A System Fighting Itself?

In the United States seven Democrats have written a letter to the Director of the C.I.A, Leon Panetta accusing the agency of knowingly 'deceiving' Congress (on classified matters) since 2001 until June 2009. If true, this wouldn't be surprising.

My knowledge of American Politics is limited, but I can say this much:

The Post-Bush American bureaucracy is vast, enormous in fact with the C.I.A. and Department for Homeland Security two of it's biggest institutions/departments. There are so many institutions now within the American bureaucratic machine struggling and fighting for stronger political influence that it is to be expected by a cynic (such as myself) that agencies act autonomously against others.

This has been used as a bit of a gag in pop culture. For instance, how many Hollywood cop movies have we seen where the likeable but hard-nosed detective curses the F.B.I. for overtaking his crime scene, before the F.B.I. curse the C.I.A. for confiscating the case off them? How many war films where the Army has scoffed at the Navy's authority? Institutional conflict and autonomy can be a fun tool for entertainment, but it's somewhat darker when applied to real life... when the C.I.A. uses its autonomy to deceive Congress.

I think the matter is a valuable opportunity to ask some questions about the American bureaucracy, the shape of which has changed little since Obama became President in January:

• Is this what the American forefathers intended as 'checks and balances' in the system?

• If government agencies can willfully withold information from the legislature for eight years, how can we believe that - for example - the leader of the executive has the power to influence government institutions to act according to the agenda of the administration, if that insitution is a) as powerful as the C.I.A. and b) has interests that conflict with those of the administrations?
  
  
• To boil it down: With these two questions in mind, is the American bureaucracy efficient and - more importantly - cooperative enough to be trusted to act in a consistently responsible and Democratic manner?
  

If the seven Democrats who are so adament that the C.I.A. has been shamelessly lying to Congress for practically the entire two terms of the Bush Administration are indeed correct, it seems the answer to these questions are cynical.

And the consequences are real life... An agency that supposedly allows Waterboarding of Terror Suspects without Congressional consent comes to mind.