Green Party Platform:
Intelligence Agencies
The intelligence community's sole function should be to provide accurate and up-to-date information so that the government can make informed foreign policy decisions.
Currently, the intelligence agencies, particularly the CIA, often go beyond providing information and actively interfere in other nations' internal affairs. The CIA was created as part of the Cold War between the two superpowers. This conflict no longer exists, which brings into question the necessity for the CIA's continued existence.
As instruments of the executive branch, the various intelligence agencies sometimes undertake covert military actions in blatant disregard of the constitutional provision that only the House of Representatives may declare war. These covert actions often serve no purpose other than to subvert and destabilize legitimate governments that disagree with U.S. policies. In direct violation of its charter, the CIA manipulates domestic policies through misinformation and intimidation.
The Green Party advocates strict control of intelligence agencies:
- Immediately cease the practice of using intelligence agencies for industrial espionage.
- Immediately abolished the CIA and all other such agencies. Instead, Congress should create a single intelligence organization and place it under the oversight of a citizen review board.
- Coordinate all foreign intelligence with the new agency mentioned above. Limit its activities to reporting its findings and making recommendations. It must not be able to undertake actions based on this information.
- Rely more on international intelligence agencies to provide accurate and unbiased information as the basis for negotiations, conflict resolution and treaty verification.