Saunders, Frances Stonor. "Modern Art Was CIA 'Weapon.'" The Independent (UK), 22 Oct. 1995. [http://www.independent.co.uk] Saunders, Frances Stonor. "Modern Art Was CIA 'Weapon.'" The Independent (UK), 22 Oct. 1995. [http://www.independent.co.uk]
"[T]he CIA fostered and promoted American Abstract Expressionist painting around the world for more than 20 years.... [I]n the propaganda war with the Soviet Union, this new artistic movement could be held up as proof of the creativity, the intellectual freedom, and the cultural power of the US. Russian art, strapped into the communist ideological straitjacket, could not compete."
Saunders, Frances Stonor. Who Paid the Piper? The CIA and the Cultural Cold War. London: Granta, 1999. The Cultural Cold War: The CIA and the World of Arts and Letters. New York: New Press, 2000.
Click for reviews.
Schorr, Daniel. "When Covert Is Overt." Christian Science Monitor, 10 Apr. 1998, 15.
Seymour: "Comments on the role of the United States Congress in covert intelligence operations by the CIA."
Silverberg, Marshall. "The Separation of Powers and Control of the CIA's Covert Operations." Texas Law Review 68, no. 3 (Feb. 1990): 575-623.
Stern, Gary. "Covert Action and the Bush Administration." First Principles 15, no. 1 (1990): 4-5. [Petersen]
Trento, Joseph J. The Renegade CIA: Inside the Covert Intelligence Operations of George Bush. New York: Putnam, 1992.
Surveillant 2.6: According to the publisher, this book concerns "off-the-books, extraconstitutional operations around the world."
Turner, Robert F. "Coercive Covert Action and the Law." Yale Journal of International Law 20, no. 2 (Summer 1995): 427-449.
Twentieth Century Fund. The Need to Know: The Report of the Twentieth Century Fund Task Force on Covert Action and American Democracy. With a background paper by Allan E. Goodman and Bruce D. Berkowitz. New York: The Twentieth Century Fund, 1992.
"Covert action is likely to remain an instrument of U.S. national security policy for the foreseeable future.... At the same time, it is no longer possible to justify the enthusiasm and prominence covert action once enjoyed.... [S]ince the United States may need to hide its fingerprints on at least some operations, we need to set down some clear criteria for assessing proposed covert actions and establish effective institutions for both implementing and monitoring such activities."
According to Grose, FA 71.4 (Jul.-Aug. 1992), this is the work of a 15-member task force chaired by Harvard's Richard E. Neustadt. It "recommends tight new restrictions, mainly that overt means to achieve the same purpose be thoroughly canvassed first, that private action groups come under the same accountability requirements as government agencies and, most important, that covert action be undertaken only in support of policies that have been fully and publicly articulated. Notable is the eloquent dissent of task force member Hodding Carter III, who calls the practice an 'addiction' of the Cold War: 'To continue covert action now is to admit that we have become what we have fought.'"
Allen, DIJ 1.2, comments that although "much of this book rehashes old arguments," it is a "valuable compilation of resource material." Substantially after publication of this report, Warren, Intelligencer 14.2 (Winter-Spring 2005), opines that "[t]he bias of the task force ... precluded a real discussion of the issues." Essentially, "the report is incomplete and tainted."
To Johnson, I&NS 9.2, the "end result ... [is] outstanding ... despite its silly title." The report's recommendations call for more vigorous legislative oversight and thorough periodic review of ongoing covert actions. Its "weakest position ... is its willingness to accept post facto reporting to Congress on covert action." The report gives "a masterful summary of the key issues.... [It is] well organized, lucidly written, thorough, and sensitive to the ethical dimensions of covert action." This is the "best overview of the subject yet published."
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