The CIA prides itself on being called the clandestine service. Webster’s Dictionary defines the term clandestine (an adjective) to mean “kept secret or done secretively, especially because illicit.” I was therefore quite surprised when, on July 1, 2023, during a lecture delivered to the Ditchley Foundation in the United Kingdom, William Burns, the Director of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), declared that “Disaffection with the war [Russia’s ongoing Special Military Operation in Ukraine] will continue to gnaw away at the Russian leadership, beneath the steady diet of state propaganda and practiced repression. That disaffection creates a once-in-a-generation opportunity for us at CIA, at our core a human intelligence service.”
Too bad the CIA, the US government and its supporting media, especially CNN, MSNBC, NBC, WAPO and NYT, and particular reporters and cable news hosts, were not as disgusted with the violence in Ukraine against ethnic Russians and Russian speakers 2014-2022, nor with the coup to overthrow Yanukovych or the ignoring of the Minsk agreement and accord 2014-2015.
Thank you Scott for having the courage to publish this article knowing, as Schumer said, the CIA has six ways to Sunday to get back at you. The CIA (Communists in America) needs to go along with the FBI (FriendofBiden, Inc.)
As I see it, official CIA (as in agents with a badge who get a paycheck from the CIA) is only a piece of a web of global intel that includes official spooks of other governments, corporate spooks (McKinsey, Stratfor, Peraton, etc..), politicans, media, and yes, even criminal and terrorist organizations. Whenever CIA forms alliances with mafia, drug cartels, Contras, mujahideen, Ukraine neo-nazis, etc... it creates a web with strings being pulled on both ends. CIA, being official US Government, with the largest economic and military power may pull the largest string, but it's out of control. We learned all this way back in Iran/Contra hearings and the trend has continued. The "C" in CIA is a misnomer, it's anything but centralized. Eliminating the CIA results in a global criminal/corporate/military/terrorist association that the USA has no influence on. Also, I'm sorry, but RFK Jr. isn't serious about combatting CIA. He may be able to make positive reforms, but he's already proven all that CIA has to do is call their Israeli pals to make him dance. He can't actually fight the CIA.
Well said! CIA, as it stands at present, is highly counterproductive to our own national interests. As an example, it is the regime change operation of CIA in Iran (in cahoots with an equally evil outfit MI6) that replaced a duly elected democratic government in Iran by the hated dictatorial Shaw, which made Iran such a sworn enemy of the US today. Similar regime change operations orchestrated and executed by CIA is responsible for untold suffering in countries like Chile, Syria, Libya, not to mention the immense harm done to US in the process. It is time to dissolve CIA and create a new Intelligence Agency that focuses solely on intelligence collection (which all countries need at one time or another) about potential ill-wishers and conducts no operations to destabilize and replace democratically elected governments around the world, no matter how opposed to US they might be. Any attempts to set up a clandestine operational branch must be met with severe penalties under the law. Only then can we hope for other countries to look upon US as a role model and not one to constantly fear.
The MICC that runs our foreign policy (along with some countries to which we outsource it) believes that US can dominate the world through regime changes in countries we do not like, even though what they believe and do are none of our business as per UN Charter. Gone are the days of Peace Corps etc., when we tried to help other countries prosper and become our friends. An excellent example is PL420 (I believe it is the correct number) enacted under Kennedy administration, which enabled India in its formative days to avoid famine by buying food from US using its own currency, which at the time was nearly worthless, instead of US dollars, which it did not have much of. There are many streets and places named after JFK in India and Indians have always looked upon US with a level of fondness hard to describe. Contrast that with GW. I am not familiar with even a sewer named after him anywhere in the world.
Carrots make friends and sticks make enemies. It is true of both people and nations. If the trillions we wasted on wars around the world since the 1940's had simply been used to assist other nations to develop and prosper, we would have markets and friends all over the world. What a foolish, self-destructive foreign policy we have conducted, aided and abetted by covert agencies such as CIA, and overt ones such as National Endowment for Democracy and US Aid etc. It is time to disband and reorganize them for our own good!
