eBook - ePub
US National Security, Intelligence and Democracy
From the Church Committee to the War on Terror
Russell A. Miller, Russell A. Miller
This is a test
Partager le livre
- 288 pages
- English
- ePUB (adapté aux mobiles)
- Disponible sur iOS et Android
eBook - ePub
US National Security, Intelligence and Democracy
From the Church Committee to the War on Terror
Russell A. Miller, Russell A. Miller
DĂ©tails du livre
Aperçu du livre
Table des matiĂšres
Citations
Ă propos de ce livre
This volume examines the investigation by the 1975 Senate Select Committee ( Church Committee ) into US intelligence abuses during the Cold War, and considers its lessons for the currentwar on terror. This report remains the most thorough public record of America's intelligence services, and many of the legal boundaries operating on US intellige
Foire aux questions
Comment puis-je résilier mon abonnement ?
Il vous suffit de vous rendre dans la section compte dans paramĂštres et de cliquer sur « RĂ©silier lâabonnement ». Câest aussi simple que cela ! Une fois que vous aurez rĂ©siliĂ© votre abonnement, il restera actif pour le reste de la pĂ©riode pour laquelle vous avez payĂ©. DĂ©couvrez-en plus ici.
Puis-je / comment puis-je télécharger des livres ?
Pour le moment, tous nos livres en format ePub adaptĂ©s aux mobiles peuvent ĂȘtre tĂ©lĂ©chargĂ©s via lâapplication. La plupart de nos PDF sont Ă©galement disponibles en tĂ©lĂ©chargement et les autres seront tĂ©lĂ©chargeables trĂšs prochainement. DĂ©couvrez-en plus ici.
Quelle est la différence entre les formules tarifaires ?
Les deux abonnements vous donnent un accĂšs complet Ă la bibliothĂšque et Ă toutes les fonctionnalitĂ©s de Perlego. Les seules diffĂ©rences sont les tarifs ainsi que la pĂ©riode dâabonnement : avec lâabonnement annuel, vous Ă©conomiserez environ 30 % par rapport Ă 12 mois dâabonnement mensuel.
Quâest-ce que Perlego ?
Nous sommes un service dâabonnement Ă des ouvrages universitaires en ligne, oĂč vous pouvez accĂ©der Ă toute une bibliothĂšque pour un prix infĂ©rieur Ă celui dâun seul livre par mois. Avec plus dâun million de livres sur plus de 1 000 sujets, nous avons ce quâil vous faut ! DĂ©couvrez-en plus ici.
Prenez-vous en charge la synthÚse vocale ?
Recherchez le symbole Ăcouter sur votre prochain livre pour voir si vous pouvez lâĂ©couter. Lâoutil Ăcouter lit le texte Ă haute voix pour vous, en surlignant le passage qui est en cours de lecture. Vous pouvez le mettre sur pause, lâaccĂ©lĂ©rer ou le ralentir. DĂ©couvrez-en plus ici.
Est-ce que US National Security, Intelligence and Democracy est un PDF/ePUB en ligne ?
Oui, vous pouvez accĂ©der Ă US National Security, Intelligence and Democracy par Russell A. Miller, Russell A. Miller en format PDF et/ou ePUB ainsi quâĂ dâautres livres populaires dans History et Military & Maritime History. Nous disposons de plus dâun million dâouvrages Ă dĂ©couvrir dans notre catalogue.
Informations
1 Introduction: U.S. national security, intelligence and democracy
From the Church Committee to the War on Terror
Russell A. Miller
The return of Senator Church
During the past half-century, two historic confrontationsâone against worldwide communism and the other against international terrorismâhave presented American policy makers with the inevitably, difficult challenge of balancing intelligence and security needs against fundamental commitments to constitutional government and human liberty.
