December 3, 2025
The Intelligence Branch Answers to No One
By J.B. Shurk
Can self-government exist alongside centralized intelligence agencies? Espionage agencies seek secrets and keep secrets. To the extent that they inform the public what they know, they decide which secrets can be disclosed. Now this may be the only way for a clandestine service to operate, but it certainly does not equip the public to make fully-informed decisions. When choosing which policies or representatives to support, voters know nothing of substance within the classified world.
Western nations that call themselves “democracies” try to obfuscate this issue by pretending two things: (1) that intelligence agencies work, at all times, for the public good and (2) that a small body of elected officials effectively supervise the work of government spies. These are comforting delusions.
In regard to the first delusion, a citizen need merely ask, “How do spies determine the public good?” Do spy agencies conduct operations that the general public would likely reject? Do the worldviews of intelligence officers affect how they pursue strategic objectives? If the answers to those questions are “yes,” then espionage agencies pursue what they perceive to be in the public’s best interests and not necessarily what the public would choose for itself. As much as secretive agencies may believe that they are in a better position to make those judgments, they are still substituting their own judgments for the public’s.
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https://www.americanthinker.com/articles/2025/12/the_intelligence_branch_answers_to_no_one.html