I enjoy reading your informative articles with your perception and hands on experience.
As a teenager, I was far removed from the true behaviour of what Washington was doing to become the hegemony it has since grown into. And, as a teenager, I knew nothing more than what 007 taught me. Then one day in 1975, I watched a movie called "Three Days of the Condor" with Robert Redford and Faye Dunaway. It stimulated a curiosity about the skull and daggers game being played out behind the scenes, far away from the eyes of the general public. I wondered at the time, about how much truth was associated with making this movie. I continued to ignore this part of government's sinister behaviour, subversion and sabotage until I retired in 2007. Since then, I have come to learn about a much deeper and evil undertaking about CIA activity, that appears to answer to no one. When asked, Congress seems to know nothing about CIA activity, yet, the CIA appears to be setting foreign policy for Washington politicians. The CIA obviously has much more power than they let on and when occasion comes up for the Director to answer to questions that the public should have access to - there is never compliance! My question is, "how does a country that professes to be a democracy, hide its total activities from the public when those activities have caused death to tens of millions of lives around the world for nearly 80 years? Is there a country anywhere in the world where its citizens have any respect left for Washington's idea of the USA? Nothing the CIA says is credible. That seems to be credible with our politicians either. So, is the tail wagging the dog?
IMHO whoever decides to volunteer to spy for Uncle Sam will surely quickly learn that US is great in giving promises and technical / financial assistance, but as soon as (any) useful info comes from that source, they will milk it until the source goes dry or is caught, and then they would on the spot abandon the source, leaving it to its fate, same as they cowardly abandoned net of corroborators in Afghanistan, Yemen, Libya... re: candidates, today people are just thirsty for money without much of ideological depth
“What is good for the goose is good for the gander, and anyone who doesn’t believe Russian computer security agencies lack the expertise to do the same are delusional.“
I think there’s a double negative in this sentence…. But I’m not a native English speaker.)
The CIA wasn't created by legislation. The CIA didn't have the authority to act within the United States until we let it get away with it. The FBI wasn't an international outreach until it had offices in every country where we had a consulate and/or embassy, and so, CIA stations.
Great! As someone who could be listed as "Anti-American" in ANY chart or scale, having lived through the "gentle coup" in Australia in 1975 and observed the subsequent and consequent degeneration of Australia - politically, culturally (if ever it had a 'culture') and certainly SOCIALLY, I think it's at least 48 years too late to Rid the US of it's CIA malignancy. You have no (real) friends left. It's far too late to undo the damage, too many people (and countries) hate America and the goodwill that America has been squandering for over 70 years is as bankrupt as your treasury. I once said the only thing that could ever make America great again is another major war in Europe. Turns out I was wrong.
"Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., who is challenging Joe Biden to be the candidate of the Democratic Party in the 2024 presidential election, is on to something—it is time to abolish this American abomination."
"What his uncle said sixty years ago in October is still true today:
“The very word ‘secrecy’ is repugnant in a free and open society; and we are as a people inherently and historically opposed to secret societies, to secret oaths and to secret proceedings. We decided long ago that the dangers of excessive and unwarranted concealment of pertinent facts far outweighed the dangers which are cited to justify it.And there is very grave danger that an announced need for increased security will be seized upon by those anxious to expand its meaning”
He also said something about shattering the CIA into a thousand pieces, and scattering them to the four winds.
This is WONDERFUL Scott! It’s so relieving to know that professionals like you see our “security apparatus” as being as useless and dangerous to democracy as it appears to this lay person. Thank god for you and Bobby and others who tell the truth and shame the devil. I’m voting for him, already contributing and am glad to see a man of your integrity advocating for his ideas!
