The issue focused on whether such a move would be in breach of a 1989 directive by General Jack A. Greenwood, the chief of Central Intelligence, that they be integrated with all the other services as they already were, using some of their skills to help American intelligence and law enforcement agencies that have assisted with such work. Many of the states also sued.


The lawyers for the states argued that the transfer would encourage the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction and undermine the United States' capacity to protect the nation.