Over the years, the US Department of Defense has been seeking to develop strong alliances with different countries, in bid to attain the US’s military objectives. In the same way, the US intelligence community has been in the forefront, ensuring that the US maintains strong liaisons with different countries of the world in security matters. The US intelligence community allows liaison countries to access intelligence information on security matters, and take precaution actions, to protect the national security interests of the US. This way, the US has been able to maintain its homeland security, and that of its allies.
From a personal perspective, the country, which so far appears to be the most beneficial to the US intelligence Community, is the UK. The US-UK intelligence cooperation dates early 19thcentury. A very good illustration is the 1948 UKUSA agreement. Liaison countries in the UKUSA agreement include the US, UK, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand. Through the agreement, the US is able to access intelligence information through the UK’s satellite technologies. The US intelligence community employs different types of intelligence. They include signal intelligence (SIGNINT) and human intelligence (HUMINT). However, the US has an advantage in SIGNINT than in HUMINT. For this reason, the US has been closely working with the technological features present in the UK, to monitor security concerns through out the world. The UKUSA agreement has helped the US to access areas where it has been denied entry. For instance, the US has been able to place its satellite equipments in areas where it has difficulties penetrating, through the assistance of the UK (the US provides the UK with satellite equipments, the UK brands them as if they were their own, and then places them in areas where the US requires them to be placed). In areas of HUMINT, the US intelligence officers have been able to enter some anti-American countries by concealing their identity, and assuming UK’s military indentify. A good example of the US-UK cooperation intelligence is in 2006, when the US and the UK stopped a plotted attack to a civilian aircraft flying over the Atlantic Ocean. Another example is the UK military assistance to the US during the Afghanistan war.