Information Overload: Impact on Intelligence Practice and Rise of Islamophobia

In this assessment we will discuss about information overload and below are the summaries point:- US Secretary of State, Condoleezza Rice, expressed concerns about information overload after the 9/11 attacks. The rise of Islamophobic attacks and bias towards Muslims in the US is a reflection of information overload. Information overload has led to excessive measures by intelligence agencies and hindered ethical and efficient intelligence practices.

Running head: INFORMATION OVERLOAD
INFORMATION OVERLOAD
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Author Note

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The US Secretary of States Condoleezza Rice had in the wake of the attacks on the Twin
Towers in the year 2001 on 11th September had commented expressing inhibitions about the
overload of information within a very short period of time (Sultan 2016). The most intriguing
fact about the flow of information in huge numbers was that from a situation of having no
information at all, suddenly the number of information related to the attack surged up quite high
and the immediate problem that was every piece of information was becoming extremely crucial
to the safety of the country and that every word and almost everything was becoming a piece of
threat. This particular statement of Dr Rice was not just relevant to that period but is also
relevant today and that is very much reflective in the rise of islamophobic attacks and the bias
towards the muslims in the nation. The attack on the twin towers is a watershed incident in not
just American domestic and foreign policies, but is also a major event for the entire world as well
as it was virtually unpredictable that a highly guarded place could be infiltrated by terrorists and
that they could wage such a deadly attack. The major confrontation of the United States of
America with the Islamic world was resurrected by the 9/11 episode, after the embracing of
enmity with Iran post the 1979 islamic revolution (Sultan 2016). However, the 9/11 episode had
been more impactful than the hostage crisis in Iran whereby American diplomatic personnel
were kept under captivity by the student revolutionaries of Tehran University. The 9/11 episode
has thus been one of the most important events in the American contemporary history which had
contributed to the worsening of the relationship between the country and the Islamic world
owing to the fact that America had adopted an aggressive stance in dealing with terrorism post
the attack on Twin Towers. Not just that, persons belonging to the Islamic faith or bearing any
resemblance to being muslim have become the soft targets of attacks in the country by the
civilian population themselves. The American Intelligence Agency has ever since then tightened

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the security and they have been empowered to detain anyone even if that means on the basis of
mere suspicion to be potential perpetrator of terrorist activities, and that can be attributed to the
overload of information which is the cause behind the inhibition of intelligence practice in the
nation. Not just in the United States of America, even the UK and several other European
countries had become the hot spots of islamophobia and information overload (Sultan 2016). In
the following sections the impact of overload of information in inhibiting ethical and efficient
intelligence practice and a reflection on the intelligence pathologies shall be provided in light of
the overload of information.
Critical assessment of the impact of information overload for effective, efficient,
and ethical intelligence practice
From the above discussion it becomes clear that excesses have been committed by the
American Intelligence Agency in the matters of ensuring the security of the nation and of the
people by virtue of considering every little piece of information as a potential clue behind the
involvement of a particular person in a terrorist attack and it is also assumed that the suspected
detainee must have been up to the fulfillment of some act of terrorism. In this section the
discussion shall be focusing upon how the impact of overload of information has caused the
effective and efficient and ethical intelligence practice to be inhibited. The role of the
intelligence agency is to look after the security and preventing any untoward incident to
jeopardize the life and liberty of the persons. However, if the intelligence agencies tend to
indulge in excesses it shall be causing more harm than doing any good as that creates a mass
hysteria and the common people are the ones who become the scapegoats of such practices. In
the following sections the discussion shall be devoted to showing how the ethical intelligence
practice gets jeopardized as a result of the overload of information.

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Before the discussion proceeds, it is important to provide information about what
information overload means. It is basically a situation whereby the hysteric mindset is triggered
and even the insignificant piece of information is heightened with importance and is considered
as a potential threat. It is a situation whereby any piece of information is sensationalized as an
indication of threat and a result of it huge amount of forces are mobilized to battle terror. An
overload of information tends to create a situation whereby instead of securitizing, it tends to
create more problems by inducing more panic in to the environment by means of acting
arbitrarily (Simons 2016).
It must be said that the information overload is repetitive mention of a particular piece of
information and both the media and the intelligence are responsible for it. Media highlights a
simple issue by sensationalizing it and the intelligence agencies tend to consider all the pieces of
information related to a terror attack and the perpetrator as the source of reference for
anticipating future cases of terrorism. This leads to an overgeneralization of the actual scenario
and resultantly the innocent ones tend to become the scapegoat of it (Simons 2016).
Tougher immigration laws, Islamophobia and Increased Detention post the 9/11 issue in
the US and the UK as an impact of Information Overload
Post the 9/11 episode, US and UK had been put under the radar of high alert and security.
People having a muslim name or if their passport indicated that they belonged to any muslim
majority nation then they were detained at the airport for questioning. Just having a muslim name
or having any connection to Islam made an individual prone to becoming a suspect of
islamohobic treatment. There have been several cases whereby muslims have been subjected to
humiliating treatment in the US and UK and the information overload has to be considered as
responsible for such breach of the principle of ethics. Since the attacks on the twin towers had

