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taczillabr: akwater is one guy to ask it, he's the bearded guy from the new Medal of Honor. ;) hehe
I've heard of this book already, but hadn't read yet.
What books do you guys recommend about cia and other agencies? Serious books please, not mainstream fiction ones like "the da vinci code". ;)
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drmlessgames: Any of the rogue warrior books. Nothing but the truth there. Honest.

Hmm, sounds interesting I shall look into this book. Quick litmus test first, though. Do you believe 9/11 was an 'inside job'? ¬_¬
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Shure: Hmm, sounds interesting I shall look into this book. Quick litmus test first, though. Do you believe 9/11 was an 'inside job'? �_�

Oil
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drmlessgames: Hmm, sounds interesting I shall look into this book. Quick litmus test first, though. Do you believe 9/11 was an 'inside job'? �_�

Of course not, sir! 911 was an unprovoked, heinous, coward, brutal tarrorist attack perpetrated by dark-skinned brute savages working alone on the 100% real, god fearing Bonafide christian American Greatest Nation in the World Soil, sir! And we finally got back at them, sir!
Post edited April 06, 2010 by drmlessgames
Heh, I was only teasing. The last book on the U.S I took an interest in after having it recommended to me on an interwebs forum was basically a rant about conspiracies to do with 9/11 and how the U.S was the epicentre for all ills to mankind etc, pretty tedious stuff :P
The CIA is an organization with a short history of being run by people who are
A. Zealous to a fault in their prosecution of Communism,
B. Paranoid to the point of insanity (I'm looking at you, J.J. Angleton!),
C. More focused on personal politics than the world issues they influence (more common when politicians and not soldiers are placed in charge of the CIA),
D. Bleeding Stupid, or
E. Some combination of the above traits.
All the Central Intelligence Agency need to release documents belonging to the U.S. army, or any other arm of the U.S. executive branch is either permission from the executive department itself (it's happened) or just a willingness to go over said the departments' head (it's also happened, albeit less often, because that gets people fired).
The Central Intelligence Agency, during the course of the Cold War, manipulated rebel groups and political processes in many nations (particularly in South America) to create dictatorial regimes in order to prevent the creation of any government that might support the Soviets, and worked to undermine the Soviet government in the USSR and elsewhere as much as they could. Quite a bit of what they did was blatantly illegal by the standards of U.S. law, and as such was kept hidden from the general public until the last few decades.
The CIA is depicted as being at odds with itself and other government institutions for precisely the reason listed above; whenever anyone inside the CIA or outside of it learns of and decides they dislike the CIA's policies, conflict happens. This is part of the reason why the modern CIA is actually very understaffed, because its members tend to quit and go work for private military contractors or other, more honest institutions.
Theoretically, the CIA is ultimately directed by the President himself, but there have been administrations in the CIA that blatantly and directly lied to the President and Congress in order to get more funding and cover up their mistakes. There have been other times in which the executive branch basically controlled the CIA directly (particularly during the Nixon administration).
The modern Central Intelligence Agency is not the super-spy organization that many people think it is. Even at it's height, the CIA only had a few super-spies, and today it's better known for delivering misinformation or inadequate information and being generally ineffective. It lacks the direction, the manpower, and especially the popular support needed to reform itself. It's kind of sad, really, when you consider what it could have been...
Watch Zeitgeist. ;)
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Prator: The CIA is an organization with a short history of being run by people who are
A. Zealous to a fault in their prosecution of Communism,
B. Paranoid to the point of insanity (I'm looking at you, J.J. Angleton!),
C. More focused on personal politics than the world issues they influence (more common when politicians and not soldiers are placed in charge of the CIA),
D. Bleeding Stupid, or
E. Some combination of the above traits.
All the Central Intelligence Agency need to release documents belonging to the U.S. army, or any other arm of the U.S. executive branch is either permission from the executive department itself (it's happened) or just a willingness to go over said the departments' head (it's also happened, albeit less often, because that gets people fired).
The Central Intelligence Agency, during the course of the Cold War, manipulated rebel groups and political processes in many nations (particularly in South America) to create dictatorial regimes in order to prevent the creation of any government that might support the Soviets, and worked to undermine the Soviet government in the USSR and elsewhere as much as they could. Quite a bit of what they did was blatantly illegal by the standards of U.S. law, and as such was kept hidden from the general public until the last few decades.
The CIA is depicted as being at odds with itself and other government institutions for precisely the reason listed above; whenever anyone inside the CIA or outside of it learns of and decides they dislike the CIA's policies, conflict happens. This is part of the reason why the modern CIA is actually very understaffed, because its members tend to quit and go work for private military contractors or other, more honest institutions.
Theoretically, the CIA is ultimately directed by the President himself, but there have been administrations in the CIA that blatantly and directly lied to the President and Congress in order to get more funding and cover up their mistakes. There have been other times in which the executive branch basically controlled the CIA directly (particularly during the Nixon administration).
The modern Central Intelligence Agency is not the super-spy organization that many people think it is. Even at it's height, the CIA only had a few super-spies, and today it's better known for delivering misinformation or inadequate information and being generally ineffective. It lacks the direction, the manpower, and especially the popular support needed to reform itself. It's kind of sad, really, when you consider what it could have been...

