Periscope. Editors. "Judge Webster on Oversight." 15,
no. 1 (Winter 1990): 5, 10.
Remarks by DCI Webster, 8 Feb. 1990.
Pincus,
Walter. "Taking Intelligence into the 21st Century." Washington
Post National Weekly Edition, 27 Feb.-5 Mar. 1995, 32.
HPSCI chairman Larry Combest "is determined that his committee play a major role in reshaping U.S. intelligence for the 21st century."
Reisman,
W. Michael, and James E. Baker. Regulating Covert Action: Practices, Contexts, and Policies of Covert Coercion Abroad in International and American Law. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1992.
Choice, Jul./Aug. 1992, says this is a "comprehensive and authoritative study of the international and domestic US legal aspects of covert operations.... [It is] thoroughly documented and well written." Peake, FILS 2.4, finds that the book suffers from "semantic and definitional confusion ... [but is] well-written [and] well-documented."
According to APSR 87.1, the book "focuses most of its attention ... on international law.... [The authors] find a international legal regime on intervention (particularly covert intervention) that is asymmetrically more permissive of U.S. action than most traditionalists could accept.... [This is a] tightly reasoned (though terse) book..., [with] copious endnotes, and annotated bibliography.... [I]mportant substantive matters have inevitably been skimmed, others omitted, while the treatment of the cases ... is brief in the extreme."
Turner, NSLR, May 1995, believes the book "provides an excellent overview of legal issues associated with the coercive use of military, economic, diplomatic, and ideological tools. It is particularly valuable in discussing the low- intensity use of military force.... The book also includes a discussion of a number of controversial covert operations," including Iran in 1953, the abduction of Eichmann in 1960, the Bay of Pigs, U.S. intervention in Chile, and the Rainbow Warrior episode in 1985. "If the book has a major flaw, it is that the narrow title may deprive it of the broad readership it warrants. It is highly recommended."
Simmons,
Robert Ruhl. "Intelligence Policy and Performance in Reagan's First
Term: A Good Record or Bad?" International Journal of Intelligence
and Counterintelligence 4, no. 1 (Spring 1990): 1-22.
"In the final analysis, an exceptionally good record was marred by several extraordinarily bad decisions," specifically, the Nicaraguan harbor mining incident and the resulting rupture with Congress.
Lowenthal sees this article as "most useful for insights into clashes between Congress and DCI Casey than about the extent and limits of oversight."
Smist,
Frank J., Jr. Congress Oversees the United States Intelligence Community,
1947-1989. Knoxville: University of Tennessee Press, 1991. Congress
Oversees the United States Intelligence Community, 1947-1994. 2d ed.
1994.
Valcourt, IJI&C 5.2, calls this the "finest outsider's overview to date of the early years of oversight by both the Senate and House." It is "mandatory reading for those who want to put the pre- and post-Church periods into perspective ... [and] can be considered the standard reference work on the first period of oversight."
Cline, PSQ 106.2, refers to Smist's "nitty-gritty research" which has produced "an extremely useful book" and an "important contribution to history." Cline's "only reservation" concerns the author's "enthusiasm for the benign role of Congress as an investigative agent prying out intelligence mistakes and scandals."
Writing with regard to the second edition, Cohen, FA 74.2, notes that the "dates in the title are misleading": the book "covers primarily 1975 to 1993." In addition, Smist's work "is heavy on names and dates but rather thin on analysis. Nonetheless, it is a useful monograph."
O'Reilly, JAH 78.3, seems less than pleased that Smist focused on the process of oversight rather than what the intelligence community was doing.
Hilsman, APSR 86.2, accepts that the work is a "careful, scholarly history," but finds Smist's recommendations "unexceptionable." Also lacking is a discussion of the "politics" involved in the process.
Snider,
L. Britt. Sharing Secrets with Lawmakers: Congress as a User of Intelligence. Washington, DC: Central Intelligence Agency, Center for the Study of Intelligence, 1997.
The trend toward large-scale sharing of intelligence with Congress began in the mid-1970s, accelerated with the establishment of the oversight committees in both Houses, and has grown steadily since 1992.
For a condensed version of this insightful mongraph from President Clinton's nominee for CIA Inspector General, see L. Britt Snider, "Sharing Secrets with Lawmakers: Congress as a User of Intelligence," Studies in Intelligence, Spring 1998, 47-69.
See also, James McCullough, "Commentary on 'Congress as a User of Intelligence,'" Studies in Intelligence (Spring 1998): 71-84. This is the text of remarks made at a 20 March 1997 conference at Georgetown University, where discussions centered around Snider's monograph.
Spaulding,
Suzanne. "A View from the Senate." National Security Law Report
19, no. 3 (Jun. 1997): 1, 9-14.
The former General Counsel to the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence (until July 1997) discusses recent legislative activities concerning intelligence matters. Included are comments on issues related to the handling of classified information and the export of encryption technology.
Sturtevant,
Mary. "Congressional Oversight of Intelligence: One Perspective."
American Intelligence Journal 13, no. 3 (Summer 1992): 17-20.
Treverton,
Gregory F. "Intelligence: Welcome to the American Government."
In A Question of Balance: The President, the Congress and Foreign Policy,
ed. Thomas E. Mann, 70-108. Washington, DC: Brookings Institution, 1990.
Van Wagenen, James S. "Critics and Defenders: A Review of Congressional Oversight." Studies in Intelligence (1997): 97-102.
This review begins with the Continental Congress and continues through the Aspin/Brown Report of 1996.
U.S. Congress. Senate. Select Committee on Intelligence. Legislative Oversight of Intelligence Activities: The U.S. Experience. Washington, DC: GPO, 1994.
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