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been conducted by Osama Bin Laden, who was a muslim who had been radicalized at a mosque,
naturally, all muslims became the soft targets of islamophobia in the western world, especially in
the US and in the UK (Shoshani and Slone 2016).
Not just at the hand of the police personnel or the security agencies, the muslim people
also faced problems at the hands of the common people who had turned hostile towards the
muslims and the effect had been generated by the reaction of the government and security
agencies. Post the 9/11 several instances have been reported whereby the muslims were detained
for interrogation and were taken into custody for long hours and sometimes for indefinite times.
They were reportedly tortured under the pretext of deriving the necessary information whether
they had any involvement in the terror attacks or whether they were involved with any terror
group or not. If the muslim individual happened to be a visibly practicing one, for example
muslim men having beard, cladded in the Islamic tunic and having the skull cap, and muslim
women wearing hijab and the abaya, then the chances of those person being made to face
consequences at the hands of immigration officials became more serious (Nacos 2016).
Humiliating experiences like making the visibly muslim people strip and search them
categorically to trace if they were carrying explosives or not were common then, and even now
in the contemporary period. If the personal belongings contained any document relating to the
Islamic religion, in hardcopy format or in electronic form then the chances of the person being
detained also tends to increase. There have been cases whereby people speaking in Arabic and
chanting Allah u Akbar which simply means God is Great or uttering Inshallah which means be
it so in the name of God in aircrafts have been complained against by the fellow passengers to
the security officials that the person might have been up to executing a terror attack (Nacos
2016).

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There is a symbiotic relationship in media coverage and the overload of information in
inhibiting the intelligence agencies to execute the task of securitization. With the proliferation of
the media houses there have been the corporatization of the field of journalism and naturally
there is a competition between the media houses to provide sensational news. Naturally, all the
media houses tend to indulge in a competition for gaining the maximum amount of TRP which
shall be beneficial to their own purpose. Consequently, certain insignificant instances are given
the shape of some great discovery and that makes not just the intelligence officials alert but also
the masses. For example coverage of news like the clichéd one of a terrorist blowing himself up
or opening fire at a group of people by shouting allah u akbar tends to fixate the mindset that all
muslims chanting that must be up to some act of terror. When such news tend to appear on a
recurrent basis then naturally the mindset of the people shall be influenced as media has the
logistical support to bring the necessary news to the people and people tend to believe it (Nacos
2016).
Impact on Foreign Policy Decisions of the US as a result of Information Overload
The issue of Information overload has been a result of the increased hostility of countries
like the US. According to the intelligence pathology, there are three instances when the
propensity of the information becoming a source of problem tends to increase vis-à-vis the
government and the intelligence bureau. Three situations are of the government totally rejecting
the inputs of the intelligence bureau, the government uncritically considering the information
provided by the intelligence bureau as the only source of truth and the government politicizing
the inputs of the intelligence bureau and using it as a justification to champion a particular
foreign policy decision which is more often than not an aggressive one (Kellner 2015).

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With regard to critically analyzing the role of information overload, the latter two
situations are of utmost importance as far as the present context is concerned. The US foreign
policy in the post 9/11 had tended to become quite aggressive towards the muslim nations.
Osama Bin Laden had been behind the attack and when information was derived that he was
hiding in Afghanistan, the country was invaded in 2001 with the goal to dismantle Al Qaeda, the
terrorist outfit which was responsible for the attacks in the twin towers (Kellner 2015). Ever
since the American Imperialism has been continuing in the Islamic world under the pretext of
war on terrorism. In 2001 it was Afghanistan, then in 2003 Iraq, 2011 Libya and the most recent
case of Trump banning certain chosen countries from entering the United States of America. In
this regard the Foreign Policy of Donald Trump towards certain Islamic nations is worthy of
mentioning. President Trump has as such not banned muslims from travelling in and out of the
United States of America, however he has mentioned of certain nations whose citizens he has
banned from entering America. The list of countries include most importantly, Iran and the other
states include Iraq, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria, and Yemen who are terrorist nations
supposedly. The decision has been highly contested and has been considered as a grave fault
committed by the President, and the role of media has been quite proactive in propelling the
decision (Kellner 2015).
The role of media is quite important is quite important as the media had provided
information about the enemy nations of America and had twisted information to maneuver the
political goals of the United States of America. Thus it becomes clear that post the 9/11 event the
American media had been proactive in collecting information about the muslim nations who
were supposedly the ones to champion terrorism and had intervened under the pretext of
restoring democracy in the nations, or had isolated them in the international arena. Afghanistan