Interesting that the media helps make these zealot stupid conspiring crooks into pop heroes in multimillion dollar movies. Jason Bourne and 007 my a**.
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KavazovAngel: Watch Zeitgeist. ;)
I watched it, and it's crazy. Not just "Whoah, that's weird," crazy, but "There's so many holes in your theory that only a healthy respect for free speech prevents me from either executing you as a traitor or having you committed to an asylum," crazy.
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drmlessgames: Interesting that the media helps make these zealot stupid conspiring crooks into pop heroes in multimillion dollar movies. Jason Bourne and 007 my a**.
Don't get me wrong; the CIA actually does have some amazing and/or heroic stories behind it, but those tend to be rare. Also, Jason Bourne was OPPOSING the CIA much of the time, and 007 was actually from MI6, the British intelligence service.
Post edited April 06, 2010 by Prator
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Prator: The CIA is an organization with a short history of being run by people who are
A. Zealous to a fault in their prosecution of Communism,
B. Paranoid to the point of insanity (I'm looking at you, J.J. Angleton!),
C. More focused on personal politics than the world issues they influence (more common when politicians and not soldiers are placed in charge of the CIA),
D. Bleeding Stupid, or
E. Some combination of the above traits.
All the Central Intelligence Agency need to release documents belonging to the U.S. army, or any other arm of the U.S. executive branch is either permission from the executive department itself (it's happened) or just a willingness to go over said the departments' head (it's also happened, albeit less often, because that gets people fired).
The Central Intelligence Agency, during the course of the Cold War, manipulated rebel groups and political processes in many nations (particularly in South America) to create dictatorial regimes in order to prevent the creation of any government that might support the Soviets, and worked to undermine the Soviet government in the USSR and elsewhere as much as they could. Quite a bit of what they did was blatantly illegal by the standards of U.S. law, and as such was kept hidden from the general public until the last few decades.
The CIA is depicted as being at odds with itself and other government institutions for precisely the reason listed above; whenever anyone inside the CIA or outside of it learns of and decides they dislike the CIA's policies, conflict happens. This is part of the reason why the modern CIA is actually very understaffed, because its members tend to quit and go work for private military contractors or other, more honest institutions.
Theoretically, the CIA is ultimately directed by the President himself, but there have been administrations in the CIA that blatantly and directly lied to the President and Congress in order to get more funding and cover up their mistakes. There have been other times in which the executive branch basically controlled the CIA directly (particularly during the Nixon administration).
The modern Central Intelligence Agency is not the super-spy organization that many people think it is. Even at it's height, the CIA only had a few super-spies, and today it's better known for delivering misinformation or inadequate information and being generally ineffective. It lacks the direction, the manpower, and especially the popular support needed to reform itself. It's kind of sad, really, when you consider what it could have been...

You make it sound like the CIA is a dying, bankrupt state branch that can't afford their own paperclips. They do have enough resources to run big scale propaganda campaigns in Europe to stir support for the invasion in Afganistan in the european people it seems. And I thought they all were like Jason Bourne and 007. : (
*off*
But sometimes i feel the president of the USA nothing more than a puppet,and the full controll is in the hand of CIA,Pentagon and FBI.
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drmlessgames: You make it sound like the CIA is a dying, bankrupt state branch that can't afford their own paperclips. They do have enough resources to run big scale propaganda campaigns in Europe to stir support for the invasion in Afganistan in the european people it seems. And I thought they all were like Jason Bourne and 007. : (
Dying and bankrupt? No. Far below everyone's expectations for it, including its own expectations for itself? Yes.
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lackoo1111: *off*
But sometimes i feel the president of the USA nothing more than a puppet,and the full controll is in the hand of CIA,Pentagon and FBI.

Duh, that's exactly what it is. Power comes from those pulling the strings on the other side of the curtains.
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lackoo1111: *off*
But sometimes i feel the president of the USA nothing more than a puppet,and the full controll is in the hand of CIA,Pentagon and FBI.
....AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAAHAHA.... Hooo... Good one.
No, seriously. The Prez has the power to completely disband the CIA completely any time he likes; it is only, after all, an arm of the executive branch. It's a marvel that no President has done so yet, I think; there have been plenty of staff-purges, after all. As for the Pentagon, if they wanted to take over the country, they could very easily just do it with tanks, never mind this "manipulation" crap. Besides, if how our military leaders have been conducting the war on terror during the Bush administration is anything to go by, they're much more controlled than controlling.
And remember, kids, never attribute to malice what you can attribute to incompetence!
Inbe4 CIA shot Kennedy
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lackoo1111: *off*
But sometimes i feel the president of the USA nothing more than a puppet,and the full controll is in the hand of CIA,Pentagon and FBI.
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Prator: ....AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAAHAHA.... Hooo... Good one.
No, seriously. The Prez has the power to completely disband the CIA completely any time he likes; it is only, after all, an arm of the executive branch. It's a marvel that no President has done so yet, I think; there have been plenty of staff-purges, after all. As for the Pentagon, if they wanted to take over the country, they could very easily just do it with tanks, never mind this "manipulation" crap. Besides, if how our military leaders have been conducting the war on terror during the Bush administration is anything to go by, they're much more controlled than controlling.
And remember, kids, never attribute to malice what you can attribute to incompetence!

So you say the Pentagon doesnt take over the country because they are the good guys doing only what the best? Besides, i dont think they would be able to hold it together for much time if they actually did take over with tanks. Iraq proves that you can't contain a nation easily, no matter how much guns you have. It's a lot more difficult than what the simulator shows.