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Intelligence Operations & Reform: Selected Challenges & Impact Over 50 Years
Presented by Council on Intelligence Issues & Central Intelligence Retirees’ Association
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Speaker Bios
The Council on Intelligence Issues (CII) and the Central Intelligence Retirees’ Association (CIRA) presented a panel discussion about how intelligence operations have adapted to selected challenges posed by various reform measures and evolving global threats over the past 50 years. All former senior CIA officers, our panelists will draw from their decades of intelligence service to share first-hand experiences and insights.
- David Marlowe, Deputy Director for Operations; Operations officer and Station Chief (Middle East); Assistant Director for the Near East; Member/Advisor (multiple boards and foundations); Amentum Vice President, Client Executive.
- William D. Murray, Station Chief and Operations Officer (Europe, Middle East, Balkans, South Asia); Senior Manager; Founder, Alphom Group LLC; Co-Founder, Board Member, and Vice President, CII.
- Karen M. Schaefer, Operations officer (Latin America, Europe, Afghanistan, and Iraq Base Chief; Chief of Operations, DS&T; Deputy Associate Director of Military Affairs; Director, Intelligence Programs, NSC; and FBI; Member/Advisor, multiple boards and foundations.
- Moderator: Dana Dyson, Deputy General Counsel/Operations; Counsel to the Deputy Director for Operations; Navy Judge Advocate; Founder and principal, NatSec Strategic Advisory Services, LLC.; Advisor, CII.
Discussions address the conduct of intelligence operations beginning in the immediate aftermath of the so-called “Family Jewels” disclosures, Rockefeller Commission report, and the congressional Church and Pike committee investigations and the reforms that followed. Panelists will draw from selected events and reforms over the next 5 decades to discuss their challenges, relevance, and impact on the conduct of intelligence operations, such as:
- More rigorous oversight and new legal and policy restrictions on intelligence activities involving U.S. persons, activities in the U.S., and on covert action operations.
- The increased tempo during the Reagan and Casey years and the impact of the Iran-Contra investigations on operations.
- “Year of the Spy” and counterintelligence implications; fall of the Berlin Wall and end of the Cold War and the traditional Soviet threat.
- Operations post-Cold War up to and including Iraq wars and 9/11 operations as intelligence, law enforcement, and military agencies increasingly overlapped on WMD, terrorism, and narcotics and led to increased information sharing and collaboration.
- Challenges arising from post-9/11 intelligence reforms and reorganization; and from evolving hard target, cyber, and other national security threats.
This event is the third in the CII’s Intelligence Challenges Series addressing challenges posed by selected oversight and other reform measures over the past 50 years.
Intelligence Oversight: Evolution and Impact Over 50 Years
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More than 50 years ago, the CIA and other U.S. intelligence agencies faced significant challenges in adapting to change following the public disclosures of the so-called “Family Jewels” and the resulting Executive and Legislative branch investigations calling for reform.
Please join Holland & Knight and the Council on Intelligence Issues for our panel that will address significant changes in intelligence oversight over the past 50 years and their impact. Panelists will draw from their first-hand experiences and highlight selected events and challenges to discuss the implementation of congressional oversight and how politics, the differences between House and Senate, and the various parties such as inspectors general (IGs), general counsels and whistleblowers have shaped oversight in the last 50 years.
Topics included:
- How were steps to institutionalize congressional oversight implemented?
- How were the House and Senate approaches similar or different?
- To what extent have partisan politics affected oversight?
- How have reforms governing IGs, general counsels or whistleblowers affected oversight?
- How effective has increased oversight been in terms of keeping abreast of intelligence activities?
- How did oversight changes improve or otherwise affect intelligence capabilities when enacted?
- What measures have survived the test of time?
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LEGAL SERVICES CHALLENGES FOR INTELLIGENCE OFFICERS
AND THE LEGAL COMMUNITY
A Panel Discussion
Throughout the history of the U.S. Intelligence Community, its officers and other members have served our nation against a variety of foreign threat actors while incurring significant personal risk, including legal exposure stemming from their operational and other work-related activities.
To foster a greater understanding of the nature and practical impact of the varied legal challenges for intelligence officers during a period of increasing global conflict, the Council on Intelligence Issues and the law firm Holland & Knight LLC will present this panel discussion to explore some of the challenges and options for current and former intelligence officers who many need government or private sector legal assistance in connection with their employment.
Panelists will address situations that can cause intelligence officers to wonder if they need legal help, how government lawyers may represent them, what to do if they need private legal counsel, and what private counsel ought to know when asked to help.
Panelists: Jason Klitenic (Moderator) * Hon. Ken Wainstein * Deborah Curtis * John Bennett
CII welcomes comments and suggestions. If you have ideas about future topics or speakers, or
if you want to volunteer your services as a speaker or otherwise at a CII event, please Contact Us.
We also welcome your assistance to enable CII continue to offer presentations on important intelligence topics of public interest and to support our efforts to help intelligence officers who need legal assistance in connection with their good faith service to the Nation. Please consider making your tax-deductible contribution to CII now.