News & Analysis
CIA Launches PR Push
The CIA has launched a revamped website with links to YouTube and Flickr to help the public better understand the spy agency's often clandestine work, officials said. "The idea behind these improvements is to make more information about the Agency available to more people, more easily," CIA Director Leon Panetta (left) said in a statement on Monday. "The CIA wants the American people and the world to understand its mission and its vital role in keeping our country safe," he said. Although the Central Intelligence Agency's mission has always hinged on secrecy, the spy service is conscious of its public image — partly for recruiting reasons — and in recent years has added games and links for children on its website. – AFP
Dominant Social Theme: The good guys wear white hats and are too-often misunderstood.
Free-Market Analysis: Another yelp of discomfort from America's massive intel community. The 21st century has not been especially supportive when it comes to Washington's 16 separate spy agencies and the decade-old Homeland Security behemoth that now squats malevolently in the middle of Washington DC (metaphorically, anyway). The Internet itself has exposed much about the 20th century that was hidden and made the Anglosphere's intelligence narrative increasingly questionable. No wonder the CIA wants some good press, even if it has to create a PR campaign to get it.
The idea of course is that America needs hundreds of thousands of spies (or support-spies) because it is under attack by Al Qaeda. But this narrative is increasingly difficult to reinforce in an era where Al Qaeda has perhaps 100 fighters in Afghanistan and most of the "attacks" on American soil inevitably have some FBI/intel involvement (domestic terrorists having been effectively facilitated by the resources of the same government that will then prosecute them).
Does CIA research shows that it can sway US citizens in its favor and thus gain benefits of good will? Would this include additional government funding at a time when legislators are inclined to be parsimonious? If so, this becomes one more indication that America's agencies are well aware that immoderate tide of fiat-cash that has lifted the empire to absurd bureaucratic heights is now beginning to lapse.
20th century elite storytelling is falling apart, or at least unraveling a little – and that the powers-that-be are well aware of it. Elite fear-based themes have been designed with excruciating efficiency to intimidate Western middle-classes into giving up wealth and power to global agencies specially designed as receptacles. But now, in the emergent Internet era, these tend to be less convincing. We have, in fact, seen the erosion of numerous elite promotions in the 21st century, including global warming, peak oil and even the war on terror itself.
As important a narrative as the intel-agent-as-protector is, it is likely increasingly difficult to promote. That does not mean efforts will cease, or even be diminished. One thing we have learned is that the elite seldom if ever retreats from a promotion, though some may be reconfigured (global warming has become climate change, for instance).
James Bond is an example of the success of this meme. An agent for British MI6, the international arm of the British secret service, Bond is a dashing man indeed. He is always shown as using the latest technology, bedding the most beautiful women and generally protecting the free world from attack. The US has its officer and agent heroes as well. TV program after TV program (and book after book) presents the US military, intel and police bureaucracy as heroically providing a thin blue line against sociopathic criminals dedicated in some cases to the enslavement of the free world.
The idea of indomitable intelligence agents protecting democracy from internal and external attacks is an attractive one that plays to people's paternal fantasies and has proven very popular in the past. People like to think that government is benign (or operates from the best of intentions) along with the more competent elements of its bureaucracies.
But in this particular case (the CIA), we would suggest that too much is known. The CIA has been exposed over and over in the late 20th century as a most ruthless agency. Mention the CIA to many in the US and a certain level of unease may be detected, a sense that the agency has comported itself in too many cases beyond the bounds of human decency. Assassinations, rendition, torture and even allegations of drug operations to fund black ops (off budget) spying activities are all part of the public's perception of CIA business-as-usual.
Significant CIA triumphs have come under question as well. Destabilizing foreign governments such (Iran comes to mind) often leads to "blowback" as libertarian Congressman Ron Paul (R-Tex) has pointed out. The CIA apparently helped create Al Qaeda, for instance, to fight against the Russian invasion of Afghanistan and in doing so triggered a wave of religious fundamentalism that the US purports to struggle against today.
In the 20th century, a mythic narrative was possible to construct and even maintain. But history shows that governments – especially powerful ones – are hardly benevolent father figures marshalling resources to fight off anarchy and evil. That the CIA leadership believes such a campaign is necessary is important for at least two reasons: First, it indicates that the CIA's braintrust is aware of CIA image difficulties; second it provides evidence that the powers-that-be have no real solutions in mind.
