On the key role intelligence agencies can play to restore our democratic institutions

Abstract

After the Snowden leaks, it has become evident that a discussion is needed on how to reorganize the huge intelligence agencies so that they fit a Western thinking and to avoid that they are evolving into a clone of what the KGB and the Stasi used to be. Well before the Snowden leaks, the author had been thinking along this line. On the 26th of October 2012, at the closed workshop on “Online Security & Civil Rights: a Fine Ethical Balance,” Hertfordshire, UK, the author put forward the idea that modern intelligence agencies should be split. The part which is involved today in mass surveillance, should work for the people and no longer for the government. That means that the intelligence agencies should spy on these working in the government and these working for lobbyists. The recipient of this information should be the public at large. The foundation of this idea comes from the Magna Carta and the US Bill of Rights that regard “We the People” as the trustworthy party and the government as potentially corrupt. In this paper we present the above ideas put forward by the author at the aforementioned 2012 Hertfordshire workshop. We also reflect on these 2012 ideas in the context of the Snowden leaks.