Keep Cutting the FBI's Budget For Their Nearly Two Decades of Government Gang Stalking Until We Can Get A New Agency That Isn't Corrrupt. First Responders/Neighborhood Watch Groups - the REDS - Gang Stalk Ordinary Citizens 24/7.

Spy Watching by Loch K. Johnson outlines why there is a lack of accountability for our intelligence agencies and what can be done about it.  My choice for a President in 2024 who has shown he has the integrity and courage to Reform Our Intelligence Agencies is Senator Ron Johnson from Wisconsin.

What's Wrong And How To We Get Reform:

From my notes on Chapter 12 of Spy Watching -  “The Ongoing Quest for Security and Liberty”

p. 432

“…the quality and consistency of intelligence accountability falls far short of the aspirations advanced by reformers at the time of the Church Committee inquiry.”

Topic of Inquiry of last chapter of Spy Watching: “why the advocates of an improved state of accountability for America’s spy agencies have come up short in their objectives, and what might be done to advance a more reliable and acceptable union of liberty and security.”

We can have security and liberty in a “society that honors freedom, privacy, and individuality.”

Our intelligence agencies have “mushroomed into an enormous bureaucratic apparatus (the world’s largest), accompanied by relatively modest efforts to keep track of these organizations and their activities.”

We looked at our intelligence operations as having a special status apart from checks and balances required of the rest of government.  COINTELPRO and other abuses indicated this was misguided.

p. 433

There have been steps forward in oversight – Intelligence Oversight Act of 1980 – followed by backsliding.

After 9/11 “the second Bush Administration cast aside several of the most important new safeguards against mass surveillance and other espionage excesses.”

“Strong accountability has seldom occurred since 1975 unless accompanied by major media coverage that ratcheted up the pressure on overseers to investigate controversial intelligence scandals or failures.”

Evasion

“periodically” intel agencies “have chosen to resist serious outside supervision through misleading or belated briefings and other methods of evasion.”

p. 434

Problems in accountability

Poor quality of intelligence briefings to intelligence committees with, at times, efforts to mislead.

“lackluster commitment of many lawmakers” to oversight

lack of American people’s support of lawmakers oversight responsibilities

“unacceptable restrictions that intelligence agencies often put on intelligence briefings:

1. “can’t take notes”
2. “can’t take docs”
3. “must have a minder”
4. must use “a sensitive compartmented information facility”

p. 435

How To Get Successful Intelligence Accountability

1. Sharing Information

Executive Branch acceptance: “constitutional principles extolled by the nation’s founders apply to the veiled agencies of government, too, not just to the more open departments…”

“…lawmakers only know about intelligence activities to the extent that the president and the attorney general, plus the DNI, the D/CIA, and other intelligence agency managers, keep them informed.”  - “this basic requirement is often absent” – with “evasiveness and stonewalling” in its stead along with refusal to testify before relevant committees, lying, misleading and all manner of obstructionism.

p. 437

“Open lines of communication between intelligence overseers and the nation’s spy leaders – especially, the DNI, D/CIA, D/FBI, and D/NSA – are of utmost importance for effective accountability.

No substitute is discussing issues “one-on-one with the chairs and ranking minority members” on intelligence committees – “the Gang of Four, a board fabricated by the executive branch to limit the number of witting lawmakers.”

“Some forms of secrecy are obviously justified – even vital – such as protecting the identities of CIA officers and their assets overseas, or the blueprints of DoD weapons systems on the drawing board.  Nonetheless, at the core of democratic theory is the requirement of an informed citizenry, which in turn depends on openness in government – not stamping everything in sight SECRET, TOP SECRET, or above.”

p. 438

“Moreover, virtually every study on secrecy (such as the one carried out by the Moynihan Commission in 1996-1997) has concluded that far too much information – some 85 percent – is unnecessarily classified by intelligence and military bureaucrats in the first place.”

p. 439

“Public hearings on some intelligence topics are possible, helpful, and certainly in the spirit of democracy.”

p. 440

“…both Presidents George W. Bush and Barack Obama have tried to turn the Gang of Eight rule – meant to apply only in emergencies – into the normal reporting requirement, informing only eight lawmakers (if that many) instead of the required full memberships of “ the Senate and House Intelligence committees.

2.  Willingness of Members of Congress To Engage in Meaningful Examination of Spy Programs

“Congress is informed to the degree that Congress wants to be informed.”

Most lawmakers prefer to be intelligence cheerleaders instead of intelligence overseers – the Daddy Knows Best Attitude in matters dealing with foreign policy and security policy.  “…the legislative branch” has “lost its ‘will to lead.’”

Strengthening Intelligence Accountability

Who Should Be Informed?

What works best - All important intelligence activities should be reviewed 37 members of intelligence committees and their staffs as prescribed by the Intelligence oversight Act of 1980.

What Information Should Be Reported?

“all information provided to the executive branch”  - “with the exception of President’s Daily Brief”

There is a “92 percent delinquency rate”  in the Intelligence Community’s prescribed by law reporting to Congress.

Who is Responsible for Reporting to Intelligence Overseers in Congress?

“…the president and the CIA are responsible for reporting to the Hill on covert actions, and the president, the CIA, and other intelligence agencies on spy initiatives (depending on which “int” or mission is involved).”