Mike Benz

OSS and the predecessor to the CIA and military financial assistance to groups in afflicted by World War Two, and then in particular during the Marshall Plan after World War Two. NGOs played a key role in being a deniable front to run money to establish contacts and to provide direction and guidance to groups that the U.S. government did not want to be caught necessarily doing directly.

And so you can trace this back, really. You have all these charities. They were fronts, a lot of them, or at least in part. So it's a complicated relationship because you have government agencies and then you have outside high net worth individuals and families, dynastic American families like the Fords, the Rockefellers, the Carnegies, all starting these private philanthropies.

And so you can trace this back, really. You have all these charities. They were fronts, a lot of them, or at least in part. So it's a complicated relationship because you have government agencies and then you have outside high net worth individuals and families, dynastic American families like the Fords, the Rockefellers, the Carnegies, all starting these private philanthropies.

And so you can trace this back, really. You have all these charities. They were fronts, a lot of them, or at least in part. So it's a complicated relationship because you have government agencies and then you have outside high net worth individuals and families, dynastic American families like the Fords, the Rockefellers, the Carnegies, all starting these private philanthropies.

all playing a role in U.S. statecraft, all having international businesses that rely on foreign markets. And so they're highly dependent on the State Department clearing the way for them, negotiating deals for them, acquiring territory, creating export markets, maintaining laws in foreign countries that maximize profitability, securing mining rights, securing trade routes.

all playing a role in U.S. statecraft, all having international businesses that rely on foreign markets. And so they're highly dependent on the State Department clearing the way for them, negotiating deals for them, acquiring territory, creating export markets, maintaining laws in foreign countries that maximize profitability, securing mining rights, securing trade routes.

all playing a role in U.S. statecraft, all having international businesses that rely on foreign markets. And so they're highly dependent on the State Department clearing the way for them, negotiating deals for them, acquiring territory, creating export markets, maintaining laws in foreign countries that maximize profitability, securing mining rights, securing trade routes.

So there's this complex interplay. This is why I always call... So the story is really about, I don't really think of it as a government being different than an NGO, as being different than this corporate financial overclass.

So there's this complex interplay. This is why I always call... So the story is really about, I don't really think of it as a government being different than an NGO, as being different than this corporate financial overclass.

So there's this complex interplay. This is why I always call... So the story is really about, I don't really think of it as a government being different than an NGO, as being different than this corporate financial overclass.

When I use the term the blob, which is not my term, that was a term from Obama's deputy national security advisor, Ben Rhodes, to describe a force within Washington that was bigger than the White House that The Obama White House felt like it couldn't get its foreign policy done because this foreign policy establishment, this blob structure seemed to be more powerful than that.

When I use the term the blob, which is not my term, that was a term from Obama's deputy national security advisor, Ben Rhodes, to describe a force within Washington that was bigger than the White House that The Obama White House felt like it couldn't get its foreign policy done because this foreign policy establishment, this blob structure seemed to be more powerful than that.

When I use the term the blob, which is not my term, that was a term from Obama's deputy national security advisor, Ben Rhodes, to describe a force within Washington that was bigger than the White House that The Obama White House felt like it couldn't get its foreign policy done because this foreign policy establishment, this blob structure seemed to be more powerful than that.

But I think of the blob as having three levels to it. You have the guts of it inside the government, which is the State Department, the Defense Department, the intelligence community, and USAID. You can think of it, Hillary Clinton would call this the 3D model, diplomacy, defense, and development. And then the IC plays, the CIA, for example, plays a supporting role in those functions.

But I think of the blob as having three levels to it. You have the guts of it inside the government, which is the State Department, the Defense Department, the intelligence community, and USAID. You can think of it, Hillary Clinton would call this the 3D model, diplomacy, defense, and development. And then the IC plays, the CIA, for example, plays a supporting role in those functions.

But I think of the blob as having three levels to it. You have the guts of it inside the government, which is the State Department, the Defense Department, the intelligence community, and USAID. You can think of it, Hillary Clinton would call this the 3D model, diplomacy, defense, and development. And then the IC plays, the CIA, for example, plays a supporting role in those functions.

And these are all merged together as one cohesive way of advancing US foreign policy is what we call it. But it's really advancing the interests of, generally speaking, insiders or national champions like our large multinational corporations. But bring this back. So you have this government structure in the center of it. And then below that, you have the NGOs who are funded by the U.S.

And these are all merged together as one cohesive way of advancing US foreign policy is what we call it. But it's really advancing the interests of, generally speaking, insiders or national champions like our large multinational corporations. But bring this back. So you have this government structure in the center of it. And then below that, you have the NGOs who are funded by the U.S.

And these are all merged together as one cohesive way of advancing US foreign policy is what we call it. But it's really advancing the interests of, generally speaking, insiders or national champions like our large multinational corporations. But bring this back. So you have this government structure in the center of it. And then below that, you have the NGOs who are funded by the U.S.

government and who work alongside the U.S. government and have a longer reach than the U.S. government. The State Department can't just walk into certain conflict zones and talk to the indigenous community and get honest answers or tell them what to do without being on the record saying something they might not want attributed to them. The NGOs can go in and do that.