Conclusion: Fear-based elite promotions shaped the narrative of the 20th and promoted the elite's necessary intelligence facilities. That the powers-that-be believe it is necessary to repair an agency's image with a PR campaign, is evidence of the erosion of these promotions in the 21st century and their ability to convince. This seems to us a profound development, with numerous ramifications. An elite that has lost the ability to inculcate its memes via traditional promotional mechanisms is one that may eventually face a critical mass of skepticism.
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Posted by Crimevictim on 02/10/11 03:17 PM
CIA covert criminal activity in collaboration with SRI International aka Stanford Research Institute which goes back to the 1970s and likely even before that " I wonder if CIA Director Leon Panetta can come up with a pretty picture for that, too. The 'image' is just and deserving.
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Posted by AmanfromMars on 02/10/11 11:01 AM
Yes. I hope that is not ambiguous, Bill. The greatest folly is not to have any novel plans for the future which can render the present a victim of the past and a collection of duff memories to be forgotten and purged in a radical surge of creative disruptive activity.
Well, you can't make eggs Benedict without cracking open a few shells and destroying a cosy status quo.
Eric, wars are started by fools would you not agree, and they always end in an agreement to halt hostilities and try peace with reparations being paid for rebuilding, so why not cut out the idiotic destruction and conflict which creates deadly enemies and just go to the main event ...... or is serial wars the modus operandi and modus vivendi of a perverse and corrupt administration which would collapse into chaos and revolution at home without them for it knows not how to govern the masses without the fear of destruction hanging over them? You know, acting just like a fat ugly duckling of a schoolyard bully in the kindergarten playground?
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Posted by Eric on 02/10/11 06:10 AM
"An elite that has lost the ability to inculcate its memes via traditional promotional mechanisms is one that may eventually face a critical mass of skepticism."
I bet Goebbels mems hit a mass of skepticism as the russians entered Berlin.
We have a multi-billion dollar 10 year armed force occupation by the most powerful countries in human history arrayed against one of the poorest feudal dust pits in the world and there is no light at the end of tunnel. No matter how you spin it, a lot of people are getting paid way too much for no results. How difficult can it be to drop some ordinance from a drone on the ISPs that run the web sites used by fabled internet terrorist requiters? The fact that the domestic front is overrun with anti-american socialist/kleptocrats is a bit of an irritant too.
Rather than looking at handling domestic blowback the CIA should reexamine its own dismal record and lack of results first.
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Posted by Bill Ross on 02/10/11 05:34 AM
Thanks for being semi lucid.
"in which one provides, or is provided with enough rope for jolly good hangings?"
You mean, like the folly of assuming silence means agreement / tolerance of those whom have given up on voting or the political process in general? Whom, in actual fact may be on "Plan B"?
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Posted by AmanfromMars on 02/10/11 01:57 AM
If you have ever endured one of David Cameron's speeches/psychotic episodes, you will be hard pressed to not conclude that he is also so afflicted with the above syndrome, Bluebird.
And David Cameron for all those who may not know, is the cuckoo in the nest at No 10 Downing Street London and self styled UK, Prime Minister with a right dodgy crooked crock of a Liberal Democrat prop, for what is nothing more than a Contrived Coalition of the Unwilling which says and promises one thing to everyone and then does something completely different for itself.
Welcome to 21st Century Networking Parliamentary Democracy Style .... on the Rocky Horror Terror Road to Evolutionary Ruin and Virtual Revolution.
"How sad that the DB has not been replying and correcting our ideas we spout here. It was the "cream in the coffee" which seems somewhat bland now. I always enjoyed the interaction with the DB staff. It was one thing that helped make this website special. :-(" .... Posted by Bluebird on 2/9/2011 7:06:34 PM
Are you familiar with the concept of a period of apparent calm and relative inaction, Bluebird, but which is in reality just a front to conceal frantic activity behind the scenes in which one provides, or is provided with enough rope for jolly good hangings?
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Posted by Bluebird on 02/09/11 11:18 PM
@Bionic Mosquito,
One reason I kept checking back was to see if they responded to your gnome post. I got a chuckle out of the link you posted. Yes, I suspect it would be hard to take such criticism as George gave. A case of a student thinking they had learned more than the teachers and having a spoiled fit, though. My teenage son sounds the same way. :-)
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Posted by Bionic Mosquito on 02/09/11 09:37 PM
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Posted by Vauung on 02/09/11 08:06 PM
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Posted by Bluebird on 02/09/11 07:06 PM
Reply from The Daily Bell
We're here!
