Wednesday, August 31, 2011

The CIA has us constantly brainwashed

Daniel Brandt (NameBase NewsLine, No. 17, April-June 1997)

Obama "authorizes" CIA to destabilize foreign government (rawstory.com)



Journalism and the CIA: The Mighty [Organ]

Alongside those Greek morality plays and biblical injunctions, we are also reminded by history itself that the use of unethical means to achieve a "worthy end" can be self-destructive. Power, by definition, is isolated from the correcting signals of external criticism.



Or perhaps the feeling of fighting "evil" fits so comfortably, that it is difficult to shed even after objective circumstances change.



The history of U.S. intelligence since World War II follows both patterns. The Office of Strategic Services (OSS), the CIA's predecessor, had jurisdiction over wartime covert operations and propaganda in the fight against fascism.

OSS chief William Donovan recruited heavily among social and academic elites. When the CIA was launched in 1947 at the beginning of the Cold War, these pioneers felt that they had both the right and the duty to secretly manipulate the masses for the greater good.



OSS veteran Frank Wisner ran most of the early peacetime covert operations as head of the Office of Policy Coordination. Although funded by the CIA, OPC was not integrated into the CIA's Directorate of Plans until 1952, under OSS veteran Allen Dulles.



Both Wisner and Dulles were enthusiastic about covert operations. By mid-1953 the department was operating with 7,200 personnel and 74 percent of the CIA's total budget. More