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Here's a list of questions I really want to know about the CIA, which I've come to deeply distrust since the 2000s. 1. What is the CIA involvement in mainstrea

Here's a list of questions I really want to know about the CIA, which I've come to deeply distrust since the 2000s. 1. What is the CIA involvement in mainstream US media? How and why do they shape American perspective via the news?[1] 2. Why are so many (former? current?) CIA agents running for congress?[2] 3. To what extent and purpose is the CIA spying domestically on American citizens and the US congress?[3] 4. What was the true purpose of "fusion cells", where the CIA was partnered with the FBI for local law enforcement?[4] [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Mockingbird https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Mockingbird [2] https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/powerpost/paloma/daily-202/2017/10/18/daily-202-ex-cia-officers-running-for-congress-as-democrats/59e6b25b30fb041a74e75de5/ https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/powerpost/paloma/daily-2... [3] https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2014/12/a-brief-history-of-the-cias-unpunished-spying-on-the-senate/384003/ https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2014/12/a-brief... [4] https://twitter.com/fool_nelson/status/1305599303906406402?lang=en https://twitter.com/fool_nelson/status/1305599303906406402?l...

jjgreen 5y ago
Art for one: Pollock, de Kooning and others (unwittingly) supported by the CIA. https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/modern-art-was-cia-weapon-1578808.html https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/modern-art-was-cia-...
trefoiled 5y ago
Possible answer to question 1: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Mockingbird https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Mockingbird
peder 5y ago
What are the aims of the CIA? Are all the divisions within the CIA rowing in the same direction? Is it possible there are multiple CIA operations in direct conflict with each other, without any awareness of the others' involvement? What are CIA strategy sessions like? How far out are they planning, or do they tend to be weirdly reactionary?
- the_only_law 5y ago
  I’ve also wondered just how independent the CIA is from the rest of the state. Surely, they don’t seem to face any consequences when they are caught doing something bad, even to US citizens. Is it possible they have any sort of rouge work or do much work not on behalf of the US.
  - hpoe 5y ago
    Actually it's a pretty open secret that the CIA, and SOCOM are heavily involved in the drug trade that they use to fund other black ops.
    - truffdog 5y ago
      The Politics of Heroin in Southeast Asia has a great, exhaustive overview of the earlier iteration of that. Drug money is very attractive for intelligence agencies/militaries- it's free and off the books.
luffapi 5y ago
David McGowan suggests that a lot of the pop/drug culture of the late 60s was driven by the CIA as an attempt to subvert the anti-war movement. https://www.amazon.com/Weird-Scenes-Inside-Canyon-Laurel/dp/1909394122 https://www.amazon.com/Weird-Scenes-Inside-Canyon-Laurel/dp/... I don’t think is anywhere near conclusive, but it’s definitely plausible given the information he lays out. Fun fact: Jim Morrison’s dad literally started the Vietnam War when he led the fleet that fabricated the Gulf of Tonkin Incident: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gulf_of_Tonkin_incident https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gulf_of_Tonkin_incident
- bayesian_horse 5y ago
  The CIA didn't mastermind the Vietnam war. That would have been politicians.
  - luffapi 5y ago
    I don’t think the suggestion is that the CIA masterminded the war, it’s that they were employed to squash dissent against the war/test out what they learned with Operation Paperclip and Mk Ultra.
- dragonwriter 5y ago
  > Jim Morrison’s dad literally started the Vietnam War when he led the fleet that fabricated the Gulf of Tonkin Incident: No, he didn't, because the Vietnam War (the US involvement, which itself arguably was merely a continuation of the French colonial conflict) started long before the Gulf of Tonkin incident.
  - luffapi 5y ago
    The Gulf of Tonkin Incident was directly used by LBJ to start the war. The act of Congress was called The Gulf of Tonkin Resolution: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gulf_of_Tonkin_Resolution https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gulf_of_Tonkin_Resolution Yes, there’s a lot of events that led to this, but this is the act that started the war, and it was completely fabricated.
truffdog 5y ago
The National Endowment for Democracy is the official media influence stuff, which funds NPR domestically, and only really goes wild abroad. The biggest and most obvious way the CIA impacts media is through leaks to journalists, though.
AndrewBissell 5y ago
The involvement in fictional media is pretty out in the open at this point. Here's John Krasinski, star of Amazon's Jack Ryan series, talking about how he was welcomed at the CIA and "we should thank them every day": https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O9Yg6y6bFeM https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O9Yg6y6bFeM A good article on how the writers for Homeland closely collaborated with representatives from the US intelligence community: https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/movies/movie-features/homeland-declassified-battles-backlash-cia-meetings-a-secret-call-edward-snowden-1269957/ https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/movies/movie-features/home...

