The CIA has us constantly brainwashed

Daniel Brandt (NameBase NewsLine, No. 17, April-June 1997)
Obama "authorizes" CIA to destabilize foreign government (rawstory.com)

Journalism and the CIA: The Mighty [Organ]

Alongside those Greek morality plays and biblical injunctions, we are also reminded by history itself that the use of unethical means to achieve a "worthy end" can be self-destructive. Power, by definition, is isolated from the correcting signals of external criticism.

Or perhaps the feeling of fighting "evil" fits so comfortably, that it is difficult to shed even after objective circumstances change.

The history of U.S. intelligence since World War II follows both patterns. The Office of Strategic Services (OSS), the CIA's predecessor, had jurisdiction over wartime covert operations and propaganda in the fight against fascism.

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OSS chief William Donovan recruited heavily among social and academic elites. When the CIA was launched in 1947 at the beginning of the Cold War, these pioneers felt that they had both the right and the duty to secretly manipulate the masses for the greater good.

OSS veteran Frank Wisner ran most of the early peacetime covert operations as head of the Office of Policy Coordination. Although funded by the CIA, OPC was not integrated into the CIA's Directorate of Plans until 1952, under OSS veteran Allen Dulles.

Both Wisner and Dulles were enthusiastic about covert operations. By mid-1953 the department was operating with 7,200 personnel and 74 percent of the CIA's total budget. More

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Warmonger? Why Obama is Falling

Question an assumption: View upside down to see what's right in front of you.

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We are reminded that American presidents do not rule. They are merely important figureheads and centers of focus. Question authority even when it has a nice face and lovely voice. Remember, the system in place is far older even than the US, which did not invent it. They distract attention from the real movers and shakers. Of course, anyone looking at the situation can point to decisions and photographs and speeches -- and say "It's him."

It is not. Barack Obama in particular is already famous for constantly reading from a teleprompter. Money elects a president, leaving him indebted. Everyone agrees. The military-industrial complex (Pentagon, the unelected shadow government, NSC/CIA/OSS, suppliers, multination-al corporations) continues to exert undue influence one person (a president) or complicit officials (his handpicked administration) wouldn't even dream of crossing. Since the job of the president is to draw attention away from what's happening, Who is in control?

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Discussion of conspiracies put people off. Any conspiracy is pre-discredited. A "conspiracy" simply means [definition (dictionary.com)]. There can be no doubt that that takes place. Who is scheming behind the scenes? There are others. Since they cannot be discussed, one can point to their spokespersons. In the case of George W. Bush, almost the entire Republican constituency (corporate heads and businessmen driven by greed, an utterly manipulated media, world bankers driven by power, Christian fundamentalists driven by sincerity) was complicit.

Look beneath the surface (Pacifica Radio, Zeitgeist, David Icke, Democracy Now, alternative media, and so on). Or settle in to Network news -- "Infotainment, all the news that isn't" -- for a befuddling cavalcade of distorted nonsense.

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The good news is that whereas Bush and Dick (George and Cheney) were vulgar and flagrant in their abuses, Obama and Joe (Barack and Biden) are "nice" about it. It's a different tack for the "powers that be" to take, moving from a dimwitted megalomaniac who stole two elections to a Public Relations people person; Obama should be more able to serve the status quo. Because what Americans demand most is the appearance of not being hoodwinked.

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The Buddha on Questioning Authority (Kalama Sutra)

What did the Buddha say about obeying and believing authority? Buddhist monks march in protest, sometimes leading protests. And Buddhism teaches a Path to direct seeing and knowing, not a reliance on dogmas, gods, or priests.

His advice was given to the Kalama people. They wondered what they were to believe if everyone sounded convincing while extolling one's view and denigrating the views of others. He advised them in this way.

"Do not simply believe things because they are claimed to be true by authoritative sources or by deduction [from facts and assumptions]. But direct knowledge, from your own experience, should be called upon. The words of the wise are well heeded and taken into account when deciding. But this is not dogmatic acceptance. Rather, it is questioned and tested and compared to what one is able to see as helpful." The question to ask is does a view reduce or increase dukkha (unsatisfactoriness, suffering, ill).

• The Buddha's Discourse to the Kalamas

Big Brother "Loves" You!

Chef Julia Child was a US Spy

Documents detailing early spy network released

By Brett J. Blackledge and Randy Herschaft (AP)

Those willing to exchange freedom for security deserve neither.

As the US spies abroad, so it has been doing at home.

WASHINGTON - Famed chef Julia Child shared a secret with Court Justice Arthur Goldberg and Chicago White Sox catcher Moe Berg at a time when the Nazis threatened the world.

• ABC NEWS VIDEO

They served in an international spy ring managed by the Office of Strategic Services, an early version of the CIA created in World War II by President Franklin Roosevelt.
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The secret comes out Thursday, all of the names and previously classified files identifying nearly 24,000 spies who formed the first centralized intelligence effort by the United States. The National Archives, which this week released a list of the names found in the records, will make available for the first time all 750,000 pages identifying the vast spy network of military and civilian operatives.

They were reporters, actors, historians, professors, lawyers, athletes, soldiers. But for several years during World War II, they were known simply as the OSS. They studied military plans, created propaganda, infiltrated enemy ranks and stirred resistance among foreign troops.

Among the more than 35,000 OSS personnel files are applications, commendations and handwritten notes identifying young recruits who, like Child, Goldberg and Berg, earned greater acclaim in other fields — Arthur Schlesinger Jr., a historian and special assistant to President Kennedy; Sterling Hayden, a film and television actor whose work included a role in "The Godfather"; and Thomas Braden, an author whose "Eight Is Enough" book inspired the 1970s television series.

Other notables identified in the files include John Hemingway, son of author Ernest Hemingway; Quentin and Kermit Roosevelt, sons of President Theodore Roosevelt, and Miles Copeland, father of Stewart Copeland, drummer for the band The Police.

The release of the OSS personnel files uncloaks one of the last secrets from the short-lived wartime intelligence agency, which for the most part later was folded into the CIA after President Truman disbanded it in 1945.

"I think it's terrific," said Elizabeth McIntosh, 93, a former OSS agent now living in Woodbridge, Va. "They've finally, after all these years, they've gotten the names out. All of these people had been told never to mention they were with the OSS."

The CIA had resisted releasing OSS records for decades. But former CIA Director William Casey, himself an OSS veteran, cleared the way for transfer of millions of OSS documents to the National Archives when he took over the agency in 1981. The personnel files are the latest to be made public.

Information about OSS involvement was so guarded that relatives often couldn't confirm a family member's work with the group.

Walter Mess, who handled covert OSS operations in Poland and North Africa, said he kept quiet for more than 50 years, only recently telling his wife of 62 years about his OSS activity.

"I was told to keep my mouth shut," said Mess, now 93 and living in Falls Church, Va.

The files will offer new information even for those most familiar with the agency. Charles Pinck, president of the OSS Society created by former OSS agents and their relatives, said the nearly 24,000 employees included in the archives far exceeds previous estimates of 13,000.

The newly released documents will clarify these and other issues, said William Cunliffe, an archivist who has worked extensively with the OSS records at the National Archives.

"We're saying the OSS was a lot bigger than they were saying," Cunliffe said.
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  On the Net: CIA OSS page: http://tinyurl.com/6bvmhf
  Index to National Archives OSS personnel files: http://www.archives.gov/research/arc/