{"id":31330,"date":"2018-02-21T08:16:18","date_gmt":"2018-02-21T13:16:18","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/olduvai.ca\/?p=31330"},"modified":"2018-02-21T08:16:18","modified_gmt":"2018-02-21T13:16:18","slug":"meddling-for-empire-the-cia-comes-clean","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/?p=31330","title":{"rendered":"Meddling for Empire: the CIA Comes Clean"},"content":{"rendered":"

Meddling for Empire: the CIA Comes Clean<\/a><\/h3>\n
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Photo by Christopher Michel | CC BY 2.0<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve been doing this kind of thing [electoral meddling] since the CIA was created in 1947.\u201d<\/p>\n

Loch K. Johnson, New York Times<\/em>, Feb 17, 2018<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Electoral meddling has become the gruel of US politics for months, and more servings are being promised in the wake of the indictments against 16 Russians and Russian entities dished out Robert Mueller last week.\u00a0 Such actions can, when taken in isolation, seem sensible.\u00a0 Righteous indignation can be channelled appropriately, and given the suitable icing of exceptionalism.<\/p>\n

One of the difficulties behind the podium stance of virtue taken by the US political establishment on Russian interference in the country\u2019s electoral process is one of simple hypocrisy.\u00a0 In the game, and importantly theatre, of international relations, the shove, give, and take are all powerful incentives.\u00a0 Express outrage, by all means, but do so with a certain sentient awareness that you have been as culpable as your opponent of the same charge.<\/p>\n

Idealism, however, is the magic mushroom that clouds such assessments.\u00a0 Filled with pride and a sense of purpose, individuals such as former CIA director James Woolsey are happy to first say that the CIA \u201cprobably\u201d inserts its nose in the electoral affairs of other states, then justify it.<\/p>\n

Friday\u2019s encounter with Laura Ingraham<\/a> of Fox News was sufficiently frank, if unsettling, in pulling down any pretence about the role of US power and its self-justified assertiveness in the electoral processes of other states.\u00a0 \u201cHave we ever tried to meddle in other countries\u2019 elections?\u201d posed Ingraham.\u00a0 \u201cOh, probably,\u201d came the humoured response, \u201cbut it was for the good of the system in order to avoid communists taking over.\u201d<\/p>\n

Then came a few points of illustration: \u201cFor example, in Europe, in \u201947, \u201948, \u201949, the Greeks and the Italians, we CIA\u2026\u201d Ingraham, at that point, charged in with an interruption, asking whether the US \u201cdid that anymore\u201d.\u00a0 \u201cWe don\u2019t mess around in other peoples\u2019 elections, Jim?\u201d<\/p>\n

…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Meddling for Empire: the CIA Comes Clean Photo by Christopher Michel | CC BY 2.0 \u201cWe\u2019ve been doing this kind of thing [electoral meddling] since the CIA was created in 1947.\u201d Loch K. Johnson, New York Times, Feb 17, 2018 Electoral meddling has become the gruel of US politics for months, and more servings are […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5,6],"tags":[15948,4102,135,5493,18724,827],"class_list":["post-31330","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-geopolitics","category-liberty","tag-binoy-kampmark","tag-central-intelligence-agency","tag-cia","tag-counterpunch","tag-election-meddling","tag-united-states"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31330","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=31330"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31330\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":31331,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31330\/revisions\/31331"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=31330"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=31330"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=31330"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}