Secrecy, Foreign Intelligence, and Civil Liberties

Several measures promulgated, implemented, and proposed during the Reagan administration in the foreign intelligence area have together constituted a distinct change in tone and direction with respect to what the federal government may do domestically in the name of national security. The perennial issue of the appropriate balance between civil liberties and the demands of national security has lost none of its poignancy; nor is it any easier today than it was in the past to determine how, where, and when to draw the line between these two sets of interests. However, the balance shifted between 1981 and 1984. Here we assess this shift. But first, a brief overview of some past developments pertaining to the relationship between foreign intelligence and civil liberties is in order. A catalogue of illegal and improper intelligence community activities was revealed in the mid-1970s by the Rockefeller Commission and the Church Committee.1 Much attention was focused on the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) which, under the National Security Act of 1947, was forbidden to have any

Civil liberties · Foreign policy · Political science · Politics · Secrecy · Intelligence, Security, War Strategy · International Law and Human Rights · Law

• Legislative Oversight of Intelligence Agencies in Democratic Countries

  Open Access•Youseop Shin•Pacific Focus•2012

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