Hollywood Without the Happy Ending: How the CIA Bungled the War on Terror

[unhappycamper]

http://www.truth-out.org/news/item/20447-hollywood-without-the-happy-ending-how-the-cia-bungled-the-war-on-terror

Hollywood Without the Happy Ending: How the CIA Bungled the War on Terror
Thursday, 05 December 2013 09:50
By Pratap Chatterjee, TomDispatch | News Analysis

~snip~

Think of it as the CIA’s plunge into Hollywood -- or into the absurd. As recent revelations have made clear, that Agency’s moves couldn’t be have been more far-fetched or more real. In its post-9/11 global shadow war, it has employed both private contractors and some of the world’s most notorious prisoners in ways that leave the latest episode of the Bourne films in the dust: hired gunmen trained to kill as well as former inmates who cashed in on the notoriety of having worn an orange jumpsuit in the world's most infamous jail.

The first group of undercover agents were recruited by private companies from the Army Special Forces and the Navy SEALs and then repurposed to the CIA at handsome salaries averaging around $140,000 a year; the second crew was recruited from the prison cells at Guantanamo Bay and paid out of a secret multimillion dollar slush fund called “the Pledge.”

Last month, the Associated Press revealed that the CIA had selected a few dozen men from among the hundreds of terror suspects being held at Guantanamo and trained them to be double agents at a cluster of eight cottages in a program dubbed "Penny Lane." (Yes, indeed, the name was taken from the Beatles song, as was "Strawberry Fields," a Guantanamo program that involved torturing “high-value” detainees.) These men were then returned to what the Bush administration liked to call the “global battlefield,” where their mission was to befriend members of al-Qaeda and supply targeting information for the Agency’s drone assassination program.

Such a secret double-agent program, while colorful and remarkably unsuccessful, should have surprised no one. After all, plea bargaining or persuading criminals to snitch on their associates -- a tactic frowned upon by international legal experts -- is widely used in the U.S. police and legal system. Over the last year or so, however, a trickle of information about the other secret program has come to light and it opens an astonishing new window into the privatization of U.S. intelligence.

[Blus4u]

1. The true size of icebergs...

I continue to be amazed at the size, depth, and breadth of the iceberg which our 'national security' endeavor has become.
The egotistical, myopic view held by the intelligence community staggers the mind.

I know that Carter sought to reign in the CIA during his presidency but that seems to be the ONLY semblance of sanity our leaders have ever demonstrated with regard to an entity that, by it's very nature, tends to 'go rogue' at every opportunity.

The intelligence community didn't see the fall of the embassy in Iran and the subsequent taking of the staff as hostages...(yeah, I know because Carter cut funding.....right). They didn't see the collapse of the Soviet Union, until CNN started broadcasting the dismantling of the wall on live global TV. And gee, wasn't that AFTER Reagan restored them to their previous status and financial glory. They didn't see 9/11 coming when all the signs were there. And the WMD's in Iraq. And on and on.

Our only hope is to educate, educate, educate.

Peace

[unhappycamper]

2. Did you ever read "Legacy of Ashes"?

http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51qrPWpbewL._SY344_PJlook-inside-v2,TopRight,1,0_SH20_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg

Twas an interesting read.

[Blus4u]

4. Just ordered it

$11.34 brand new hardcover included shipping.
(the internet's a wonderful thing) - no wonder it's so hard to make a buck these days!

Thanks and...
Peace

[bemildred]

3. It's classic, really, the herd think, the thought bubble, in these situations.

They really do believe their own bullshit. I'm reluctant to talk about it, I don't want to give them any clues.