Americaâs contribution to the triumph over communism was a measure of the success with which that balance could be struck; it was as much a victory of the democratic spirit as it was of intelligence ruthlessness and military strength. U.S. Senator Frank Church (Democrat from Idaho) was among those Americans who insisted upon democracy and constitutionalism even in the face of the existential, nuclear-armed Soviet threat. As Chairman of the Senate Select Committee to Study Governmental Operations with Respect to Intelligence Activities (1975â76),1 which came to be called the âChurch Committee,â Senator Church led the first independent examination of the American intelligence communityâs Cold War record. Senator Churchâs determination to expose and correct intelligence agenciesâ abuses of civil liberties and violations of the law resulted in the publication of 14 volumes of reports. Newsweek described the effort as the âmost comprehensive and thoughtfully critical study yet made of the shadowy world of U.S. intelligence.â2 More than a quarter-century later, the Church Committeeâs work remains the most thorough public record of Americaâs intelligence services. The Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act,3 which principally sought to prohibit warrantless government surveillance of U.S. citizens, is among the most prominent of the many legislative reforms that resulted from the Church Committeeâs reform proposals.
Of greater consequence than the resulting intelligence oversight and reform, the Church Committeeâs investigation stands as an historic monument to faith in constitutional governance. As a congressional body investigating the most secret realm of the Presidential empire,4 the Church Committee represented a stubborn commitment to the Founding Fathersâ vision of limited government as secured by checks and balances, even in the face of Americaâs most vexing national trials. Repeatedly, the Church Committeeâs reports refer to the âfundamental principles of American constitutional government,â consisting of the commands that power be checked and balanced and that the preservation of liberty requires the restraint of law.5
Now, following the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks in the United States, Senator Church is back.
The U.S. intelligence communityâs devastating failure to discover and prevent the terroristsâ plot turned attention to the effectiveness of Americaâs intelligence apparatus.6 Some blamed the Church Committee for hobbling Americaâs spymasters with the millstone of congressional oversight. According to this line of thinking, the Church Committee was the cause of the intelligence breakdowns leading up to that fateful day in September 2001. Chris Mooney explained that
[t]he Church bashing began the day of the World Trade Center massacre on ABC, when former Secretary of State James Baker said that Churchâs hearings had caused us to âunilaterally disarm in terms of our intelligence capabilities.â The allegation was soon repeated by Republican Senator Christopher âKitâ Bond of Missouri and numerous conservative commentators. The Wall Street Journal editorial page called the opening of Churchâs public hearings âthe moment that our nation moved from an intelligence to anti-intelligence footing.â And the spy-mongering novelist Tom Clancy attacked Church on Fox Newsâs OâReilly Factor: âThe CIA was gutted by people on the political left who donât like intelligence operations,â he said. âAnd as a result of that, as an indirect result of that, weâve lost 5,000 citizens this week.â7
Stephen F. Knott forcefully joined this chorus, arguing that the Congressional oversight resulting from the work of the Church Committee extensively damaged the CIA. âWhile the old CIA may have been noted for the âcowboyâ swagger of its personnel,â Knott explained, âthe new [post-Church Committee] CIAâ is unwilling to take risks and âact at times in a Machiavellian manner.â8 Congressional oversight, Knott complained, prevents the CIA âfrom acting in a shrewd and, as is sometimes necessary, ruthless manner.â9 Rather than rooting out the cancer of executive secrecy and lawlessness, Knott viewed the Church Committee as having maimed the American intelligence community, turning the CIA into âthe functional equivalent of the Department of Agriculture.â10
These contemporary accusations, especially as regards the threat of terrorism, would not have surprised Senator Church.11 He would have been disappointed, however, by the fact that they reflect an unserious examination of the Committeeâs work. The Committee strongly sought to underscore the âvitalâ constitutional importance of intelligence activities, declaring, for example, that âintelligence agencies perform a necessary and proper functionâ in advancing the Constitutionâs preambular commitment to promoting âdomestic tranquilityâ and âthe common defense.â The Committee was especially aware of the need for effective intelligence activities in combating terrorism.12
More troubling to Church, however, would be the notion that his twenty-firstcentury critics, much like those arrayed against him in the 1970s, invoke a vision of government that he passionately believed is supported neither by the text of the U.S. Constitution nor by the republican ideals to which it aspires. Whatever the U.S. Constitution stands for, Church insisted, Machiavellianism must not be one of them, not even in the hardscrabble world of intelligence and not as an expedient in responding to threats to Americaâs national security.
The book: bridging the Church Committee and the War on Terror
This book tackles this claim by bridging the work of the Church Committee and the contemporary debate over national security, intelligence and constitutional governance in the War on Terror. It consists of two distinct parts.
