Getting Smart

AFTER spending three months loudly berating the intelligence community about 9/11, Congress has quietly decided to postpone any reforms until September. The most pressing and least settled issues on the national-security agenda will therefore be debated—and perhaps decided—on the eve of midterm elections. In that politically charged climate, the temptation for lawmakers to grandstand on intelligence will be great—probably greater than at any time since the 1970s, when Democratic senator Frank Church of Idaho, looking toward a presidential bid, excoriated and eviscerated the CIA.

This time, however, the political dynamic may redound to the public good. The knock against our spies now is not that they’re “rogue elephants,” but rather that they’re desk mice. Given this new atmosphere, it’s expected that some of the worst of the Church restraints—constitutionally needless limits on surveillance and covert action—will be loosened.

MR

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Mark Riebling

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AFTER spending three months loudly berating the intelligence community about 9/11, Congress has quietly decided to postpone any reforms until September. The most pressing and least settled issues on the national-security agenda will therefore be debated—and perhaps decided—on the eve of midterm elections. In that politically charged climate, the temptation for lawmakers to grandstand on intelligence will be great—probably greater than at any time since the 1970s, when Democratic senator Frank Church of Idaho, looking toward a presidential bid, excoriated and eviscerated the CIA.

This time, however, the political dynamic may redound to the public good. The knock against our spies now is not that they’re “rogue elephants,” but rather that they’re desk mice. Given this new atmosphere, it’s expected that some of the worst of the Church restraints—constitutionally needless limits on surveillance and covert action—will be loosened.