The Hidden Cost of Freedom
eBook - ePub

The Hidden Cost of Freedom

The Untold Story of the CIA's Secret Funding System, 1941-1962

  1. 320 pages
  2. English
  3. ePUB (mobile friendly)
  4. Available on iOS & Android
eBook - ePub

The Hidden Cost of Freedom

The Untold Story of the CIA's Secret Funding System, 1941-1962

About this book

How is it possible for an agency of the United States government to be exempt from providing what the US Constitution’s Appropriations Clause describes as “a regular Statement and Account of the Receipts and Expenditures of all public Money”?

In The Hidden Cost of Freedom, author Brad Fisher presents a comprehensive narrative of the origin and early development of the CIA’s clandestine financial system, beginning with the establishment of the Office of Strategic Services’ Special Funds Branch during World War II. Fisher documents the controversial legislative history of the Central Intelligence Agency Act of 1949 from the standpoint of the CIA, the General Accounting Office, and congressional insiders, and describes the act’s role in the transformation of the CIA’s financial administration into a global enterprise for financing its foreign intelligence activities. Finally, he brings to light the story of his grandfather, Edwin Lyle Fisher, who had a major role in the postwar establishment of the CIA’s funding system as the GAO’s legal liaison to the CIA.

While the existence of the CIA’s clandestine funding is no secret, Fisher’s book is the first to trace its development and to show how the CIA’s covert financial system was allowed to develop in a democracy devoted to checks and balances.

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Yes, you can access The Hidden Cost of Freedom by Brad L. Fisher in PDF and/or ePUB format, as well as other popular books in Politics & International Relations & North American History. We have over one million books available in our catalogue for you to explore.

Table of contents

  1. Front Cover
  2. Half Title
  3. Title Page
  4. Copyright Page
  5. Table of Contents
  6. Acknowledgments
  7. List of Abbreviations
  8. Prologue
  9. Part One: Black Budgets and Public Accountability
  10. Part Two: Secret Intelligence Funding in Wartime
  11. Part Three: Secret Intelligence Funding in Peacetime
  12. Part Four: The CIA, the GAO, the Cold War, and the CIA Act of 1949
  13. Epilogue
  14. Notes
  15. Index
  16. Back Cover