“It is the function of the CIA to keep the world unstable, and to propagandize and teach the American people to hate, so we will let the Establishment spend any amount of money on arms”.
It is time for America to declare its independence from the CIA
CIA is 100% evil. Great article.
Too bad the CIA, the US government and its supporting media, especially CNN, MSNBC, NBC, WAPO and NYT, and particular reporters and cable news hosts, were not as disgusted with the violence in Ukraine against ethnic Russians and Russian speakers 2014-2022, nor with the coup to overthrow Yanukovych or the ignoring of the Minsk agreement and accord 2014-2015.
The CIA works for Wall Street, not American citizens.
Far too many American citizens don't know that.
This article would surprise them.
Thank you Scott for having the courage to publish this article knowing, as Schumer said, the CIA has six ways to Sunday to get back at you. The CIA (Communists in America) needs to go along with the FBI (FriendofBiden, Inc.)
As I see it, official CIA (as in agents with a badge who get a paycheck from the CIA) is only a piece of a web of global intel that includes official spooks of other governments, corporate spooks (McKinsey, Stratfor, Peraton, etc..), politicans, media, and yes, even criminal and terrorist organizations. Whenever CIA forms alliances with mafia, drug cartels, Contras, mujahideen, Ukraine neo-nazis, etc... it creates a web with strings being pulled on both ends. CIA, being official US Government, with the largest economic and military power may pull the largest string, but it's out of control. We learned all this way back in Iran/Contra hearings and the trend has continued. The "C" in CIA is a misnomer, it's anything but centralized. Eliminating the CIA results in a global criminal/corporate/military/terrorist association that the USA has no influence on. Also, I'm sorry, but RFK Jr. isn't serious about combatting CIA. He may be able to make positive reforms, but he's already proven all that CIA has to do is call their Israeli pals to make him dance. He can't actually fight the CIA.
Well said! CIA, as it stands at present, is highly counterproductive to our own national interests. As an example, it is the regime change operation of CIA in Iran (in cahoots with an equally evil outfit MI6) that replaced a duly elected democratic government in Iran by the hated dictatorial Shaw, which made Iran such a sworn enemy of the US today. Similar regime change operations orchestrated and executed by CIA is responsible for untold suffering in countries like Chile, Syria, Libya, not to mention the immense harm done to US in the process. It is time to dissolve CIA and create a new Intelligence Agency that focuses solely on intelligence collection (which all countries need at one time or another) about potential ill-wishers and conducts no operations to destabilize and replace democratically elected governments around the world, no matter how opposed to US they might be. Any attempts to set up a clandestine operational branch must be met with severe penalties under the law. Only then can we hope for other countries to look upon US as a role model and not one to constantly fear.
The MICC that runs our foreign policy (along with some countries to which we outsource it) believes that US can dominate the world through regime changes in countries we do not like, even though what they believe and do are none of our business as per UN Charter. Gone are the days of Peace Corps etc., when we tried to help other countries prosper and become our friends. An excellent example is PL420 (I believe it is the correct number) enacted under Kennedy administration, which enabled India in its formative days to avoid famine by buying food from US using its own currency, which at the time was nearly worthless, instead of US dollars, which it did not have much of. There are many streets and places named after JFK in India and Indians have always looked upon US with a level of fondness hard to describe. Contrast that with GW. I am not familiar with even a sewer named after him anywhere in the world.
Carrots make friends and sticks make enemies. It is true of both people and nations. If the trillions we wasted on wars around the world since the 1940's had simply been used to assist other nations to develop and prosper, we would have markets and friends all over the world. What a foolish, self-destructive foreign policy we have conducted, aided and abetted by covert agencies such as CIA, and overt ones such as National Endowment for Democracy and US Aid etc. It is time to disband and reorganize them for our own good!
I enjoy reading your informative articles with your perception and hands on experience.
