Dangerous Cooperation

The other day I caught a story on NPR about the “War on Terror.” Generally NPR stories do a pretty good job of laying out both sides of the issue. There are times their liberal bias spoils an otherwise neutral story, but it at least seems like they are trying to avoid being reflexively liberal. But this is beside the point. I merely meant to cite my source.

The segment involved a national security expert who was talking about the next big threat. He explained that the new trend in interdepartmental communication between the FBI, CIA, and the military is both helpful and dangerous. Helpful in its ability to coordinate our response to ‘typical terror,’ dangerous in the potential new forms of terror it could wreak on America.

Just like the system of ‘checks and balances’ between the three branches of our federal government, the CIA and FBI were purposely set apart to prevent the consolidation of too much power in one locus. “Power corrupts, absolute power corrupts absolutely.” Those that created the organizations knew that there would be temptations to abuse power. Keeping the agencies separate creates competition, competition fosters suspicion, and suspicion keeps everyone honest.

I wouldn’t argue the new cooperation is a terrible thing. But I am concerned about the long-term consequences of too much interdepartmental cooperation. I’m not much of a conspiracy theorist, but it is only a mater of time before a corrupt CIA agent meets a corrupt FBI agent and viola… nearly unlimited power. Each agent could play their agency off on the other. They could work together, covering each other’s tracks, diverting attention, wielding the combined power of their agencies.

One would hope that various levels of security clearance, internal structural safeguards, and other prophylactic measures would prevent cross-agency corruption. But humans are smart, shrewd, and calculating. It is only a mater of time before somebody abuses the new found culture of cooperation.

When it happens, I hope it only costs us money and not lives.