As a member of the Rockefeller Commission to investigate the CIA (set up by President Gerald Ford), Ronald Reagan joined in its unanimous recommendation that: "Presidents should refrain from directing the CIA to perform what are essentially internal security tasks. The CIA should resist any efforts, whatever their origin, to involve it again in such improper activities." The Commission, which included CIA collaborators, was only asking the President and the CIA to abide by the National Security Act of 1947. The Act prohibits the CIA from having "police, subpoena, law-enforcement powers, or internal security functions."

On December 4, 1981, President Reagan signed Executive Order 12333 which, while purportedly in accord with the National Security Act of 1947, allows the CIA to engage tn police functions and domestic covert operations. Aptly described by the New York Times as the "Son of Operation CHAOS" the Executive Order was denounced by former FBI agent, Representative Don Edwards (D.-Ca.): "It still puts the CIA smack into secretly operating within the United States... it permits them to enter into arrangements with state and local police... and Americans overseas are wide open to surveillance, regardless of any connections to foreign governments or criminal activity."

In addition to this major enhancement of CIA powers, the administration has initiated measures severely restricting news-gathering about government operations. According to the International Press Institute, these restrictions pose a "potentially serious loss of public accountability." More recently, it has been reported that Reagan is set to sign an executive order on the Freedom of Information Act which would all but exempt the CIA from compliance with requests for information. Certainly, these measures undermine U.S. democracy, but the full import of Reagan's CIA actions can perhaps best be understood by looking at recent history.