Alternatives to the 9-11 Orthodontist?

Sat, 26 Jan 2002 15:53:16 -0600

Oh Bubba come on...don't let your own orthodoxy blind you to the fact there 
are some VERY smart cookies in the intelligence agencies...though they are, 
albeit, a mixed bag.  As James Jesus Angleton said..."There are many rooms 
in the castle." And in case you do not know who JJA was, then you had best 
stick to those topics you know a lot about like Art and Architecture and 
stuff.

I was a Government major and I remember in the 60's when the Agency came 
shopping around the grad school looking for bright young things to lure away 
to Langly.  The applicants were mainly selected from alert students who were 
pointed out by the professors.  The professor of Govt...usually someone 
teaching History of Foreign Affairs etc, would call a student aside to find 
out if they would like to interview.  The general class population would not 
even know they were interviewing. Those who were tapped were certainly not 
the dummies.

The political enemies of the Agency as a 'concept' are the ones who are most 
responsible for the canards (and truths) about their blunders...and 
obviously there have been some real toe stubbers to give the naysayers 
something to work with.

I remember talking with Billy Lee Brammer about what he thought of Agency 
spook types, and I thought his response quite intelligent.  He said it was 
like any huge government agency. There were all kinds of people in it...of 
all political stripes, and of varied intellectual accomplishment.

I DID read a nice critical piece the other day inj Harpers pointing out that 
some of the more adventurous projects the CIA fucked up in the 60's and 70's 
and especially after Iran....the spy culture had become very risk averse.  I 
am not sure we want a risk averse Intelligence corps, but by the same token, 
do we want one that takes an activist stance?

One can easily see that the Agency, NSA, and the Military Intelligence arms 
have a nasty 'damned if you do/damned if you don't' problem to deal with. 
Same as it ever was. Heroes and fools in the same barrel.

Telebob

ps- Joe Rowe once sold me a 1932 Model A panel truck that was subsequently 
stolen from me by Dr. Dirty Tom Muir.  I remember Joe fondly.  I still think 
Tom Muir quite the dickhead.

>From: "Wayne Johnson" <cadaobh2@brgnet.com>
>Reply-To: austin-ghetto-list@yahoogroups.com
>To: <austin-ghetto-list@yahoogroups.com>
>Subject: RE: Alternatives to the 9-11 Orthodoxy?
>Date: Sat, 26 Jan 2002 16:13:28 -0500
>
>"How could they be THAT stupid?" (emphasis mine)  They could be so stupid 
>as
>to try to poison Castro's cigars or think that anyone who wants to keep
>Mexican or Central American peasants from being systematically exploited to
>death by the United Fruit company can ONLY be a communist?  They can think
>that just because Viet Nam is closer to China than Berlin, it MUST be part
>of the Great Uniform & Godless Communist Conspiracy.  They can think,
>without much question, that information about just how many ICBMs the
>Russians have, passed on to them by former SS/Gestapo spy masters MUST be
>good stuff.  Anything that scary MUST be true.  Why would the ex-German
>spies LIE?   They could be stupid enough to secretly fund their "black"
>projects by going into the narcotics trade.  And, quite possibly, they 
>could
>be stupid...and arrogant...enough to murder a few prominent
>Irish-American/African-American politicians they viewed as a threat.
>
>"Oh, my, Luke, it looks like your little friends in the Rebellion won't be
>running for President after all."
>
>Oh.  I almost forgot about NSA/other agency funding for Yuri Geller and
>similar "phantasmagoria" at Stanford Research Institute in the Sixties,
>Seventies and Eighties.
>
>"Wow.  He can bend a spoon?  Can he read Stalin's mind?"
>"Sir.  Stalin is dead!"
>"He is?"
>
>W.
>
>
>-----Original Message-----
>From: Joseph H. Rowe [mailto:paramod@club-internet.fr]
>Sent: Saturday, January 26, 2002 1:15 PM
>To: austin-ghetto-list@yahoogroups.com
>Subject: RE: Alternatives to the 9-11 Orthodoxy?
>
>Wayne Johnson wrote:
> >For one thing, US intelligence generates a huge amount of data,
> >yet the CIA lacks the ability to synthesis all of it accurately.
>
>         <sigh> How many times to I have to point out the obvious fact
>a major event such as top, professional Russian and Israeli
>operatives warning their American colleagues is NOT just another blip
>among the "huge amount of data". The CIA may be stupid, but it's not
>so stupid as to process critical information from a source like this
>as if it belonged to the same category as an anonymous
>Mideast-accented voice calling from a pay phone in an all-night 7-11
>store. When high-level Russian intelligence officers give information
>like this to their American counterparts, and then leak it to the
>public, you can be damn sure it the top guys have been well-briefed
>about it. It isn't filed and lost in some inefficient data-processing
>system.
>
> >Have you ever met anyone who worked for NSA, the CIA, FBI or the Secret
> >Service?
>
>         Yes, as a matter of fact, I have. He was a very intelligent,
>and suprisingly cultivated man. Although retired, he knew a hell of a
>lot about CIA operations during the cold war, and talked --- with
>obvious discretion --- about some of it over dinner and several
>glasses of wine. I didn't agree with his politics, but I never told
>him. He was the father of a friend of mine.  I did respect his
>intelligence, insight, and even his ethics. Of course this man would
>never have agreed to participate in a criminal conspiracy such as
>we're talking about. But then he almost certainly wouldn't be asked
>to, either. But he would be told to keep his mouth shut, whether he
>agreed with it or not. And this he would do, most probably.
>
> >Contrary to TV, most of these guys are not the "best and the
> >brightest".  One of the most popular "recruiting stations" for the 
>FBI/CIA
> >was...tah, tah... Texas A&M!  Why?  Because they were the right gender
> >(male), the right age (under 25), mostly Protestant  (very, very
>important),
> >used to being told what to do by Authorities (see previous) and super
> >Patriotic.  To borrow from Goffman, they were ripe for
> >"institutionalization".  Did this provide us with added security?  Did 
>this
> >provide us with "vision" or...ho, ho, ho..."imagination"?  Not much.  
>Does
> >produce a LOT of paranoid, supersuspicious, hyper-patriotic,
> >not-very-literate Clint Eastwood wannabes, however.
>
>         <Ye gods!> In a sense, this line of thinking is more
>appalling, depressing, and perhaps even scarier than the conspiracy
>hypothesis. I admit it could be true. Never underestimate stupidity.
>"Against  stupidity, the gods themselves struggle unvictorious."
>(can't remember who said that). OK. Noted.
>         However. Do you really, in your heart, believe these aggies
>or whoever they are, are THAT  stupid? Only in aggie jokes, I think.
>And dont forget, I'm not talking about low-level robotic crewcut
>entry-level agents, I'm talking about the top guys. How COULD they be
>that stupid? Think about it....
>
>
>
>
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