DNI Establishes Intelligence Transparency Council

The notion of “intelligence transparency,” which once would have been considered an oxymoron, is instead becoming institutionalized with the establishment of a new Intelligence Transparency Council. Director of National Intelligence James Clapper signed the Charter of the new Council on April 5.

The Council includes representatives of each of the 17 Intelligence Community member agencies. Its role is to identify and promote appropriate areas for intelligence-related transparency and specifically to coordinate and oversee the implementation of the 2015 Principles of Intelligence Transparency.

For a start, the Council is supposed to “ensure that the public has information that clearly presents the mission, authorities, and oversight mechanism that direct and guide the IC.”

Beyond that, it will also “serve as the principal mechanism to identify possible new priority IC transparency topics to be selected by the DNI and IC leadership for implementation” and it will “establish interagency working groups to address specific transparency topics, as appropriate, in order to advance IC transparency efforts.”

As an inward-looking body that mostly meets behind closed doors, the Intelligence Transparency Council seems to be an internal forum for grappling with questions of increased disclosure, rather than an obvious public relations ploy. The Charter envisions votes and procedures for resolving disagreements, implying that the Council could serve a decision-making function.

Significantly, the Charter signed last week by DNI Clapper will remain in effect for five years. This means that “intelligence transparency” is likely to endure as a problem and a challenge well into the next Administration.