How Democracies Oversee Intelligence

Secret agencies spending public money need babysitters, and democracies built them slowly, usually after scandal. The American Church Committee of 1975 exposed assassination plotting and domestic spying, producing permanent intelligence committees in Congress and the FISA court for certain wiretaps.

Britain put its services on statutory footing in 1989 and 1994, with a parliamentary committee for review. The Netherlands fields an independent oversight board often praised as a model, and Germany anchors supervision in its postwar institutions.

The recurring pattern is sobering: oversight tends to arrive after exposure rather than before, and its strength depends on budgets, access to programs, and whether members are insiders or challengers..