The Central Intelligence Agency: Present Authority and Proposed Legislative Change
Publisher
Virginia Law Review
Date
1976-3
The organization and activities of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) have been the subject of official silence for most of that agency's existence. Recently, however, due to its tangential involvement in the events leading to the resignation of President Nixon, the CIA has attracted enormous public and congressional attention. Allegations of "massive" intelligence operations directed at American citizens led quickly to the appointment of a presidential commission chaired by Vice President Rockefeller to investigate the charges. Independently of this executive action, both houses of Congress formed committees to study the agency. The Rockefeller Commission issued a report in June 1975 that chronicled overreaching by the CIA within the United States, including incidents of mail intercepts, infiltration of radical organizations, and surveillance of those suspected of endangering the agency's security. The congressional investigations have concentrated primarily on the legitimacy of CIA activities abroad, exploring various assassination plots carried out by the CIA and the agency's efforts to overthrow the Chilean government of Salvador Allende-Gossens. The investigations have in turn revealed accounts of other secret CIA operations overseas.
Citation
Paul B. Stephan, The Central Intelligence Agency: Present Authority and Proposed Legislative Change, 62 Virginia Law Review, 332–383 (1976).