Re: How true (#35255)
by Chris Matthew Sciabarra on May 21, 2004 at 7:35 AM

Jason, as a libertarian, I too have the same concerns you have about the intelligence community. All the more reason to keep important safeguards on the ways in which that community operates vis-a-vis law-abiding American citizens. I think that most libertarians have been less-than-enthusiastic toward organizations like the CIA, only because they have been less-than-enthusiastic toward the overall foreign policy of the US, which has engendered the kind of clandestine work that the CIA has done.

There has to be some distinction between gathering information for the purposes of defending the rights of American citizens, and using those same intelligence organizations to topple foreign governments or to prop-up "friendly" US autocrats in foreign lands. I suspect that if the long-run role of the US were diminished in these foreign lands, there would be less of a need for spy agencies. But, as you say, in the current context, the alternatives are far worse.