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talkpoliticsDuring my years in college I toyed with the idea of working for the CIA in order to spy on the organization for the benefit of the American public. It was a tempting mission, but I decided against it. Some of my friends pointed out how I would not fit in anyway. Since then many insider accounts of the plight of CIA employees has convinced me that I made the correct decision. There is something about an organization where you have to check your brain at the door that does not sit well with me.
In his memoir of his time working at State with the Afghan Muhajeddin, Peter Tomsen recounts many actions on the part of the CIA that he felt showed a poverty of judgment. One of the smaller ones was the desire for the CIA to send ISI (the Pakistani equivalent to the CIA) representatives on a mission to buy back stinger missiles from the Muj. Tomsen opposed the presence of the ISI people on the grounds that it would send the wrong message to the Afghanis. Tomsen says that the CIA replied that they would not include ISI personnel, but Tomsen could not confirm whether they followed his recommendation or not.
Tomsen includes quite a bit of material that ties ISI to terrorism in the Muslim quarters of Central and South Asia. Their initials could easily stand for Islamists Supplying Insurgents. (This game of renaming organizations has come up with gems such as Fuck-ups, Boneheads, and Incompetents.) The involvement of ISI in terrorism is probably why they were admired so much by people like Reagan and Bush.
In our school we held a discussion of why dummies thrive in organizations like the CIA. One of our students pointed out that the admissions requirements tend to deter intelligent people. It is as if you have to kowtow to the flag in order to get in the front door. One of our guys said it was like the Masonic entrance requirement to express belief in the material Creator. Those who know better are simply turned away from the git-go.
Could you see yourself working for an organization with as many publicly documented disasters as has the CIA?
In his memoir of his time working at State with the Afghan Muhajeddin, Peter Tomsen recounts many actions on the part of the CIA that he felt showed a poverty of judgment. One of the smaller ones was the desire for the CIA to send ISI (the Pakistani equivalent to the CIA) representatives on a mission to buy back stinger missiles from the Muj. Tomsen opposed the presence of the ISI people on the grounds that it would send the wrong message to the Afghanis. Tomsen says that the CIA replied that they would not include ISI personnel, but Tomsen could not confirm whether they followed his recommendation or not.
Tomsen includes quite a bit of material that ties ISI to terrorism in the Muslim quarters of Central and South Asia. Their initials could easily stand for Islamists Supplying Insurgents. (This game of renaming organizations has come up with gems such as Fuck-ups, Boneheads, and Incompetents.) The involvement of ISI in terrorism is probably why they were admired so much by people like Reagan and Bush.
In our school we held a discussion of why dummies thrive in organizations like the CIA. One of our students pointed out that the admissions requirements tend to deter intelligent people. It is as if you have to kowtow to the flag in order to get in the front door. One of our guys said it was like the Masonic entrance requirement to express belief in the material Creator. Those who know better are simply turned away from the git-go.
Could you see yourself working for an organization with as many publicly documented disasters as has the CIA?
(no subject)
Date: 21/9/11 12:55 (UTC)In the public lobby of CIA Headquarters is a book, listed within are stars and names of employees who died in action. Some of the stars are there but the names are blank because their names are still classified.
That being said, the CIA primary mission is to collect and concentrate information for dissemination to decision makers. What these people do with it or not at that point is hardly their fault. As for covert missions, each and every one of them is directed under a presidential finding. There is nothing they do that the president does not know about. If the president says otherwise, he is lying.
How do you account for...
Date: 21/9/11 15:49 (UTC)Some of the smartest employees of the CIA have published detailed accounts of how they deceived the American public in order to support vicious policies.
You know nothing about what I know.
Re: How do you account for...
Date: 21/9/11 17:03 (UTC)Re: How do you account for...
Date: 21/9/11 17:30 (UTC)Re: How do you account for...
Date: 21/9/11 18:26 (UTC)Re: How do you account for...
Date: 21/9/11 18:52 (UTC)(And don't bother to discount Mr. McCoy's work as "propaganda"; it was too well vetted. His latest edition covers Afghanistan, now the largest heroin producer in the world.)
Re: How do you account for...
Date: 21/9/11 19:43 (UTC)Re: How do you account for...
Date: 22/9/11 02:24 (UTC)And it's illegal.
Surely you're not so naive to think that the dope grown overseas stays overseas, not with the most profitable drug market right here in the U. S. of A? Can you really say this action lies in the nation's interest, let alone with in the purview of the intelligence community's officially defined mission?
Re: How do you account for...
Date: 22/9/11 03:40 (UTC)Re: How do you account for...
Date: 22/9/11 16:18 (UTC)Re: How do you account for...
Date: 22/9/11 16:20 (UTC)Re: How do you account for...
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Date: 21/9/11 17:35 (UTC)Re: How do you account for...
Date: 21/9/11 18:23 (UTC)Re: How do you account for...
Date: 21/9/11 20:19 (UTC)