jjgreen 5y ago

Art for one: Pollock, de Kooning and others (unwittingly) supported by the CIA. https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/modern-art-was-cia-weapon-1578808.html https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/modern-art-was-cia-...

trefoiled 5y ago

Possible answer to question 1: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Mockingbird https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Mockingbird

peder 5y ago

What are the aims of the CIA? Are all the divisions within the CIA rowing in the same direction? Is it possible there are multiple CIA operations in direct conflict with each other, without any awareness of the others' involvement? What are CIA strategy sessions like? How far out are they planning, or do they tend to be weirdly reactionary?

the_only_law 5y ago
I’ve also wondered just how independent the CIA is from the rest of the state. Surely, they don’t seem to face any consequences when they are caught doing something bad, even to US citizens. Is it possible they have any sort of rouge work or do much work not on behalf of the US.
- hpoe 5y ago
  Actually it's a pretty open secret that the CIA, and SOCOM are heavily involved in the drug trade that they use to fund other black ops.
  - truffdog 5y ago
    The Politics of Heroin in Southeast Asia has a great, exhaustive overview of the earlier iteration of that. Drug money is very attractive for intelligence agencies/militaries- it's free and off the books.

luffapi 5y ago

David McGowan suggests that a lot of the pop/drug culture of the late 60s was driven by the CIA as an attempt to subvert the anti-war movement. https://www.amazon.com/Weird-Scenes-Inside-Canyon-Laurel/dp/1909394122 https://www.amazon.com/Weird-Scenes-Inside-Canyon-Laurel/dp/... I don’t think is anywhere near conclusive, but it’s definitely plausible given the information he lays out. Fun fact: Jim Morrison’s dad literally started the Vietnam War when he led the fleet that fabricated the Gulf of Tonkin Incident: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gulf_of_Tonkin_incident https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gulf_of_Tonkin_incident

bayesian_horse 5y ago
The CIA didn't mastermind the Vietnam war. That would have been politicians.
- luffapi 5y ago
  I don’t think the suggestion is that the CIA masterminded the war, it’s that they were employed to squash dissent against the war/test out what they learned with Operation Paperclip and Mk Ultra.
dragonwriter 5y ago
> Jim Morrison’s dad literally started the Vietnam War when he led the fleet that fabricated the Gulf of Tonkin Incident: No, he didn't, because the Vietnam War (the US involvement, which itself arguably was merely a continuation of the French colonial conflict) started long before the Gulf of Tonkin incident.
- luffapi 5y ago
  The Gulf of Tonkin Incident was directly used by LBJ to start the war. The act of Congress was called The Gulf of Tonkin Resolution: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gulf_of_Tonkin_Resolution https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gulf_of_Tonkin_Resolution Yes, there’s a lot of events that led to this, but this is the act that started the war, and it was completely fabricated.

truffdog 5y ago

The National Endowment for Democracy is the official media influence stuff, which funds NPR domestically, and only really goes wild abroad. The biggest and most obvious way the CIA impacts media is through leaks to journalists, though.

AndrewBissell 5y ago

The involvement in fictional media is pretty out in the open at this point. Here's John Krasinski, star of Amazon's Jack Ryan series, talking about how he was welcomed at the CIA and "we should thank them every day": https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O9Yg6y6bFeM https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O9Yg6y6bFeM A good article on how the writers for Homeland closely collaborated with representatives from the US intelligence community: https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/movies/movie-features/homeland-declassified-battles-backlash-cia-meetings-a-secret-call-edward-snowden-1269957/ https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/movies/movie-features/home...