Ah, the ol' COINTEL conspiracy (I use that word without its usual negative connotation). I'm always surprised by people's ability to assume "the Government isn

Ah, the ol' COINTEL conspiracy (I use that word without its usual negative connotation). I'm always surprised by people's ability to assume "the Government isn't corrupt this time!" after time and time and time and time (and time and time)... and time... and time... and time again, the Government was "that corrupt that time". While it should never be assumed that they for certain are, it should always remain a possibility until reasonably argued against. Of course, one can't prove a negative - so the line of where it has been "reasonably argued against" is a very gray area. It's easy to cross the line into "full-blown looney conspiracist". Which, going along the COINTEL mindset, is exactly what a Government would want: The general population dismissing anyone critical of the government as being a looney nutcase...because the Government couldn't possibly be corrupt. As someone who has read too much into COINTEL operations and literature (and at one point wanted to right a book about various COINTEL tactics) - it's really hard to dismiss ideas like the one you bring up - even on grounds of "there's no evidence for that".