With the demise of the Soviet threat, he points out, spy agencies have simply acquired new enemies, such as drug traffickers or terrorists, to justify their continued expansion. Secrecy has become a form of regulation, a means of controlling access to information and power. In a culture of secrecy, what isn't secret is immediately suspect as either untrue or unimportant. Yet intelligence analysts working without public scrutiny have often missed the mark, for example, by wildly exaggerating Soviet economic prowess. 5 Moynihan's work is accompanied by a long and sometimes tendentious introduction by Richard Gid Powers, author of several books on the Federal Bureau of Investigation.
Powers warns that official secrecy has fostered widespread paranoia and conspiracy mongering.
If their interpretations went astray at times, the blame surely falls less on United States secrecy than on lack of access to Joseph Stalin's records. 6 Political scientist Loch K. Johnson echoes similar concerns in his book Secret Agencies, now available in paperback. The book is informed by Johnson's wide reading and numerous interviews with intelligence officials. 7 Johnson believes that secret agencies such as the CIA are essential instruments of national security but require close oversight to prevent subversion of the democratic values they aim to uphold. He blames past failures of congressional oversight as much on congressional laxity as on the CIA's evasiveness.