THE INTELLIGENCE COMMUNITY: TIME FOR REVIEW?

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP75-00001R000100010008-8
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 2
• Document Creation Date: November 16, 2016
• Document Release Date: April 24, 2000
• Sequence Number: 8
• Publication Date: December 1, 1972
• Content Type: OPEN

FEDERATION OF AMERICAN SCIENTISTS NEWSLETTER
Dec CPYFA~gp~IrTovted For Release 2000/05/23 r:CIA-RDP75-00001 R0001
THE INTELLIGENCE COMMUNITY: TIME FOR REVIEW? F0IAb3b
intelligence community, and its budget, pose many arrrrr'ies such additional services of common concern as,
problems of traditional concern to the Federation of Amer-' the National Security Council determines can be more
lean Scientists: governmental reform, morality, proper' eliectively accomplished centrally;
use of high technology, and defense expenditures. In the "perform such other functions and duties related to
last quarter century, intelligence agencies have prolifer. inrcili,'cflce affecting the national security as the Now
ated. The United States has established an agency which tional Security Council may from time to time direct.",
roes beyond intelligence collection and, periodically, inter- (italics added)
fcres in *the internal affairs of other nations. Technology These clauses clearly authorize clandestine iniciligenc
suited to the invasion of national and personal privacy collection but they are also used, to justify clandestine po
has been developed apace. And the $4 to $6 billion being litical operations. However, overthrowing governments
spent for intelligence might well be termed the largest secret wars, assassination, and fixing elections are cer
"unreviewed" part of the defense budget. thinly not done "for the benefit of the existing intelligcnc
% Twenty-five years after the passage of the National Se-" agencies" nor are they dutics. "related to intelligence.
curity Act of 1947, it seems a good time to consider the Someday a court may rule that ,political activities are n
problems posed by these developments, authorized..
of least concern in terms of its budget but of over-riding In any case, at the urging of Alien Dulles, the Nation,
significance in its international political impact, is the Di- Security Council issued a necrct.dircctive (NSC 10/2) i
rectorate of Plans of CIA, within which clandestine polio- 1948, authorizing such special operations of all kind:;
cal operations are mounted. This is the issue discussed in provided they wire secret and small enough to be pausie
this ncwslettcr.'Morc and more, informed observers qucs- -deniable by the Government,
lion whether clandestine political operations ought to be Even this. authority has been exceeded since several in
continued on a "business. as usual" basis. In the absence rossibie-to-deny operations have been undertaken: iii
of an investigation, a 'secret bureaucracy-which started U-2 flight, the flay of Pigs invasion, the Iranian Coup, th
aotian War, and so on.
in the Office of Strategic Services during a hot war and Laotian'
which grew in the CIA during a cold war-may simply The National Security Act gave the CIA no "poll
continue to practice a questionable trade. . . subpoena, law enforcement powers, or internal sccurrt
Clandestine "dirty tricks" have their costs not only' functions , .." But another secret Executive liranch doct
abroad but at home, where they are encouraged only too nent evidently did give the CIA. authority to enga;c i
cosily, . And is not interference. in the affairs of other domestic operations related to its job. It was under t;i
nations wrong? authority that such organizations as foundations. educ"-
Two decades ago, as the cold war gained momentum, tional organizations, and private voluntary groups were
involved with the CIA at the time of the National Student J
one of America's greatest political scientists, Harold D.. Association revelations (1966).
1.asswcll. wrote a comprehensive and prophetic book, The, "white" part of CIA is, in a sense, a cover for the
"National Security and Individual Freedom." He warned "black" side. CIA supporters and officiais invariably cm-
of .the "insidious menace" that a continuing' crisis might phlsize the intelligence, rather than the manipuia; ~n
"undermine and eventually destroy free institutions." We function of CIA, ignoring the latter or using phrase., t, at
would see, he predicted: pressure for defense expendi- gloss over it quietly. The public can easily accept the uc-
Lures, expansion and centralization of Government, with- suability of knowing as much as-possible. But its instincts
holding of information, gencrat=suspicion, an undermining oppose doing abroad what it would not tolerate at home.
of press and public opinion, ; a weakening, of political And it rightly fears that injustices committed abroad may
parties, n decline of the Congress, and. of the, courts. ' begin to he tolerated at home: how many elections can
":Today, with the Cold War waning, it seems in order to. be fined abroad before we b_gin to try it here? The last
reexamine our institutions, goals and standards. Which election showed such a degeneration of traditional Ameri-
responses to the emergency of yesterday can we justify can standards,
J today? ^ The. present Director of Central. Intelligence, Richard
?~f The National Security Act of 1947 created the Central Helms, is working hard and effectively at prescntinT an
Intelligence Agency and gave it overall responsibility for image of CIA that will not offend. In a recc )t speech. he
coordinating the intelligence activities of the several relc laid:
vent government departments and agencies interested in' "The' same objectivity which makes us useful to OLn
such matters. Today, a quarter century later, CIA is re government and our' country leaves us uncomfortabl,,
Ported to have a budget of about $700-million to $I- aware of our ambiguous place in it..... We propose tc
3 illion and a staff of perhaps 18,000 people, or about adapt intelligence to American society, not vice versa."
P,000 more than the Department. of State! (This ad-' Even construed narrowly,-this is no easy job, and adapt-
vantage in size gives CIA an edge in interdepartmental inc, clandestine political operations to American ideals may
peelings for which, for example, others may he too rushed well be quite impossible.
fo fully prepare or not be able to assign a suitable person.) At the time of the Bay of Pigs, President Kennedy gave
The National Security Act authorized CIA to;' ;.serious consideration to breaking CIA into two pieces:
"perform fop i r O 1 ~ l c ~ i r F r r t r r 4 x I I Q i l 4 ~ , -tst ll t R i w o u l d nO conduct Operation- and tO3 Other wokilu
~,i,tc
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