Professors question U.S. intelligence system lack of transparency

The recently launched Seriatim, a journal of American politics at the University, hosted its inaugural speaker event Tuesday evening to discuss American security and the boundaries of privacy in America.

History Prof. Philip Zelikow, the associate dean for the Graduate School of Arts & Sciences, began by describing the sheer size of the national security apparatus, which is often described as including the Central Intelligence Agency, the National Security Council, the National Reconnaissance Office and the National Security Agency.

“Think about one of the larger public enterprises of the government, bigger than [the Department of Homeland Security] but not as big as the Department of Defense or Department of Health and Human Services,” he said. “It spends a total of $70 billion a year and employs somewhere 150,000–200,000 people more or less directly.”...