; African Americans have the lowest median income while Asians had the highest. Regionally, the southern states had the lowest median incomes while the West Coast and New England had the highest. The current Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan remarked that the U.S.’s growing income inequality since the 1970s is, "not the type of thing which a democratic society - a capitalist democratic society - can really accept without addressing."[http://www.csmonitor.com/2005/0614/p01s03-usec.html?s=itm] However, Greenspan also noted, "...you can look at the system and say it's got a lot of problems to it, and sure it does. It always has. But you can't get around the fact that this is the most extraordinarily successful economy in history."

Transportation

Alan Greenspan ]] Because the United States is a relatively young nation, most of the development of U.S. cities has taken place since the invention of the automobile. To link its vast territory, the United States built a network of high-capacity, high-speed highways, of which the most important element is the Interstate Highway system, commissioned in the 1950s by President Dwight D. Eisenhower and modeled after the German Autobahn. The United States also has a transcontinental rail system, which is used for moving freight across the lower forty-eight states. Passenger rail service is provided by Amtrak, which serves forty-six of the lower forty-eight states. Many cities in the United States have extensive mass-transit systems. New York City operates one of the world's largest and most heavily used subway systems. The regional rail and bus networks that extend into Long Island, New Jersey, Upstate New York, and Connecticut are among the most heavily used in the world. Air travel is often preferred for destinations over 300 miles (500 kilometers) away. In terms of passengers, seventeen of the world's thirty busiest airports in 2004 were in the U.S., including the world's busiest, Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport; in terms of cargo, in the same year, twelve of the world's thirty busiest airports were in the U.S., including the world's busiest, Memphis International Airport. There are several major seaports in the United States; the three busiest are the Port of Los Angeles, California; the Port of Long Beach, California; and the Port of New York and New Jersey. Others include Houston,

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