President Carter Imposes Stricter Controls on CIA
President Jimmy Carter signed Executive Order 12036 on this day, which imposed restrictions and other reforms on the U.S. intelligence community.
One restriction included continuing President Gerald Ford’s ban on U.S. officials involvement in the assassination of the leaders of foreign governments. It expanded the ban on assassinations by closing “loopholes,” stating, “No person employed by or acting on behalf of the United States Government shall engage in, or conspire to engage in, assassination.”
Carter’s order was designed to strengthen and expand Executive Order 11905, which was signed by Gerald R. Ford on February 18, 1976. It also created the National Foreign Intelligence Board (now the National Intelligence Board); banned any CIA electronic surveillance in the U.S.; and made the FBI the only intelligence community agency allowed to conduct physical searches within the U.S.
Carter’s restrictions on the CIA were quickly undone by President Ronald Reagan and his CIA Director William J. Casey, beginning in 1981. Both Reagan and Casey rejected the idea of limits on the CIA in the fight against international terrorism.
Read President Carter’s signing statement: http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/ws/?pid=31111
Learn more about President Carter’s civil liberties record: Samuel Walker, Presidents and Civil Liberties From Wilson to Obama (2012)
Read the new biography of Jimmy Carter: Kai Bird, The Unfinished Presidency of Jimmy Carter (2021)
Learn more about Carter’s post-presidential work at the Carter Center: http://www.cartercenter.org/index.html