Did any American read this without alarm? If so, why not?
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America’s Open Wound
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Re: America’s Open Wound
#12it is not clear what could be done should an intelligence agency turn rogue, and become operationally independent from the government. It's basically a non-democratic power centre which - because it is not subject to elections - will always outlast any politician, and because of the nature of the work, has vast powers of direct and indirect influence. Good job that this is not the case in the US
Russia is basically a country that was taken over by a rogue intelligence agency. Putin is a KGB man through and through.
Ironic that Snowden found his sanctuary there. He's presumably a Russian citizen now — at least he applied for citizenship in November 2020.
Re: America’s Open Wound
#13I have to ask, because I know that Biden was said to give a speech with bad optics but I never looked it up seriously - is that photo doctored?^W^W^W
I just googled it myself. Whoever is doing his PR needs to be sacked for leaving him open to a photo like that.
Re: America’s Open Wound
#14it is not clear what could be done should an intelligence agency turn rogue, and become operationally independent from the government. It's basically a non-democratic power centre which - because it is not subject to elections - will always outlast any politician, and because of the nature of the work, has vast powers of direct and indirect influence. Good job that this is not the case in the US
Congress can simply cut their budget. The President can fire who he wants in the executive branch. Talk about it in the court of public opinion. Discourage "voting X no matter who" and focus on issues rather than sides.
Re: America’s Open Wound
#15Re: America’s Open Wound
#16Did any American read this without alarm? If so, why not?
I did, because I already knew about most of the atrocities and subversions of democracy etc. described in the article. But I've been called all sorts of things for not inherently trusting my government. Being called a conspiracy theorist doesn't bother me, but the people who call me a fascist while demanding daddy government stomp on their rights a little harder just baffle me.
Re: America’s Open Wound
#17It's a shame he addresses none of the points of the speech he premises the article on. He could be an important voice right now speaking out against tyranny and fascism.
Re: America’s Open Wound
#18We have known for many years the CIA is awful. Get rid of it. We can achieve national security goals via alternate means. It's probably going to get me banned, but we know they interfere in foreign elections. Why is it such a long shot to believe they don't interfere locally?
> Why is it such a long shot to believe they don't interfere locally? Because this goes strongly against the culture of the organization? People are funny. They may be willing to bend any law and/or see themselves as above the law in some aspects (see i.e. the Iran/contra affair), yet will honor-bind themselves to other ways. Because at the end of the day they want to be the heros, the good guys. And the C.I.A. is an…
You're right, they want to be the heros. And some people would convince themselves that being a hero is to prevent a particular person from becoming president, because it would be "a danger to our democracy."
Re: America’s Open Wound
#19Did any American read this without alarm? If so, why not?
There are the ones that would read it and agree with it. The agency could do no wrong.
There are those that read it, knew about some or most of it, and really not surprised. You possibly believe in conspiracy theories. And find out a few may be true.
Then there are those who are alarmed and shocked the CIA would do such a thing.
Re: America’s Open Wound
#20We have known for many years the CIA is awful. Get rid of it. We can achieve national security goals via alternate means. It's probably going to get me banned, but we know they interfere in foreign elections. Why is it such a long shot to believe they don't interfere locally?
> Why is it such a long shot to believe they don't interfere locally? Because this goes strongly against the culture of the organization? People are funny. They may be willing to bend any law and/or see themselves as above the law in some aspects (see i.e. the Iran/contra affair), yet will honor-bind themselves to other ways. Because at the end of the day they want to be the heros, the good guys. And the C.I.A. is an…
I'm not sure I buy this argument that they see interfering in our elections as dishonorable.
People so willing to break American laws have no good sense of honor for me