Posted on 01/02/2015 6:43:20 PM PST by Tolerance Sucks Rocks
The CIA should be abolished.
After a trial run of 67 years, the agency has proven a sorcerer’s apprentice. The director and his subordinates have became insufferably arrogant Platonic Guardians hiding behind secrecy in the belief that the rest of us are too stupid or naive to judge what risks to accept to preserve liberty and the rule of law. The CIA has made Americans less safe.
Its incorrigible anti-democratic ethos was epitomized by legendary chief of counterintelligence James J. Angleton. He voiced contempt for the Church Committee’s investigation of chronic agency abuses, i.e., the “Family Jewels.” As reported in The New York Times, Angleton likened the CIA to a medieval city occupied by an invading army, i.e., the Congress of the United States. To the same effect, Director William J. Casey told Church Committee investigator Loch K. Johnson that the congressional role was to “stay the [expletive] out of my business.”
The CIA will never accept that it works for we the people and our representatives in Congress; and, that the United States Constitution and laws govern everything the CIA does. It will never accept accountability for its actions — including torture, kidnappings, and extrajudicial killings—because it salutes the motto that the ends justify the means, that savagery is justified to defeat perceived savages.
The CIA is unAmerican. It sneers at our nation’s signature creed that it is better to risk being the victim of injustice than to be complicit in it.
President Harry Truman, father of the CIA in 1947, came to regret his offspring. Sen. Daniel Patrick Moynihan, former New York Democrat and former vice chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, introduced legislation in 1991 and 1995 to abolish the agency. Their views were not misplaced.
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtontimes.com ...
Fein was once a relatively stable/rational conservative but he drifted into the Libertarian camp of Rep. Ron Paul and never emerged from that “mental black hole”.
His perception of the real world has been badly warped so take what he says with a great deal of caution.
However, he is a good writing so read him very carefully because of the hidden nuances he uses.
Like anything, it will rise or fall depending on the quality and character of its members. If it is broken, fix it.
If it is abolished, who would do its necessary tasks?
Everything in the hands of fallen mankind is subject to corruption. The key is to have checks, balances and corrections.
IRS, Illegal Aliens, 0bamacare, EPA over-reach, War on Coal, 0bama sucking up to ISIS ...
Fein isn't all bad. He's an outspoken critic of NSA.
But yes, about the CIA, he's wrong.
I use their string holsters......:o)
Yeah, hand it all over to the Times.
Look, its a messy business, but in general its clean.
“It is better to risk being the victim of injustice than to be complicit in it.”
WTF has this ever been a pillar of America?
The National intelligence officers keep making the wrong ASSUMPTIONS when dealing with terrorism and political Islam. This is not exclusively the CIA's fault. Ultimately, CIA has to support national strategy. It doesn't help when a sitting president declares Islam to be peaceful (thus, cutting off any competing analysis), then a subsequent two-term president being at a minimum, sympathetic to Islam.
It's almost as if the game is rigged. We cannot win anymore. We Americans talk about jobs and gas prices; meanwhile we have enemies gathering to take us out for good.
“have became.” Unlettered putz.
Damn..! Sounds more like the Department Of Justice..!
“That said, yes, I’m sure the CIA has acted out-of-line a few times but Communism did have to be contained.”
Yes, and it has safely arrived here intact.
It certainly needs reform- it was penetrated by communist moles long ago- and needs to have more human assets instead of relying on tech. No nation-state will survive in modern times without such an organization, though.
At what cost?
Here we are, stuck in a near-fascist, socialistic state [albeit with trappings of a federal structure and Constitution] that would be shocked with the introduction of a truly free market, or the Constitution taken as supreme law [meaning what it says, not what the government says it says].
Are you telling me that Capitalism could not withstand Communism in the marketplace of ideas
?
It seems to me that if opposing thought has to be squashed in order to to let the idea flourish it is highly indicative of a flawed idea.
It's all relevant because to assert that the CIA is useful despite constitutional bindings is to assert that the constitution's bindings are irrelevant.
There is only one “D” in “does.”
And winning is what you have to do to not die.
How about everything that's not commissioned directly or one-step indirectly by the Constitution — that'd leave us with:
About half of the American people seem to be clueless about ongoing real events that are in the public domain, I would not expect them to be able to judge what risks to accept to preserve liberty and the rule of law when it comes to hidden threats.
That is why we need a CIA, staffed with people who care about this country. -Tom
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.