Teeth for the watchdog

Let’s start with an anecdote. Back in Jimmy Carter’s administration, the Central Intelligence Agency was all set to try out one of its bright ideas. The CIA had decided to infiltrate a nice, harmless Washington organization called the Hospitality Committee. Its members, mostly wives of officials like senators and Supreme Court justices, put on parties to entertain visiting foreign diplomats.

What the CIA saw was an opportunity to meet the foreign diplomats, especially foreign military officials, and persuade them to become espionage agents for the United States.

This minor plot came to nothing because it was detected by a little-known executive-branch unit called the Intelligence Oversight Board. President Gerald Ford had created the board, and Carter had put some teeth in it, over the objections of his national security advisor, Zbigniew Brzezinski. Under Carter, the board reported directly to the president, not to his national security advisor, who often is in cahoots with the spooks and their tricks. And the old board could look into operations of all the intelligence agencies – the CIA, the FBI, the National Security Agency and the various armed service intelligence units – on its own initiative.

Infiltration of the Hospitality Committee was small potatoes compared with other CIA covert activities, which have gone all the way to “wet jobs” – plots to assassinate certain foreign leaders.

But this little plot could easily have leaked out, and the result would have been a big international scandal. The powerful board stopped it cold. One of its stalwart members was former Sen. Albert Gore, father of the current vice president.

Now, the Intelligence Oversight Board still exists, but it is toothless. Ronald Reagan abolished it. Bill Clinton restored it, but only partly. The board no longer reports directly to the president. And it looks into a matter only upon invitation. A former official familiar with the board’s work says it now amounts to no more than a Good Housekeeping Seal of Approval for the CIA’s activities. Vice President Al Gore was not much help when the question arose as to whether to put teeth back into the watchdog.

Intelligence agencies thrive in a culture of secrecy and deception. Sometimes they have deceived presidents. Thomas Powers gives details in an article in the Dec. 3 New York Times Magazine. Any president needs help in riding herd on these secretive agencies. A strengthened Intelligence Oversight Board would provide that help to a new president. Let’s hope he knows he needs the help.