The CIA, FBI, etc. have never been held accountable for their countless crimes. There is every reason to believe they are committing more every day. I honestly have no clue how the American people have an ounce of trust in them.
What does my lack of trust do to the cia or fbi? They both still track my every move. The govt makes laws I despise.
We have no control.
[1] - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Northwoods
[2] - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FBI%E2%80%93King_suicide_lette...
When agencies learn how to make their own money, there is even less accountability because they don’t have to beg Congress.
Things would be different if this funding and mandate enforcement process was also delegated to an agency, or maybe better: a court.
As somebody who has lived in the soviet bloc I get goosebumps every time I hear something like this. "Corruption is everywhere", yeah, sure. But how much? This like saying the pacific ocean has water, the sahara desert has water, so there's no difference.
www.lobbyfacts.eu
A lot.
Such level of dysfunction is simply incomprehensible to an average western citizen. The latest documentary series TraumaZone by Adam Curtis gives perhaps the best impression that is possible without personally experiencing it: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EDA3hIsf7LA&list=PLSjQL8MYni...
The current Russian military fiasco is also a symptom of the same deep dysfunction. Before the invasion began, military units positioned near Ukraine sold their fuel to local population and then ran out of what they had left on the way to Kyiv. Many units were understaffed because they had "dead souls": commanders listed non-existing soldiers and embezzled their pay, thus no-one knows how many actually attacked Ukraine. Latest military radios turned out to be cheap Aliexpress junk that relied on civilian 3G/4G cellular network. Many missiles failed before reaching target because they were unmaintained: a small amount was kept in order for military drills, money for maintaining the rest was embezzled. Body armor is filled with cardboard, helmets can be cracked with bare hands.
Imagine this in every facet of your life. Everything is shit, but if you go around saying it, then you'll eventually get locked up in a psychiatric hospital, because "it's been scientifically proven that Soviet communism is the best system in the world and anyone who doubts it must be mentally ill".
Dealing with it, would mean there would be consequences. Are there? I rather see they get more and more power. Not exactly how I would reward wrongdoing. (not US citizen, but here in the EU it is pretty much the same)
Of course you can. Not the concrete, secret cases, but the mechanisms of oversight, checks and balance, etc.
Make it clear, what is allowed and what is not allowed. And who controls it, so the rules are followed. The freedom of information act for example is a very important thing in this regard. Here in germany we don't have the exact same thing, but something similar. And also a trusted comitee from the parliament, that checks indeed secret cases. And there were special comitees formed to investigate many wrongdoing, related to nazi and islamic terrorism, where the services fucked up big time. But they were fighting uphill battles ("oh they accidently lost important documents again") and achieved little.