Opinion

U.S. National Security & Incest

Briefly, the National Security Act of 1947 established a Department of Defense, unified the Armed Services, and created the National Security Council and the Central Intelligence Agency. In addition to its intelligence function, the CIA was empowered ‘. . .to perform such other functions and duties related to intelligence affecting the national security as the National Security Council may from time to time direct.’

And in 1948, since there was no specific provision for covert political operations in the statute, the NSC authorized special operations by its own regulations. The two critical features of the regulations were that the operations were to be secret, and they were to be plausibly deniable by the Government — thus authorizing official lying. These provisions are the foundation of the worldwide operations activities of the CIA along with the Central Intelligence Agency Act of 1949, which exempted the CIA from the usual financial accountability of government agencies.