NCJ Number
122064
Journal
Harvard Journal of Law and Public Policy Volume: 12 Issue: 2 Dated: (Spring 1989) Pages: 509-522
Date Published
1989
Length
14 pages
Annotation
Even though United States secret intelligence operations do not fit within the traditional foreign policy activities of diplomacy or military force, they are subject to moral and ethical norms. This article proposes an appropriate moral structure for intelligence operations carried out in a democratic and free society.
Abstract
The article focuses on the ethical dimensions of intelligence operations and the moral considerations faced by individual intelligence officers. Intelligence services are defined as collecting and analyzing data about threats to a nation's security and interest and using clandestine resources to carry out a nation's foreign policy. The seven necessary conditions for a just war are discussed and applied to such intelligence operations as espionage and covert interference. Governmental restraints to prevent abuses in secret intelligence operations are also discussed, including written presidential findings to justify covert actions. Three categories of covert operations are discussed: necessary and moral; necessary but immoral; and unnecessary and immoral. The moral considerations facing the individual intelligence officer are also discussed in detail. Secret intelligence operations in a free and democratic society must be carried out in an ethical and moral manner and are necessary in a depraved and evil world. 41 footnotes.