-Caveat Lector-
-------- Original Message --------
Subject: CIA: Rewriting it's Own History
Date: Sun, 19 Dec 1999 23:03:49 -0600 (CST)
From: Ralph McGehee <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Organization: MindSpring Enterprises
To: undisclosed-recipients:;
CIA Savants
I highly recommend an Outlook article in today's Washington
Post entitled -- Who Is the CIA Fooling? Only Itself
By Melvin A. Goodman, Washington Post 12/19/99 B01. In
summary the article says:
CIA is trying to convince itself and the American public that it provided
U.S. decision makers with timely warnings about the impending collapse of
the Soviet Union. The latest revisionist effort came last month, when the
agency co-sponsored a three-day conference at Texas A&M's George Bush School
of Government and Public Service on "U.S. Intelligence and the End of the
Cold War." Simultaneously, the agency released a 378-page volume of 24 newly
declassified documents that, officials claimed, showed the CIA did far better
than its critics have said in anticipating the Soviet Union's demise in 1991.
"The assertions that the CIA got it blatantly wrong are unfounded," was how
one agency official put it.
At best, this is an exercise in self-deception. As one of the agency's
Soviet analysts during the 1980s, I had a front-row seat from which to view
our performance; if I had been invited to give my assessment at the Texas A&M
conference, I would have offered a far more dismal evaluation of how we did.
Melvin Goodman is a professor of international security at the National
War College and a senior fellow at the Center for International Policy.
He was a Soviet analyst at the CIA from 1966 to 1990.
In my remembrance at the time, Robert Gates then Director CIA's
Intelligence Directorate toured the nation warning all not to
be taken in by the apparent collapsing USSR. Now, of course,
the Agency tries to prove it got it just right. Read the reference
article for the other side of the story.
My own experience focused on Vietnam where CIA intelligence
presented a fantasy of events there that kept us in this war for
close to thirty years with a victory never possible. Have no fear,
however, the CIA's Center for the Study of Intelligence (the same
Center that produced the show re Soviet estimates) published a book
indicating that the CIA was generally accurate. This study, CIA and
the Vietnam Policymakers: Three Episodes 1962-1968, by Harold P.
Ford, does not cite a single Communist source while the CIA
constructed a comic book version of the war that it believes to
this day.
Re the Cuban Missile Crisis of 1962, CIA claims its intelligence
literally saved the world -- more recent information indicates it
came close to potentially destroying he world.
All that dismal history it attempts to avoid while convincing
the rest of us and the world that it truly knows what is going
on.
If the CIA is ever to become a true intelligence Agency it
must cease it efforts to lie and examine how it went so nearly
and fatalistically wrong and how not to repeat those mistakes.
(The CIA's Public Affairs Office in a document released under
the FOIA claims its efforts changes intelligence failures into
"Intelligence successes.")
But in this season of good cheer -- be of good cheer -- the CIA,
rejecting reality and reform, goes about massively hiring new people
vis:
CIA is looking for a few good spies. Plus hundreds of analysts,
computer programmers, engineers, linguists, scientists and other
specialists. Other members of the Intelligence community, including NSA,
the DIA, which studies foreign military forces, also hiring. Goal
is to reinvigorate the Intelligence community IC after years of budget cuts,
hemorrhaging staff, flagging morale and high-profile screw-ups.
DCI Tenet says the world is more dangerous today because new
alignments have yet to replace the bipolar boundaries of the past.
Congress approved about $29 billion in 1999 spending for the 13 U.S.IC.
The sum is close to the Cold War record. Most goes to NSA and the
the NRO. NSA -- is the largest employer of mathematicians in the U.S.
IC Salaries are below Silicon Valley standards. An entry-level NSA linguist
earns about $30,000, a computer scientist about $38,000. CIA and NSA,
can offer signing bonuses and other perks as incentives for mid-level,
more-experienced hires. budget cuts, early retirements and a hiring freeze
slashed nearly one-fourth of the CIA's work force in the early 1990s, and
overseas operations were hard-hit. CIA is believed to have about 16,000
employees, including fewer than 1,000 operatives abroad.
CIA hopes to hire 30 percent more clandestine agents and case
officers. so it is reaching out to lawyers, bankers and other
mid-career professionals looking for a new line of work. Applicants
must be U.S. citizens, younger than 35, able to speak a (preferably obscure)
foreign language and willing to work a day job as cover for nocturnal
espionage. Salaries start from $33,000 to $51,000.
Los Angeles Times 11/16/99.
If Tenet is honest about reform he will severly discipline all
of those involved in this newest effort at mass and self-deception.
Ralph McGehee
http://come.to/CIABASE
--------------9274ED678FC345B09633745C--
DECLARATION & DISCLAIMER
==========
CTRL is a discussion and informational exchange list. Proselyzting propagandic
screeds are not allowed. Substance—not soapboxing! These are sordid matters
and 'conspiracy theory', with its many half-truths, misdirections and outright
frauds is used politically by different groups with major and minor effects
spread throughout the spectrum of time and thought. That being said, CTRL
gives no endorsement to the validity of posts, and always suggests to readers;
be wary of what you read. CTRL gives no credeence to Holocaust denial and
nazi's need not apply.
Let us please be civil and as always, Caveat Lector.
========================================================================
Archives Available at:
http://home.ease.lsoft.com/archives/CTRL.html
http:[EMAIL PROTECTED]/
========================================================================
To subscribe to Conspiracy Theory Research List[CTRL] send email:
SUBSCRIBE CTRL [to:] [EMAIL PROTECTED]
To UNsubscribe to Conspiracy Theory Research List[CTRL] send email:
SIGNOFF CTRL [to:] [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Om
