Former New York Times reporter Tim Weiner talks to Tavis Smiley about the CIA.
“Tim Weiner: Doesn’t get a lot worse than this, Tavis. This is the most serious constitutional confrontation between Congress and the CIA since the end of the Cold War. It is a moral problem, it is a political problem, and it goes to the heart of our functioning as an American democracy. Can we, the United States, run a secret intelligence service under the rule of law? That’s what this boils down to.”
I have no problem with intelligence analysts who gather data about the world and try to understand what is happening. It’s the operations/dirty tricks people who need to go.
“Can we, the United States, run a secret intelligence service under the rule of law? That’s what this boils down to.”
The answer to the question is yes, but not if we, the United States, grant that service dangerous power the exercise of which cannot be reviewed effectively from without and a black budget.
The answer has been the same every time the question has arisen.