Cardinal Richelieu Quotes
Secrecy is the first essential in affairs of state.
Armand Jean du Plessis, 1585-1642, [Cardinal Richelieu], French Ecclesiastic & Statesman, Testament Politique, 1641
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The “wrong” people to Helms. Were Americans who disagreed with his methods and politics—especially members of Congress who wanted to make the CIA more accountable for its actions. If nothing is ever written down and everything is secret, there is no practical way of holding the agency accountable in a democracy. Helms was later convicted to perjury for lying to Congress.
This is a major issue for the nation. How can the president be responsible if he is not informed? However, some argue that the President must have “plausibility deniability” so he can deceive foreign leaders without lying to them. The laws require that nothing may be withheld from the President but there are some in the agency including past directors who believe that they sometimes should lie to the President or withhold information when it is in the national interest—which of course only they judge without any checks and balances.
The Secretary of State had obtained an agreement of Israel and the Palestinians to open Peace Talks. The press immediately wanted to know who was saying what to whom and what positions the parties had. However, this was a classic example where transparency would make successful negotiations impossible—it would end the negotiations before the parties could even discuss possible alternatives.
In 1971 New York Times published the Pentagon Papers which had been obtained from Daniel Ellsberg much to the distress of the administration. Two Nixon aides requested permission to break into the offices of Ellsberg's psychiatrist to obtain confidential medical records.
While it is true that almost all nations have intelligence agencies and collect intelligence about both friends and foes, our allies did not bug the personal phones of leaders of friendly countries and were very distressed when they discovered that the US NSA had access to the personal calls of world leaders including the leaders of Brazil, Germany and France. Rubio and others believed that they only reason our allies had not done so is that they did not have the technical capability to do so; otherwise they would have been bugging our Presidential and cabinet level phones. President Obama ordered the practice stopped with respect to our allies.
Armand Jean du Plessis, 1st Duke of Richelieu (9 September 1585 – 4 December 1642), known as Cardinal Richelieu, was a French Catholic prelate and statesman who had an outsize influence in civil and religious affairs. He became known as l'Éminence Rouge (English: "the Red Eminence"), a term derived from the title "Eminence" applied to cardinals and their customary red robes.
