Originally published at: https://boingboing.net/2017/12/05/amyntor-ollie-north-erik-princ.html
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Now that the Supreme Court has upheld the travel ban things are going to start speeding towards real scary fascism. We’re doomed most likely.
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things that make me go hmm… about this article:
“Pompeo can’t trust the CIA bureaucracy, so we need to create this thing that reports just directly to him,” said a former senior U.S. intelligence official with firsthand knowledge of the proposals, in describing White House discussions. “It is a direct-action arm, totally off the books,” this person said, meaning the intelligence collected would not be shared with the rest of the CIA or the larger intelligence community. “The whole point is this is supposed to report to the president and Pompeo directly.”
But I’m going to share it’s existence with you, Mr Reporter.
Oliver North, who appears frequently on Trump’s favorite TV network, Fox News, was enlisted to help sell the effort to the administration. He was the “ideological leader” brought in to lend credibility, said the former senior intelligence official.
Really…? Oliver North and credibility?
And then it veers off into a pitch for an admittedly entertaining sounding TV thriller series.
Will it be on Amazon or Netflix?
Leaving aside all that, at present the best the article seems to amount to is that a bunch of shady pseudo-intelligence organisations have pitched ideas at people in the White House for a super-secret-spy-army™ - “please give us lots of money”.
Is that likely - yup, seems plausible.
Could this bunch in the White House possibly set up something like that? No.
I do like this bit:
The longtime associate of Prince said that the nexus of deniable assets has never gone away. “The NOC network is already there. It already exists for the better part of 15 years now,” he said.
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“…they were failing to give the president the intelligence he needed.”
Well the president’s lack of intelligence does seem to be a real problem… rimshot
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Well, when the president does it, that means it is not illegal, right?
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Do Not Adjust Inter Net, We Control Vertical, We Control Other One Too
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I’m tempted to dismiss this as crazy - but these are the same insane fucks who shot up a pizza place due to the ‘deep state child prostitution ring’.
The same ones who are ignoring an actual pedophile.
At this point I can’t dismiss the crazy.
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Headline refers to “wetwork,” which is a euphemism for assassination. That would, indeed, be a major escalation.
Conveniently, it’s also pardonable.
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Can’t these clowns come up with a wealthier boogeyman than Soros for their buffoonishly amateur spy games?
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If you’ve read any Soviet history then you recognize this idea that “secret saboteurs” (here referred to as “the deep state”) are the source of all your problems, and not your own incompetence. Although in this case it may be kind of correct, but it’s not “saboteurs”, it’s people who’ve worked in government a long time and know what is legal and ethical and competent; when Sally Yates said “I can’t enforce this order, it’s un-lawful” she wasn’t deliberately trying to sabotage Trump, she was showing respect for the rule of law.
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If this thing is real, I don’t see how those passages appear dubious. The fact that this organisation will be answerable only to Pompeo and Trump does not mean its existence will be a secret. Something like Hitler’s Sicherheitsdienst would be a model here. Oliver North meanwhile will be there to provide credibility - not to you or me, but to Trump.
If this thing does get announced though, I suspect you can look forward to it being presented in the blandest possible terms. “White House signs contract with international policy researchers”
(EDIT: North appears regularly as a talking head on Fox News, in case you are wondering why he might be convincing to Trump)
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I wonder if Trump will accept his indictment and sail into the sunset in cuffs or otherwise, or will he go full on fascist dictator, disappearing people and launching a police state.
Well, I’ve made my opinions clear in many public forum. When the thought police go live I’m toast.
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One side of my brain says this is crazy talk. The other side of my brain says this is the most plausible endgame after you start labeling your political opponents as “enemy.”
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“The f*** didn’t I think of that?” - Dick Cheney
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I think with previous administrations you’d be right, it’d get some really bland announcement. But this is the Trump administration we’re talking about.
We’d get a tweet and press conferences all about how Trump had personally set up a secret force of elite spooks led by his great pal Erik Prince and how they were going to go after the bad hombres plotting against 'Murica wherever they are in the world.
I saw that in the article. I still find it hard to believe.
Even if one assumes that Trump thinks anyone on Fox News must know what they’re talking about especially if they say nice things about Trump, I can’t see even Trump being happy taking advice on setting up a clandestine paramilitary organisation from one of the people involved in one of the most public black-ops failures in American history.
Surely, even he’s not that stupid? Oh, hang on… Forget it. You’re right.
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You really think he didn’t? Odds are, it was either too early in the collapse of political civility for him to get away with it, or it was actually too evil even for him.
Neither answer makes the current administration look any better.
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I just came here to say that the Intercept podcast (presented by Jeremy Scahill) is really fucking great. I can heartily recommend it!
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