"And it's that way by design, you simply can't have such things in public."
Of course you can. Not the concrete, secret cases, but the mechanisms of oversight, checks and balance, etc.
Make it clear, what is allowed and what is not allowed. And who controls it, so the rules are followed. The freedom of information act for example is a very important thing in this regard. Here in germany we don't have the exact same thing, but something similar. And also a trusted comitee from the parliament, that checks indeed secret cases. And there were special comitees formed to investigate many wrongdoing, related to nazi and islamic terrorism, where the services fucked up big time. But they were fighting uphill battles ("oh they accidently lost important documents again") and achieved little.
Of course you can. Not the concrete, secret cases, but the mechanisms of oversight, checks and balance, etc.
Make it clear, what is allowed and what is not allowed. And who controls it, so the rules are followed. The freedom of information act for example is a very important thing in this regard. Here in germany we don't have the exact same thing, but something similar. And also a trusted comitee from the parliament, that checks indeed secret cases. And there were special comitees formed to investigate many wrongdoing, related to nazi and islamic terrorism, where the services fucked up big time. But they were fighting uphill battles ("oh they accidently lost important documents again") and achieved little.