Review: The Agency And The Hill–The CIA’s Relationship With Congress, 1946-2004

October 23, 2009

Britt Snider

Few people realize that Britt Snider is one of two people on the planet, Loch Johnson being the other, that have served on the staffs of both the Church Committee and the Aspin-Brown Commission (where Britt was the Staff Director). He is the single most important expert on this topic, a priceless resource for anyone actually interested in substantive transformative reform.

Britt published several key articles on this topic that appear to have been brought together in a book and I am very, very pleased that his work is now in book form, This will be “Ref A” for some time to come. If you have doubts, look up the articles, but I strongly recommend the book as a collector's item and a single edited paginated reference.

I also reocmmend the Harvard book,, a collection of memoranda, “Confrontation or Collaboration? Congress and the Intelligence Community.”

The work of Al Cummin, himself former Staff Director of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, is also recommended, he writes on intelligence issues as a senior executive author for the Congressional Research Service.