Journalists and the CIA

[DMVerton at aol.com]

Leszek,

The idea of having no checks and balances in place (or the only check and
balance being the government itself) scares me, particularly with respect
to the intelligence bureaucracies in question. Media coverage, at least in
the U.S., plays a critical role in democracy (for better or for worse). You
are right, however, when you say that journalists hold little or no status
within the ranks of government agencies, particularly intelligence
agencies. However, there are young turks in every bureaucracy who
understand the need for accountability and who are willing to forge those
relationships. I am a product of the U.S. Marine Corps, arguably the most
close-knit sub-group in American society. Yet when a senior commander
allegedly attempts to cover-up evidence of programmatic flaws in a major
aircraft program (that to date has cost more than a dozen lives) his
subordinates feel the need to surrepticiously make a record of his
directives to uncover wrongdoing.....because it is the right thing to do.
Moral courage,
they call it in the Marine Corps.

Without a free and open press, who would do that for the rest of us when
our intelligence agencies become drunk with power because nobody is
watching?

Dan Verton


<leszek at kobiernicki.freeserve.co.uk> writes:

<< Why would professionals in govt. service trust outsiders ?  The whole idea
is unreal.  The only conceivable use we might have for the comms. media,
would be to channel directives out in a broadcast and blanket coverage
outside our own ranks.  Which is precisely their function - and has been
followed at least since WW1 was being planned in the period 1898-1914.
Journalists have no status whatsoever with us - unless they are in reality,
one of us, using that particular cover under which to operate and conduct
investigations.

Leszek Kobiernicki




Intelligence Forum (http://www.intelforum.org) is sponsored by Intelligence
and National Security, a Frank Cass journal (http://www.frankcass.com/jnls/ins.htm)