Overview

How is it possible for an agency of the United States government to be exempt from providing what the US Constitution’s Appropriations Clause describes as “a regular Statement and Account of the Receipts and Expenditures of all public Money”?In The Hidden Cost of Freedom, author Brad Fisher presents a comprehensive narrative of the origin and early development of the CIA’s clandestine financial system, beginning with the establishment of the Office of Strategic Services’ Special Funds Branch during World War II. Fisher documents the controversial legislative history of the Central Intelligence Agency Act of 1949 from the standpoint of the CIA, the General Accounting Office, and congressional insiders, and describes the act’s role in the transformation of the CIA’s financial administration into a global enterprise for financing its foreign intelligence activities. Finally, he brings to light the story of his grandfather, Edwin Lyle Fisher, who had a major role in the postwar establishment of the CIA’s funding system as the GAO’s legal liaison to the CIA. While the existence of the CIA’s clandestine funding is no secret, Fisher’s book is the first to trace its development and to show how the CIA’s covert financial system was allowed to develop in a democracy devoted to checks and balances.

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9780700637959

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Reviews

"""Brad Fisher's deeply researched and cogently written study of the origins and development of the CIA's clandestine financial system fills an important gap in the field of intelligence literature. As in politics, money is the key factor in intelligence operations, and Fisher ably describes how the founders of the US intelligence establishment devised workable funding mechanisms for their worldwide operations in a complex and often hostile global environment. This book should be a part of any intelligence library.""--David F. Rudgers, author of Creating the Secret State: The Origins of the Central Intelligence Agency, 1943-1947 ""Brad Fisher's Hidden Cost of Freedom uniquely lays out, as best as it can be done, the funding mechanisms that enabled the CIA to carry out its highly secret activities. Fisher's thorough research convinced me that he knows more about this topic than anyone, anywhere. Those who really want to understand the CIA of the early-to-middle-Cold War era will want to read this book.""--David Barrett, author of The CIA and Congress: The Untold Story from Truman to Kennedy"

"""Brad Fisher's deeply researched and cogently written study of the origins and development of the CIA's clandestine financial system fills an important gap in the field of intelligence literature. As in politics, money is the key factor in intelligence operations, and Fisher ably describes how the founders of the US intelligence establishment devised workable funding mechanisms for their worldwide operations in a complex and often hostile global environment. This book should be a part of any intelligence library.""--David F. Rudgers, author of Creating the Secret State: The Origins of the Central Intelligence Agency, 1943-1947"

"""Brad Fisher’s deeply researched and cogently written study of the origins and development of the CIA’s clandestine financial system fills an important gap in the field of intelligence literature. As in politics, money is the key factor in intelligence operations, and Fisher ably describes how the founders of the US intelligence establishment devised workable funding mechanisms for their worldwide operations in a complex and often hostile global environment. This book should be a part of any intelligence library.""""—David F. Rudgers, author of Creating the Secret State: The Origins of the Central Intelligence Agency, 1943–1947""""Brad Fisher’s Hidden Cost of Freedom uniquely lays out, as best as it can be done, the funding mechanisms that enabled the CIA to carry out its highly secret activities. Fisher’s thorough research convinced me that he knows more about this topic than anyone, anywhere. Those who really want to understand the CIA of the early-to-middle-Cold War era will want to read this book.""""—David Barrett, author of The CIA and Congress: The Untold Story from Truman to Kennedy"

Author Information

Brad L. Fisher is a senior research scientist at Science Systems Applications, Inc.

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