Part I: the Church Committeeâthen and now
The bookâs first part contains the reflections of several key veterans of the Church Committee and authorities on Senator Church himself. These pieces point up several themes. First, they make clear that advocating constitutional governance, as Senator Church did, requires great courage. This is especially true in the face of real or perceived threats to American security. Insisting upon checks and balances, even with respect to intelligence operations, also threatens the entrenched and powerful interests of the national security state, even if the nation is not confronted with a clear and present national security threat. Second, the contributions to the bookâs first part establish that a commitment to constitutional governance need not come at the cost of a loss of security. To the contrary, as each of the contributors to the bookâs first part make clear, the respect for constitutional governance and intelligence oversight demanded by Church actually serves to strengthen America. This is true, if for no other reason, because constitutional governance and the rule of law are profoundly American. As Senator Gary Hart says in his chapter in this book (Chapter 2), âdeep down, what people really respect about the United States is its Constitution and principles.â The bookâs first part, by reminding us of the rarity of the Church Committeeâs integrity and vision, serves as a call to courage for our own era, one that is responsive to the adage that those who ignore history are doomed to repeat it.
Senator Gary Hartâs chapter opens the first part of the book. A member of the Church Committee and now one of Americaâs leading scholar-statesmen on issues of national security, Hart compellingly argues that the compromises made in the War on Terror have their historical precedent in the Cold War abuses documented by the Church Committee. With the anecdotal flair of an eyewitness, he recounts the most startling of the Church Committeeâs revelations and the resulting reform proposals. Senator Hart singles out two points for particular concern. First, he is bothered by the predictability of the extraconstitutional intelligence policies that proliferated, seemingly unchecked, in the Cold War era and which have returned in the reaction to the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks. âWhat goes around comes around,â he concludes. âHere we are again, 30 years later, in yet another unwise war, no wiser and once again willing to sacrifice constitutional liberties in the name of security expediency.â This predictability, Hart argues, is a product of a distinct understanding of presidential authority that has never gained ascendance but that has nonetheless survived through the persistent advocacy of a handful of well-placed Americans, most prominently Vice President Richard Cheney. Second, he agonizes that compromises of American constitutional values, whatever short-term intelligence and security benefits they produce, nonetheless erode the most important national security weapon at Americaâs disposal, âthe extraordinary power of [Americaâs] respected constitutional principles.â Senator Hartâs contribution poignantly engages the bookâs most fundamental themes, with more than just a tone of regret for lessons still unlearned.
Frederick Schwarz was the Church Committeeâs Chief Counsel. No one is better positioned than he to identify, as he does in his chapter, the broad elements of the Committeeâs findings. He notes that the intelligence community long had relied on imprecise mandates, weak or permissive oversight, and patterns of secrecy and ambiguity that undermined accountability. He supports these claims with details from the Committeeâs expansive reports. With Schwarz, the reader has the privilege of being led through the Committeeâs massive record by the man who coordinated the investigation and assembled the vast body of evidence. But Schwarz is not content with detailing the Committee as an historical artifact. He pushes forward to outline the significant reform that resulted from the Committeeâs investigation and the repeated assaults on that fragile oversight infrastructure, including the present challenge posed by a number of the policies in the War on Terror. Considering the precarious nature of the reform achieved by the Church Committee as demonstrated by the alleged abuses of the Bush administration, Schwarz turns his attention, in the second half of his contribution, to a consideration of the context and method that made the Committeeâs success possible. He emphasizes that the Committee had the benefit of working without the pressures that attend an immediate or ongoing national security crisis. What is more, the Committeeâs success demonstrates that âoversight should be comprehensive, non-partisan, responsible and fact based.â This, it is clear, is meant to serve as a model for the approach to be taken towards the intelligence abuses being exposed today.
