In Foreign Policy Magazine today, associate editor and author Joshua Keating asks, “Since when does the CIA need a country’s permission to spy on it?” Pakistan has recently demanded that the CIA withdraw its agents from their territory and that the United States cease drone attacks within its borders, exemplifying new tensions between the nations.
“Since when does the CIA need a country’s permission to conduct intelligence operations?” Keating said. “Isn’t the whole point that the local government isn’t supposed to know they’re there?” The answer to that question has more historical significance than the author probably realizes.
Certainly nations working with the CIA to track non-state actors or terrorist within their borders can reap benefits for both sides, but what about unsolicited spying by the CIA? Despite popular belief, the CIA’s charter seriously limits the agency’s authority to conduct clandestine operations. While it isn’t explicit, it is clear that Congress had no intention of allowing the CIA to conduct its own covert operations, that those operations would be rare and would be limited to the military.
According to the charter, the CIA may “perform such other functions and duties related to intelligence affecting the National Security as the NSC may from time to time direct.” This is the only point at which the charter comes close to granting the CIA authority outside of traditional intelligence gathering. This does not allow them to conduct covert operations, but that is how CIA directors have chosen to interpret the law ever since Allen Dulles, who headed the CIA from 1953 to 1961.
Understand that until that time, covert operations in foreign lands were considered acts of war. It wasn’t until after World War II and the creation of the CIA that clandestine operations such as these became much more commonplace. But even as the Cold War escalated through the 1950s and 1960s, clandestine operations were frowned upon. The United States regularly criticized the Soviet Union for manipulating the local politics of other nations, that is at least until The Bay of Pigs invasion disaster destroyed all credibility in that realm.
Regardless, the concept that the CIA can spy on another nation they are not currently at war with without their permission is a relatively new concept. It was long considered a dangerous precedent.
Colonel L. Fletcher Prouty, who served under the Joint Chiefs of Staff and worked with the CIA from 1955 to 1964 documents this period of time quite thoroughly in his book, The Secret Team. Prouty states:
“In the world family of nations, sovereignty is one of the key conditions of existence, and sovereignty is inviolate. Even if we talk about some small country such as Monaco or Luxembourg, the code of nations regards their sovereignty to be as precious as that of the United States or the USSR. The day this code breaks down will be the beginning of the end of world order and of a return to the rule of brute force. Liberty begins as the aspiration of the individual, and sovereignty is the measure of the absolute power of a state. As we look around us today, we see an erosion of this fundament of international society.”
Indeed, Prouty recognized how pernicious the extent of American power had become under the CIA, which at the time, was still fairly novel. Now, we expect, perhaps even demand that the CIA discard the sovereignty of other nations regardless of the circumstances. But in response to Mr. Keeting’s question, “since when do we need permission?” The answer is simple. We haven’t needed permission since we became an empire.