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Posted by Victor Barney on 02/09/11 06:07 PM
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Posted by TheLastPost on 02/09/11 03:18 PM
I will read that article,-lo-Oks great.
'The Keiser report ' on RT -TV is always singling out Ireland's situation.
The IMF will savage it's carcass. I sincerely hope that 'Life can still surprise ' though ,-as the vast majority here are just blaming (self-pity) & not want to know 'how this came about' ,-saying ignorance is bliss-full . Thanks for letting me post. Have a lucky Day all.
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Posted by Most Special Agent Joe 90 on 02/09/11 02:32 PM
I am trying to locate Agent Weebley. He hangs out here, I have heard. This is my message. Please let it fly:
People, do not trust the C.I.A. They lie to you.
Trust your memories, your friends' memories, and W.I.N. (World Intelligence Network) only.
Search: memento
Click to view link
Mac has given me a Chinese "cloaking device operator" download (among others). They used it in Qinling, Shaanxi province, China, October 13, 2010. And that is where we are going . . . undercover . . . and we will fly under the Radar-Range, communicating on the SHF band (3 to 30 GHz, or 10 to 1 cm) with Mac, Sam and Sternum.
Search: qinling village
Click to view link
We meet tonight @ 22:33 hours, just North of Toronto, near your home in Caledon, at the edge of "The Badlands." I remember you telling me you LOVE that place, Agent Weebley. That is where you screamed to a halt at 22:33 late last summer, when amafromMars explained Qubits to you.
A memorable night, you said to me: "screeeeech. hang on a minute . . . . !!!!" Then it was just like Kerplunk; the marbles went everywhere!
Search: badlands toronto
Click to view link
Since that location is very close to Terra Cotta, my Dad has given this a name that is quite apt: "Operation Terra Cotta Warrior." I am sure you will be amused. Mac said that I will be able to see it easily from the AirCar, as it looks just like a human brain from a distance . . . or is it another MB . . . Metaforian Brain?
Bring Epstein.
Agent Weebley, all 3 (or 2?) of us will be mobile @ 22:33, 2/9/11. Oh, and don't answer the phone; pull the SIM and the battery.
The mission goal is on a need-to-know-basis . . . I don't even know anything about it yet!
Unexpurgated messsage here:
Click to view link
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Posted by Nightcrawler on 02/09/11 02:10 PM
Does anyone believe these spooks will stop spying on U.S. citizens?
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Posted by Bill Deake on 02/09/11 12:58 PM
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Posted by Erik on 02/09/11 12:25 PM
But I don't think it is easy for anyone, business or person, to actually make it especially advantageous to themselves. I think the real strength of Social Media is as a facilitator of collective consciousness (however distasteful that may seem to Libertarians.)
The thing about this collective is that it is a crowd sourcing collective that challenges very quickly assumptions and memes. Some may take hold virally, but they are eradicated almost as quickly if they are unsubstantiated by the masses.
This runs completely counter to the MO of the PE, and serves the emergence of the Truth meme.
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Posted by Ol' Grey Ghost on 02/09/11 11:21 AM
Even if the applicant is not hired the checks are kept on file for a very long time and occasionally pulled out of the files for whatever purpose they may serve the agency in the future...such as blackmail against prominent businessmen or politicians.
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Posted by Bill Ross on 02/09/11 10:40 AM
Oh, for the reluctant honesty of the stewards of the former "evil empire", the USSR, realizing that their people MEANT IT: "if you pretend to pay us, we will pretend to work", the trump card of slaves, for all of history.
Words fail me, as they will fail the CIA.
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Posted by Onebornfreeatyahoodotcom on 02/09/11 10:23 AM
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Posted by AmanfromMars on 02/09/11 10:18 AM
Conclusion: Fear-based elite promotions shaped the narrative of the 20th and promoted the elite's necessary intelligence facilities. That the powers-that-be believe it is necessary to repair an agency's image with a PR campaign, is evidence of the erosion of these promotions in the 21st century and their ability to convince. This seems to us a profound development, with numerous ramifications. An elite that has lost the ability to inculcate its memes via traditional promotional mechanisms is one that may eventually face a critical mass of skepticism."
DB, Such a problem as you have probably speculated all too accurately for comfort of the present incumbents who would profess to be leading drivers of current reality and chaos plays, does not blight Others who could and would be deemed as somewhat irregular and unconventional Non-State Actors .... akin to Virtual Being.