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had become the enemy of the USA because Osama Bin Laden had taken shelter in the country
and he was the one to commit the 9/11 tragedy (Jetter 2017). However, it has been years that
there has been no sign of terror being wiped out in Afghanistan, rather, the country has delved
deep into the quagmire of political instability and there has been incessant struggle between the
Taliban forces for which the life of the civilians have been deeply affected. The only substantial
achievement of the USA has been in so far has been the assassination of Osama Bin Laden,
which shows that for the sake of revenge of the 9/11 attack on Laden, USA had made an entire
nation suffer for it (Jetter 2017).
Emboldened by getting a foothold in Afghanistan, USA had moved her eyes to Iraq
which became the next country to come in its radar of attack. Saddam Hussein a long time had
turned cold towards the Americans as a result of the American domination and the hostile
opinion of the people of Iraq towards Saddam’s increased inclination towards the west.
Naturally, the propaganda was made that he had become a dangerous power in the region of
Middle East as he possessed chemical weapons. On the basis of overloading information about
Iraq having chemical weapons the legitimate ground for attacking Iraq was made and USA has
ever since the year 2003 made life in Iraq for the common people uninhabitable (Giroux 2016).
In Libya, since Colonel Muammar Al Gaddafi and forgone the petro dollar to be value his
national currency, Libyan Dinar against the gold reserves in his country. That embittered USA
and thereby the information overload was caused to ensure that a legitimate ground be created to
justify the legitimacy of attacking Libya by rendering Gaddafi as a tyrant and thereby he should
be toppled from power and democracy be established in the country. Thus these methods of
causing information overload by means of propaganda and attaching a political goal to it, the
ethical goal of securitization of the civilians interests have been jeopardized (Giroux 2016).

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Reflection on Intelligence Pathologies
From the above set of discussion it becomes clear that the government and the
intelligence bureau must be free from the influence of each other. Neither the government should
uncritically believe the information provided by the intelligence bureau, and nor should the
government influence the information provided by the intelligence bureau and take advantage of
it for the achievement of the political goals. This age is thus rightfully considered as the age of
post truth and in this age it is extremely important that the truth is segregated from the array of
information or else it can have dire consequences for the society. The information provided can
have an adverse impact on the image of a particular section of the society, lime it has been
discussed that information overload has tended to produce adversities for the muslims in the
western world post the 9/11. Even the innocent and harmless actions of them were taken to be as
harmful and as precursor to the imminent terror attack (Bruckberger 2018).
Since information has the propensity to exert influence on the identity of a particular
section of the society hence the dissemination of information must be done in an impartial way.
The aim herein is not to provide the impression that the details provided by the intelligence
bureau must not neglected as that shall cause harm to the interest of securitization. At the same
time it must also be ensures that the information must be provided in an amount which shall be
enough to create a sense of alarm among the mindset of the general masses but it must not create
a sense of panic among the masses. Fear is an important factor in determining the conduct of the
masses and that fear can turn the masses hysteric if the information is caused as that triggers the
human propensity to be struck by a sense of panic and that can drive human beings to greater
crimes like the islamophobic attacks on the muslim people of the nation based on false premise
(Fahmy 2017). The islamophobic attacks have been a result of the creation of mass hysteria by

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means of overloading of the information of how negative the muslims had been and that they
were capable of only terroristic activities. The issue of information overload is thus not an
accidental phenomenon but a deliberate one which is aimed at achieving a particular political
goal. The politicization of information is reflective of the government to gain its political goals at
the cost of jeopardizing the freedom and security and peace of the people (Fahmy 2017).
In this regard it must be said that the agenda of the media is in most cases already fixed
by the respective governments of the nation of domicile of the media houses, and also that media
is not free even in a democratic set up. From the above thread of discussion it becomes clear that
the media portrayal of terrorism does play a vital role in shaping the foreign policy decisions of a
nation. The media does play its role by portraying the obvious but the obvious is portrayed so
subtly with an agenda motivated spirit that it is bound to change the decision of a government as
it has been proven by the means of the examples provided. The very fact that the media portrays
content in a coloured way by highlighting some aspects of terrorism and ignoring something else
shows that media is a potent force in shaping the foreign policy decisions of a government
(Galea 2017). Just portraying terrorism is not enough, hence the media also uses other tactics to
support the agenda of turning a nation into a terrorist and thereby influencing the foreign policy
decisions of other nations.

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References
Bruckberger, R. L., 2018. Images of terror: What we can and can't know about terrorism.
Routledge.
Fahmy, S. S., 2017. Media, Terrorism, and Society: Perspectives and Trends in the Digital Age.
Galea, S., 2017. Islamic terrorism in the age of social media: lone-offender terrorism (Master's
thesis, University of Malta).
Giroux, H. A., 2016. Beyond the spectacle of terrorism: Global uncertainty and the challenge of
the new media. Routledge.
Jetter, M., 2017. The effect of media attention on terrorism. Journal of Public Economics, 153,
32-48.
Kellner, D., 2015. Media spectacle and the crisis of democracy: Terrorism, war, and election
battles. Routledge.
Nacos, B., 2016. Mass-mediated terrorism: Mainstream and digital media in terrorism and
counterterrorism. Rowman & Littlefield.
Shoshani, A., and Slone, M., 2016. Through the looking glass: the role of ethnicity and affiliation
in responses to terrorism in the media. Frontiers in psychology, 7, 1911.
Simons, G., 2016. Mass media and modern warfare: reporting on the Russian war on terrorism.
Routledge.
Sultan, K., 2016. Linking Islam with Terrorism: A Review of the Media Framing since 9/11.
Global Media Journal: Pakistan Edition, 9(2).

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