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It’s very unusual for a non-Intelligence Community (IC) officer to be given absolute declassification authority over the IC. This extraordinary delegation of authority, and the reaction it has provoked, show how far we have moved from historical norms. 1/5
Since the mid-1970s, the country has expected the Attorney General (AG), as the nation’s chief law enforcement officer, to help oversee and enforce a system of intelligence under law, appropriately respectful of privacy and rigorously apolitical. 2/5
Now, because of the President’s relentless efforts to politicize law enforcement, and some of AG Barr’s recent actions, as well as the President’s ongoing attempts to bring the IC under his thumb, many observers have the opposite fear: 3/5
They fear that the AG, not the IC, is the real threat to apolitical intelligence under law. They fear that Barr will, for example, follow Rep. Devin Nunes and become a politicized, dishonest IC overseer who attempts to mislead by selective declassification or worse. 4/5
Whether or not that fear is valid, it is deeply concerning because it threatens a foundation of apolitical intelligence oversight that has protected us for more than 40 years. 5/5
