Flimsy Sanity: CIA fulfills fantasies

Flimsy Sanity

In individuals, insanity is rare; but in groups, parties, nations and epochs, it is the rule. - Friedrich Nietzsche

Tuesday, October 30, 2007

CIA fulfills fantasies


Tim Weiner author of Legacy of Ashes the History of the CIA was on C Span Book TV (I don't know when but the link leads to a video of the show). He defends the CIA because he says that all the bad things the CIA ever did was just following the direct orders of the President. He says Kennedy read James Bond books and saw himself in that role when he planned coups to overthrow countries. The ways the CIA planned to kill Castro were indeed 007 mentality, even the employing of Mafia members (can you ever get back out of bed with them?) and the author thinks the assassination of Kennedy may well have be retaliation by Castro. He didn't talk on air about Reagan using the CIA to sell drugs to finance the contras but his central theme was that the CIA directly serves the President and they never raise their hands to volunteer for illegal activities. My assumption is that Bush sees himself as a misunderstood cowboy saving the world and his fantasy life dictates the current techniques.

Tim Weiner is a journalist for the New York Times and has reported on the CIA for twenty years. Mr. Weiner received a Pulitzer Prize for his reportage of secret spending by the Pentagon in 1998 while working for the Philadelphia Inquirer. He is the author of "Blank Check: The Pentagon's Black Budget" and co-author of Betrayal: The Story of Aldrich Ames, an American Spy

3 Comments:

  • At 6:40 AM, Anonymous Anonymous said…

    Some of the most insane things the CIA did was under the reign of Dulles who served Eisenhower and Truman.

     
  • At 6:10 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said…

    I believe most Americans would find it difficult to accept the fact, but the political structure of this nation suffers from one gaping defect. The flaw is the presidency. No man who has ever lived is capable of wielding so much power, given the pressures upon him, with strict fairness, impartiality, and justice. Reading the biographies of just a few of the 'better' historical presidents proves this point to me unequivocally. Even the best were very bad a lot of the time. Now that Bush/Cheney have managed to legally inflate those powers substantially, the position of president virtually mimics the powers of medieval European monarchs. Only they didn't possess nuclear weapons.
    If the CIA is unable to police its own moral attitudes then it is no better than the 'mob-boys' utilized by Mafia bosses to carry out their assassinations. I doubt many of them raised their hands either; they carried out orders. Given the increase in presidential powers, the evolving use of 'private contractors' like Blackwater, and the willingness of the CIA to undertake any dastardly act their 'master' desires, the future of this nation and the world looks ever more bleak.

     
  • At 3:33 AM, Blogger Flimsy Sanity said…

    RJ: That was just the author's opinion about the CIA...But madmen need minions.

     

Post a Comment

<< Home