Professor Loch K. Johnson was special assistant to Senator Church in his capacity as Chair of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence. Later, Johnson was the first staff director of the House Subcommittee on Intelligence Oversight. He has gone on to become one of the nationâs leading scholars of the U.S. intelligence community. He was present for the creation of, and his chapter in this book carefully details, the intelligence oversight infrastructure that resulted from the work of the Church Committee. It is exactly this oversight that, as remarked earlier, came in for so much hostility following the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks. That is a surprising accusation in light of Johnsonâs findings that âthe level of rigor displayed by intelligence overseers in Congress has fallen below the expectations of the [Church] Committeeâs reformers in 1975.â Johnsonâs chapter is a bracing introduction to American intelligence oversight, a story that begins, as it must, with the Church Committeeâs âchillingâ revelations of constitutional indifference. After mapping the resulting oversight regime, Johnson underscores the important role of human agency in its operation. Members of Congress, he demonstrates, have pursued their oversight responsibility with varying degrees of engagement and commitment.
Chapters from Professors LeRoy Ashby and Katherine Aiken round out the bookâs first part. Ashby, one of Churchâs biographers, and Aiken, a historian of Idaho politics, provide incredibly valuable insight into the biographical significance of Churchâs leadership of the Committee. On the one hand, Ashby articulates Churchâs courage and idealism:
[B]y questioning the huge expansion of executive powers and secrecy that were occurring in the name of national security, the committee struck a blow on behalf of the constitutional separation of powers. As Frank Church insisted time and again, no oneâincluding the Presidentâis supposed to act outside the law. Protecting the nation, Church said, should not come at the expense of the nationâs ideals, freedoms, and Constitution.
On the other hand, Aiken underscores that courage often has a cost. Aikenâs chapter confirms that Churchâs dedication to constitutional governance and his leadership of the Committee came at a grave political price, concluding that â[t]here is little doubt that [Churchâs] very public investigation of the United Statesâ intelligence community negatively impacted Churchâs 1980 reelection campaign,â a battle Church ultimately lost by fewer than 4,000 votes. But both Ashby and Aiken suggest that this was a risk Church was willing to take. âChurch was fully cognizant at the outset that his task in investigating United States intelligence operations was fraught with controversy and represented a potential political quagmire,â Aiken notes. âHe genuinely believed that going forward with the investigation was the right thing to do, the only legitimate course of action.â
Part II: Contemporary issues of national security, intelligence and democracy
If Part I of the book provides the mandate of history, then the bookâs second part makes clear that the history of the Church Committee, and its insistence on constitutional governance, is painfully relevant today. In a series of in-depth scholarly commentaries from a diverse set of researchers and advocates, the second part of the book provides a comprehensive, if not exhaustive, accounting of the questionable intelligence and security policies pursued as part of the American reaction to the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks. The legacy of the Church Committee haunts each of these contributions like a specter.
Professor David Gray Adler, one of Americaâs foremost experts on presidential power and the Constitution, frames the broad concern at work in each of the chapters in the bookâs second part by tackling the Bush administrationâs assertions of power under a theory of the âunitary executive.â How much unaccountable and unchecked authority does the President possess? In uncompromising terms Adler asserts that any vision of executive power that vitiates the doctrines of separation of powers and checks and balances is neither constitutionally justifiable nor wise. His argument is based, in equal parts, on resort to the intention of the Constitutionâs framers and general political theory. Adler recognizes, in the Bush administrationâs assertion of sweeping powers under the theory of the âunitary executive,â the same threat of executive overreaching that so troubled the Church Committee. Adler also shares the Church Committeeâs insistence on shared decision making in foreign and intelligence affairs. The Constitution, he concludes, demands vigilance and accountability.
Professor Richard Seamon, a prolific commentator on the USA PATRIOT Act and other national security issues, strikes a more moderate tone in his examination of the Bush administrationâs warrantless domestic surveillance program. The National Security Agencyâs warrantless domestic surveillance program, of course, is the clearest contemporary reprise of abuses uncovered by the Church Committee. Critiques like Adlerâs, which primarily focus on the limits imposed on the executive by the Constitutionâs mandated separation of powers and checks and balances, have dominated the public and legal reaction to revelations of this contemporary warrantless surveillance program. Seamon, however, turns his attention to the Fourth Amendment privacy implications of the program. He concludes that not every instance of warrantless surveillance is prohibited by the Fourth Amendment. A genuine ongoing national security emergency, for example, would justify departures from the established privacy protections of the Fourth Amendment. He cautions that this is a very narrow and limited reliance upon the theory of the âunitary executive.â This is a fine distinction Adler seems unwilling...