
America's spies anonymously took down Michael Flynn. That is deeply worrying - lisper
http://theweek.com/articles/680068/americas-spies-anonymously-took-down-michael-flynn-that-deeply-worrying?utm_campaign=newsletter&utm_source=afternoon&utm_medium=02_15_17-article_1-680068
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secfirstmd
"Unelected intelligence analysts work for the president, not the other way
around."

No they don't. They work for the American public.

They swear to uphold the US Constitution above all else, including the
Presidency.

Presidents have been undermined for the right reasons by the intelligence
service before, in the greater national interest (Deepthroat during Watergate
for example, Iran-Contra, Gitmo - there were always people on the inside
prepared to go against their own agencies). These cases certainly meet those
tests.

~~~
MingoTech
I think you may be thinking of the military or elected officials, Non-elected
non-military personnel do not have to make an oath by anything for most cases
much less the constitution.

~~~
wahern
Do we know precisely where the leaks came from? Don't CIA officers, for
example, take an oath?

In any event, oath or not, I think it's understood that we expect people to
breach protocol under the right circumstances. The United States, at least,
rejected the Nuremberg Defense. This isn't quite the same thing, but at the
very least it's well established that even the lowest-level officials have an
obligation to their nation's organic[1] law, as well as to universal moral
law, that supersedes their duty to obey supervisory authority.

[1] organic meaning constitutional--little 'c', not big 'C'\--that can include
both written and unwritten law.