As a teenager, I was far removed from the true behaviour of what Washington was doing to become the hegemony it has since grown into. And, as a teenager, I knew nothing more than what 007 taught me. Then one day in 1975, I watched a movie called "Three Days of the Condor" with Robert Redford and Faye Dunaway. It stimulated a curiosity about the skull and daggers game being played out behind the scenes, far away from the eyes of the general public. I wondered at the time, about how much truth was associated with making this movie. I continued to ignore this part of government's sinister behaviour, subversion and sabotage until I retired in 2007. Since then, I have come to learn about a much deeper and evil undertaking about CIA activity, that appears to answer to no one. When asked, Congress seems to know nothing about CIA activity, yet, the CIA appears to be setting foreign policy for Washington politicians. The CIA obviously has much more power than they let on and when occasion comes up for the Director to answer to questions that the public should have access to - there is never compliance! My question is, "how does a country that professes to be a democracy, hide its total activities from the public when those activities have caused death to tens of millions of lives around the world for nearly 80 years? Is there a country anywhere in the world where its citizens have any respect left for Washington's idea of the USA? Nothing the CIA says is credible. That seems to be credible with our politicians either. So, is the tail wagging the dog?
IMHO whoever decides to volunteer to spy for Uncle Sam will surely quickly learn that US is great in giving promises and technical / financial assistance, but as soon as (any) useful info comes from that source, they will milk it until the source goes dry or is caught, and then they would on the spot abandon the source, leaving it to its fate, same as they cowardly abandoned net of corroborators in Afghanistan, Yemen, Libya... re: candidates, today people are just thirsty for money without much of ideological depth
Excellent again!
(Just a hint… towards the end you write:
“What is good for the goose is good for the gander, and anyone who doesn’t believe Russian computer security agencies lack the expertise to do the same are delusional.“
I think there’s a double negative in this sentence…. But I’m not a native English speaker.)
"...anyone who doesn’t believe Russian computer security agencies lack the expertise to do the same are delusional."
should be "...anyone who believes... is delusional"
The CIA wasn't created by legislation. The CIA didn't have the authority to act within the United States until we let it get away with it. The FBI wasn't an international outreach until it had offices in every country where we had a consulate and/or embassy, and so, CIA stations.
Great! As someone who could be listed as "Anti-American" in ANY chart or scale, having lived through the "gentle coup" in Australia in 1975 and observed the subsequent and consequent degeneration of Australia - politically, culturally (if ever it had a 'culture') and certainly SOCIALLY, I think it's at least 48 years too late to Rid the US of it's CIA malignancy. You have no (real) friends left. It's far too late to undo the damage, too many people (and countries) hate America and the goodwill that America has been squandering for over 70 years is as bankrupt as your treasury. I once said the only thing that could ever make America great again is another major war in Europe. Turns out I was wrong.
"Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., who is challenging Joe Biden to be the candidate of the Democratic Party in the 2024 presidential election, is on to something—it is time to abolish this American abomination."
"What his uncle said sixty years ago in October is still true today:
“The very word ‘secrecy’ is repugnant in a free and open society; and we are as a people inherently and historically opposed to secret societies, to secret oaths and to secret proceedings. We decided long ago that the dangers of excessive and unwarranted concealment of pertinent facts far outweighed the dangers which are cited to justify it.And there is very grave danger that an announced need for increased security will be seized upon by those anxious to expand its meaning”
He also said something about shattering the CIA into a thousand pieces, and scattering them to the four winds.
A month later he was dead.
the Bush family = CIA
This is WONDERFUL Scott! It’s so relieving to know that professionals like you see our “security apparatus” as being as useless and dangerous to democracy as it appears to this lay person. Thank god for you and Bobby and others who tell the truth and shame the devil. I’m voting for him, already contributing and am glad to see a man of your integrity advocating for his ideas!
“It is the function of the CIA to keep the world unstable, and to propagandize and teach the American people to hate, so we will let the Establishment spend any amount of money on arms”.
John Stockwell