Veteran journalist and author
Joseph C. Goulden reviewed Loch K. Johnson’s Spy Watching: Intelligence Accountability in the United States for the Washington
Times.
In 1984, author Loch K.
Johnson took advantage of a dinner encounter to ask a question of William
Casey, then the director of central intelligence: “What is the role of Congress
in intelligence?”
One can imagine the snort
that came with Mr. Casey’s reply: “The business of Congress is to stay the
[expletive deleted] out of my business.”
Although the political
correctness of the times dictates that few persons in the intelligence
community would publicly agree with Mr. Casey, such a sentiment exists, even if
sub rosa.
Mr. Johnson, a professor at the
University of Georgia, has been pushing for enhanced intelligence oversight for
more than 40 years, commencing with his staff work with the Senate’s Church
Committee in 1975.
The intelligence community
was reeling about disclosure of programs that, in Mr. Johnson’s understated
words, “strayed outside the boundaries of law” — most notably, operations aimed
at discrediting the Vietnam War peace movement and the struggle for civil
rights.
Sen. Frank Church, Idaho
Democrat, the presidency in his eyes, picked up on a comment he attributed to
McGeorge Bundy, national security adviser to President Kennedy, that the CIA
was a “rogue elephant on a rampage.”
Mr. Church set out to prove
such a case and opened uncountable drawers filled with dirty linen. But as testimony
brought out, many of CIA’s claimed misdeeds were performed on presidential
orders, and Mr. Church had to sidle away from his key charge.
Nonetheless, his crusade
resulted in the creation of intelligence oversight committees in both houses of
Congress.
In the opinion of many
retired and present officers, the result is that intelligence now is run by
hypercautious lawyers, rather than professionals. Officers shy away from risky
(but important) operations rather risk grilling by hostile congressmen in
public hearings.
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