Monday, December 10, 2012

The Petraeus Legacy: A Paramilitary CIA?

I no longer speak kindly of General Petraeus nor his Army which is my ex-Army.

To Brock Townsend at America's last pocket of sanity, Free North Carolina:

After reading Legacy of Ashes, I didn't think the CIA could sink lower.  The CIA was already the world's premier drug cartel and money launderer so Petraeus had to do something new.  Make it into a killing machine.  I'd award that Broadwell woman the Medal of Freedom for bringing him down ala Samson's Delilah.  I have lived too long.

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While much of the media focus on l’affaire Petraeus has centered on the CIA director’s sexual relationship with his biographer, Paula Broadwell, the scandal opens a window onto a different and more consequential relationship—that between the CIA and the military’s Joint Special Operations Command. In a behind-the-scenes turf war that has raged since 9/11, the two government bodies have fought for control of the expanding global wars waged by the United States—a turf war that JSOC has largely won. Petraeus, an instrumental player in this power struggle, leaves behind an agency that has strayed from intelligence to paramilitary-type activities. Though his legacy will be defined largely by the scandal that ended his career, to many within military and intelligence circles, Petraeus’s career trajectory, from commander of US military forces in Iraq and Afghanistan to the helm of the CIA, is a symbol of this evolution.

 “I would not say that CIA has been taken over by the military, but I would say that the CIA has become more militarized,” Philip Giraldi, a retired career CIA case officer, told The Nation. “A considerable part of the CIA budget is now no longer spying; it’s supporting paramilitaries who work closely with JSOC to kill terrorists, and to run the drone program.” The CIA, he added, “is a killing machine now.”

5 comments:

  1. All law enforcement in this country has become "militarized".

    The CIA has dabbled with it, off and on, since it's inception.

    Remember Wild Bill Donovan, the "founder" of the CIA? He was a Special Ops guy...

    No one should be surprised.

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    1. Yes and speaking of the CIA:

      Colonel/Silver Star/ 3 Tours/Green Beret (Terry & Dixie)
      http://www.namsouth.com/viewtopic.php?t=209&highlight=terry

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  2. I've got to stop reading the Drudge Report, as Liberty's Torch recommends today. Hypertension and depression are leading side effects of it. Poretto's people always inspire me as does Brock Townsend.

    Mark Butterworth speaks for me there today. "The patriots don't need cheerleaders. There are plenty of those. They need quality, rational leadership. They need committed preachers, politicians, and military heroes to organize, inspire, discipline, and lead them. They need a strategy against authority that will not lead to their slaughter, but a movement of defiance in many places that cannot be easily countered."

    I pray daily for such leaders to emerge. I'm too old to lead citizens but still able to lead cheers.

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    1. "The patriots don't need cheerleaders. There are plenty of those. They need quality, rational leadership. They need committed preachers, politicians, and military heroes to organize, inspire, discipline, and lead them. They need a strategy against authority that will not lead to their slaughter, but a movement of defiance in many places that cannot be easily countered."

      Well said, but I thought you were going to lead our mechanized wheelchair contingent........?:)

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  3. Wheelcheer leaders brigade. I love it. Thanks. When my chair comes I'll mount a rifle rack somehow.

    ReplyDelete