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Comment by karpodiem | Hacker News Reader

"their role in domestic affairs is severely restricted"

You're delusional if you still believe this.

It's not delusional to accurately state the law. But there does need to be strong oversight of these organizations to make sure they actually follow the law.

Edit: and yes, there is plenty of evidence that especially during the Vietnam war the CIA was actually breaking the law.

there is no oversight because it relies on the character of humans, who are weak and prone to folly.

There is no paper trail for this abuse. This is a system that should not exist.

I'm willing to acknowledge that you may have access to information that proves your point.

But I know for a fact that the CIA does have a committee of elected officials that oversee it. Whether that is effective oversight is debatable, but the fact is that it exists, and they must legally disclose their actions. This means there are legal means by which they can be held to account in the cases where they do not.

"But I know for a fact that the CIA does have a committee of elected officials that oversee it."

And they let their own inflated egos delude themselves in believing that the overall threat posed by the Russians/Chinese (which in comparison to the US, are much weaker) is greater than that of a government that surveys/records/interferes with the lives of its own citizens.

I think that is a separate issue entirely though. As defined, the role of the CIA domestically is pretty much nil. Personally I believe that if they stretch that role, it should be something that is dealt with separately from a document release. And is probably something better fitted for a different discussion.

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