Mike Benz

oftentimes they are paid by the government, but oftentimes they're actually paying into a government project that advances some other interest. And I can go through a bunch of examples of this, but maybe I'll come back to the history real quick. So in 1948, this was the start of the intelligence state in America.

oftentimes they are paid by the government, but oftentimes they're actually paying into a government project that advances some other interest. And I can go through a bunch of examples of this, but maybe I'll come back to the history real quick. So in 1948, this was the start of the intelligence state in America.

oftentimes they are paid by the government, but oftentimes they're actually paying into a government project that advances some other interest. And I can go through a bunch of examples of this, but maybe I'll come back to the history real quick. So in 1948, this was the start of the intelligence state in America.

It was NSC 10-2, authored by George Kennan, which gave the CIA its plausible deniability doctrine. That allowed you to that allowed the CIA to have a license to lie. The CIA came into creation. I'll just take a quick look here. The CIA was created because the State Department wanted dirty deeds done without being attributed to the State Department.

It was NSC 10-2, authored by George Kennan, which gave the CIA its plausible deniability doctrine. That allowed you to that allowed the CIA to have a license to lie. The CIA came into creation. I'll just take a quick look here. The CIA was created because the State Department wanted dirty deeds done without being attributed to the State Department.

It was NSC 10-2, authored by George Kennan, which gave the CIA its plausible deniability doctrine. That allowed you to that allowed the CIA to have a license to lie. The CIA came into creation. I'll just take a quick look here. The CIA was created because the State Department wanted dirty deeds done without being attributed to the State Department.

So they needed some outside agency which could do what George Kennan called two months before he authored the plausible deniability doctrine in NSC 10-2. He called this the inauguration of organized political warfare. This is a very little known memo that was not declassified, I believe, until 2005. It was written in 1948.

So they needed some outside agency which could do what George Kennan called two months before he authored the plausible deniability doctrine in NSC 10-2. He called this the inauguration of organized political warfare. This is a very little known memo that was not declassified, I believe, until 2005. It was written in 1948.

So they needed some outside agency which could do what George Kennan called two months before he authored the plausible deniability doctrine in NSC 10-2. He called this the inauguration of organized political warfare. This is a very little known memo that was not declassified, I believe, until 2005. It was written in 1948.

Everyone knows George Kennan as the head of the policy planning staff at the State Department, as the author of the containment strategy against Russia in the Cold War, one of the most celebrated folks in US diplomacy history. But two months before granting this license to do all this, to have the CIA operate through NGOs, through civil society organizations, through private foundations,

Everyone knows George Kennan as the head of the policy planning staff at the State Department, as the author of the containment strategy against Russia in the Cold War, one of the most celebrated folks in US diplomacy history. But two months before granting this license to do all this, to have the CIA operate through NGOs, through civil society organizations, through private foundations,

Everyone knows George Kennan as the head of the policy planning staff at the State Department, as the author of the containment strategy against Russia in the Cold War, one of the most celebrated folks in US diplomacy history. But two months before granting this license to do all this, to have the CIA operate through NGOs, through civil society organizations, through private foundations,

through these astroturf grassroots advocacy nonprofits. He wrote this memo called The Inauguration of Organized Political Warfare. And he argues that this is now April 1948. We had just effectively rigged the 1948 Italian election, April 18th, 1948. This was the first democratic election in Italy, which after World War II had ended.

through these astroturf grassroots advocacy nonprofits. He wrote this memo called The Inauguration of Organized Political Warfare. And he argues that this is now April 1948. We had just effectively rigged the 1948 Italian election, April 18th, 1948. This was the first democratic election in Italy, which after World War II had ended.

through these astroturf grassroots advocacy nonprofits. He wrote this memo called The Inauguration of Organized Political Warfare. And he argues that this is now April 1948. We had just effectively rigged the 1948 Italian election, April 18th, 1948. This was the first democratic election in Italy, which after World War II had ended.

And we had pitted basically a pro-US, pro-Western democracy candidate versus a pro-Soviet autocracy candidate was how it was pitched. And the very first national security memo, 1-1, was on the central importance of Italy to the U.S. position at the dawn of the Cold War and that we could not afford to lose this election. And so the very first covert action of the Central Intelligence Agency –

And we had pitted basically a pro-US, pro-Western democracy candidate versus a pro-Soviet autocracy candidate was how it was pitched. And the very first national security memo, 1-1, was on the central importance of Italy to the U.S. position at the dawn of the Cold War and that we could not afford to lose this election. And so the very first covert action of the Central Intelligence Agency –

And we had pitted basically a pro-US, pro-Western democracy candidate versus a pro-Soviet autocracy candidate was how it was pitched. And the very first national security memo, 1-1, was on the central importance of Italy to the U.S. position at the dawn of the Cold War and that we could not afford to lose this election. And so the very first covert action of the Central Intelligence Agency –

Under the 1947 Act, it was largely conceived of as being an intelligence collection agency, not so much operations. The CIA has two different career tracks. Intelligence, you know, they call it the analyst track and the operations track. And they're very different breeds of people. They're very, very different in what they do.

Under the 1947 Act, it was largely conceived of as being an intelligence collection agency, not so much operations. The CIA has two different career tracks. Intelligence, you know, they call it the analyst track and the operations track. And they're very different breeds of people. They're very, very different in what they do.