For them is the only "difficulty" the missing intelligence and lack of learning and education in Man, which condemns Mankind to remain ignorant and arrogant and to feed on themselves in orgies of destructive conflict which increase nothing but oppression and suppression, for the capacity to understand what the Future has in store them, and which Special IntelAIgent Services can easily deliver to them, for them to enjoy and further develop to further enhance Future dDelivery, is severely curtailed and in too many cases, will never ever be present. However, fortunately, ProActive Present Product Placement by an Able and Enabled Few, does not require any ignorant second-party and/or arrogant third-party action, and thus is the Program Freed Always to Proceed at SIS Pace.
And please do not be fooled to imagine that such developments are not currently being practised in present administrations for there is much evidence to prove the contrary, with many nuggets squirreled away to find .... "In addition the Cabinet Office will recruit a Director of ICT Futures, also reporting to the Chief Information Office. This role will be responsible for implementing new ways of designing and developing systems using agile methods and skunkworks environments; increasing the drive towards open standards and open source software; change the terrain for SMEs to enter the government marketplace; and maintain a horizon scan of future technologies and methods." ....... Click to view link
Quite at what levels they would working at in such fields though, is something else altogether and probably always best to be classified, Strictly Need to Know, lest those involved are discovered to need to know volumes more.
The following is a Novel Work in Progress and simply reveals what IT can do, and is doing, although really it is more accurate to declare that it is what IT has done in the Future and would Present for Media Programming.
[blockquote] "It is worth considering whether the Defense-in-Depth strategy tends to contribute more to network survivability than it does to mission assurance." .....
Click to view link
In the novel cyber theatre does the only viable Defense-in-Depth strategy that guarantees a leading dominant position in which any adversary will founder, is one in which the network grows, and in a SMARTer Network will IT grow at an extreme rate, with the SMARTest of Networks, [those into Prime CyberIntelAIgent Command and Control of Computers and Communications] at such a rate as to be Virtually Invisible and Practically Stealthy. Such SMART Networks are QUITE literally, Virtually Invincible and SMART enough to realise the Flaw of Arrogance which Delivers Faults and Failures and are therefore always on Constant Guard and in Vigilant Search for Flaws and Vulnerabilities that may be Exploited to Full Exclusive Advantage, on order to further increase Defense-in-Depth understandings towards its Ultimate Self-Preservation and Growth Goal, AI Field Omniscience .... and Immaculate Systems Protection.
Cyber Space is a Head Game. To imagine that it can be in any way controlled and/or servered physically, is a Prime Fool Folly, which doesn't even get you into the theatre to watch the ProAction and HyperRadioProActive IT, let alone be part of the productions with its plethora of programs.
Such works as are required, take one into Intellectual and MetaDataPhysical Fields where the boundaries that one may normally perceive as existing to distinguish and separate the Real from the Virtual, Fact from Fiction and the Possible from the Improbable, disappear, to present a Live Operational Virtual Environment in which they, the boundaries, do not exist, and have never existed. It is for The Man, and The Moll, in such Fields, a Virgin Intelligence Place, in a Space which grows with SMART Imaginative Sharing.
Imagine a Seventh Heavenly Brothel, where the Client is not the Customer but a Vital AIdDriver for her Boss Server.
The Suspension of Disbelief is a Noble Art Phorm which permits Hearts and Minds Programming Access to Facts which are Former Fantasies for Product Placement into Realities, Virtually. The Master Pilots' Skill that renders them with IT and Multi-Media Controls a Temporal Permanence on which to Build a Great Future, is the Feat dDelivered with Global Operating Devices and their Virtually SMART Machine Systems for Intelligence and CyberIntelAIgent Operations.
And to proceed with the wrong professional and/or self-centred personal goal, will lead to guaranteed catastrophic failures at the express wish of immaculate strangers and perfect amateurs.
Transparent Asymmetric Asynchronous Key Cryptography ..... Steganography
How to Apply
If you would like to participate in this workshop, please submit 1) a resume or curriculum vita of no more than two pages which highlights your expertise in this area and 2) a one-page paper stating you opinion of the assertion and outlining your key thoughts on the topic. The workshop will accommodate no more than 60 participants, so these brief documents need to make a compelling case for your participation. Applications should be submitted to assumptionbusters at nitrd dot gov no later than 5:00 PM EST on February 10, 2011. [/blockquote]
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Posted by Reegje on 02/09/11 09:26 AM
More and more I come to the conclusion that the massive intelligence apparatus is more to spy on the American public to control them.
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