Reply #16: Not the official NSA or CIA - private contractors, "retirees", and foreign intel agencies

[leveymg]

The NSA and CIA are government agencies, and run as such. Everything has to be documented. Not much gets done within the normal command structure that isn't known by the higher-ups.

Officers can get into serious trouble by carrying out unapproved "off-the-books" operations. Not to say it doesn't happen, particularly at the very top -- and people have made themselves vast fortunes, mostly through insider knowledge -- but most of the really messy stuff is privatized or shared out with cooperating foreign agencies, and that's been the way it has been since at least the Bush, Sr. DCI period. In 1975-76, G.H.W. entered into the Safari Club deal with Saudis and leadership elements of intel. agencies of France and several other countries to do the things that the U.S. Congress had banned after the Church Committee disclosures. That deal resulted in BCCI, Iran-Contra, the Pakistani nuclear program, the creation of al-Qaeda, and a host of other recurring problems that are still with us.

Murdoch's propaganda, political influence buying, and spying operation is just one side of this tangled web.