Series of Studies N 11
March 1996
Report elaborated by:
MICHAEL A. FISH &
EDUARDO AND. ESTEVEZ
Foundation CECE
Studies Center for the Structural Change
Callao 58 (1022)
Buenos Aires
ARGENTINE
Tel/Fax: 952-5677
President:
JUAN VITAL SOURROUILLE
Even though in the democratic system the advertising and the access freedom to the information are basic procedures concerning the acts of government, are presented two exceptional cases.
The first is referred to the national defense. In the historical circumstance that touches us to live, the peace between the nations is found guaranteed, in last resort, by the disuasión navy. The tasks of foreign intelligence serve to improve the efficiency and to reduce the expenses in defense of the gobierno1
.
The second is the struggle against criminal associations (mafias, terrorist organizations, or other that attempt against the democratic order or the freedom) whose modus operandi demands of ploys and tasks of information obtainment that question the intimacy of the organizations and investigated persons. Here the secret also it is indispensable but demands the unfailing intervention of the Judicial poder to avoid them authoritative abuses. Within this category enter also the tasks of counterespionage.
Even though the mentioned cases tend to involve noble attitudes of the persons as the patriotism and the moral or ethical principled defense, those which carry to act to the human being beyond material interest, the specific techniques development force to the profesionalizació of who should accomplish so much tasks of intelligence as of espionage, by the same reasons are required specific equipment whose obtainment is costly. The achievement and protection of informative sources, and the public material that is analyzed have also costs that they should be attended with money.
The need of preserving the identity of the source or of maintaining reservation to achieve efficiency in the intelligence action, carries to the fact that the activities before mentioned could have secret character, justifying the need of the fact that the use of the resources pawned in the same will be also confidential, giving cause for the - " reserved expenses y/o secret " -, such which is designated them in the Argentine legislation.
These and not other are the only reasons that justify the existence of these expenses whose characteristic avoid the customary controls of the administration, controls these necessary for the offenses prevention as the embezzlement of funds or illegitimate actions or illegal from the State. It is naive to support that behind all secret of State exists something irregular, some serious lack, offense or conspiracy. But the form in which these spaces have evolved in the Argentina permit to assert that exist auspicious conditions so that the foregoing could occur.
This type of expenses have attracted the curiosity of the public opinion in recurrent form, growing significantly the avidity of the society by knowing the assorted aspects that make to the operation of the State and the gobiernos2. [<A>] The transparency as opposed to it - " reserved " - today turns out to be a claim from the society.
The acceptance of the secret expenses existence presupposes two fundamental principles. The first is to assure the destination of these expenses, that is to say that the resources applied to information and intelligence will be in fact spent on the specific end. The second is referred to the fact that the intelligence area optimize the utilization of the available resources. In eras in which the balance of the public budget is an exigency to preserve the prices stability, the intelligence system must collaborate to this respect through the efficiency in their/its expenditures.
The alone suspicion of the funds assignment reserved to other purposes of the envisaged by law prejudices sensibly to those. Attending to the critiques that by their/its/your/his own nature generate in the public opinion, the deviations in the execution of the expenses and their/its meaningful increases without the debidas explanations, undermine the scarce the one which legitimacy enjoy.
1. A general example of the benefits of this type of tasks is mentioned in the specialized publication Secrecy & Government Bulletin, N 49, where is taken issue with an American intelligence program satelital designated Wreath that permitted the thousands saving of million of thank dollars the information offered on the defense system of the USSR. Secrecy & Government Bulletin, No. 49, June of 1995, Federation of American Scientists, Washington D.C., p. 1.
2. Between the principal notes we cite: News Magazine of the 27 of December of 1992 and of the 1ro. of October of 1995 (lid notes); The Nation, 22 of October of 1994, p. 1 and 5, 18 of October, 26 and 30 of November, 1 and 2 of December of 1995; Page /12, 25 of October of 1994, 26, 28, 29, 30 of November (lid notes) and 1ro. of December of 1995; Financial Ambito 19 of October, 1ro., 27 and 28 of November of 1995.
I. The spaces of what is secret in the State.
II. Legal evolution of the reserved expenses.
IV. Other expenses with special characteristics.
V. Budgetary evolution and execution of the reserved expenses.
I SAW. International experience.
VII. Criteria for the parliamentary regulation.
VIII. Legislative initiatives in the Argentina.