SpooksSpies and the White House Have a History of Running Wild Without Congressional Oversight
For decades now, the evolving role of congressional oversight of U.S. intelligence has involved major clashes and scandals, from the Iran-Contra affair of the 1980s to the intelligence abuses that led to the 2003 war in Iraq. Central to all of these clashes are attempts by intelligence agencies, the president and the executive branch to withhold damning information from Congress. Another common element is the use of civilians to carry out presidential or intelligence agency agendas.
At the heart of the current crisis over President Donald Trump’s dealings with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy is an intelligence whistleblower whose information has finally made it into public view.
The whistleblower’s complaint about Trump’s interaction with Zelenskiy was initially withheld from the House Intelligence Committee, something which the committee chairman protested was a violation of the law.
The complaint was ultimately turned over after House Speaker Nancy Pelosi announced an impeachment inquiry of the president and almost two weeks after the committee subpoenaed it, and after the Senate had passed a unanimous resolution to provide the complaint to Congress.
For decades now, the evolving role of congressional oversight of U.S. intelligence has involved major clashes and scandals, from the Iran-Contra affair of the 1980s to the intelligence abuses that led to the 2003 war in Iraq.
Central to all of these clashes are attempts by intelligence agencies, the president and the executive branch to withhold damning information from Congress. Another common element is the use of civilians to carry out presidential or intelligence agency agendas.
Coups and Assassinations
“Intelligence” is the government’s term for collection of information of military or diplomatic value. After World War II, large, new agencies – the CIA and the National Security Agency – were established to conduct information gathering and secret operations.
From the aftermath of World War II to the 1970s, there was virtually no congressional oversight of this intelligence apparatus. And there was only intermittent presidential direction. During the Cold War, intelligence was considered too sensitive for Congress to know.
Some of the agencies’ intelligence work, called “covert activities,” was not mere information-gathering. And some of the activities undertaken by these agencies had a profound impact around the world – without U.S. democratic institutions playing a role.
For example, in 1953 the CIA overthrew the democratically elected leader of Iran, Mohammad Mossadegh, and installed in his place the shah, an autocrat who proved happy to do what the U.S. wanted.
The public and Congress had little or no awareness that the CIA engineered this.
In the 1970s, between information uncovered in the Watergate hearings and some key investigative journalism, the lid blew off the intelligence agency’s secrecy about the CIA’s many covert interventions both in other countries’ affairs and in the U.S.
