Groovy Bytes: Behind the Moon/groovybytes.iso/GROOVY/MISC/DIGITALU/DIG_CO04.ZIP/INVISGOV.TXT

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Wed, 7 Jul 1993 13:29
Brian F. Redman: Conspiracy for the Day -- July 7, 1993
[Followups to alt.conspiracy]




              Conspiracy for the Day -- July 7, 1993
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                     ("Quid coniuratio est?")


[The following was written circa 1964]

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"There are two governments in the United States today. One is
visible. The other is invisible."

"The first is the government that citizens read about in their
newspapers... The second is the interlocking, hidden machinery
that carries out the policies of the United States..."

"The Invisible Government is not a formal body. It is a loose,
amorphous grouping of individuals and agencies drawn from many
parts of the visible government. It is not limited to the Central
Intelligence Agency, although the CIA is at its heart."

The American people "know virtually nothing about the Invisible
Government. Its employment rolls are classified. Its activities
are top-secret. Its budget is concealed in other
appropriations... A handful of congressmen are supposed to be
kept informed by the Invisible Government, but they know
relatively little about how it works."

                   -+- History -+-

"The Invisible Government was born December 7, 1941, in the smoke
and rubble of Pearl Harbor." At the end of World War II,
President Truman disbanded the wartime Office of Strategic
Services (OSS). "Some of the OSS agents went into Army
Intelligence. Others were transferred to the State Department.
There they formed the nucleus of what became the Bureau of
Intelligence and Research, an important branch of the Invisible
Government."

"Four months after the OSS closed up shop, Truman, on January 22,
1946, issued an executive order setting up a National
Intelligence Authority and, under it, a Central Intelligence
Group, which became the forerunner of the CIA."

           -+- The "Other Functions" Proviso -+-

"The CIA was created by the National Security Act of 1947." The
duties of the newly formed CIA included the following: "to
perform such other functions and duties related to intelligence
affecting the national security as the National Security Council
may from time to time direct."

Soon, "a decision was reached to create an organization within
the CIA to conduct secret political operations... [The Office of
Policy Coordination] was in the CIA but the agency shared control
of it with the State Department and the Pentagon. On January 4,
1951, the CIA merged the two offices and created a new Plans
Division, which has had sole control over secret operations of
all types since that date."

President Truman later stated that, at the time, he had no idea
that the National Security Act of 1947 would balloon into such an
all-embracing octopus. In a syndicated newspaper article
datelined December 21, 1963, he wrote:

    For some time I have been disturbed by the way CIA has
    been diverted from its original assignment. It has
    become an operational and at times a policy-making arm
    of the government...

    I never had any thought that when I set up the CIA that
    it would be injected into peacetime cloak-and-dagger
    operations.
               -- Washington Post, December 22, 1963

[B.R. It is interesting that this article came out a month after
the assassination of President Kennedy.]

The "other functions" proviso of the 1947 National Security Act
"has been stretched to encompass activities by the CIA that are
not even hinted at in the law. It is not generally realized that
the CIA conducts secret political warfare under interpretations
of that law."

                 -+- Domestic Links -+-

"What has really changed since 1947 is not the general amorphous
shape of the Invisible Government, but its size, technology,
scope, power and importance -- all of which have increased in
geometric progression with a minimum of Congressional or public
examination or understanding."

"Although few Americans are aware of it, the CIA has offices in
twenty cities throughout the country... Since the CIA was created
to deal exclusively with foreign intelligence, the question might
be raised as to why it has field offices across the nation."

The CIA's domestic field offices are "useful in obtaining
intelligence from business firms that have extensive foreign
operations. In addition, the offices serve as contact points with
universities. The relationship between the CIA and the
universities is two-way -- the CIA secretly finances research
programs at some universities; in turn the universities help
recruit personnel."

"Despite the possible loss of academic freedom, most universities
and professors have shown little reluctance to work for the CIA."

"In addition to its links with the academic community, there is
evidence that the CIA subsidizes some foundations, cultural
groups and a publishing house as well... [The CIA] is deeply
involved in many diverse, clandestine activities right here in
the United States in at least twenty metropolitan areas. It can
and does appear in many guises and under many names."

               -+- The "Special Group" -+-

"All of the Invisible Government's hidden money is buried in the
Defense Department budget, mainly in the multibillion-dollar
weapons contracts."

"The important decisions about the Invisible Government are made
by the committee known as the Special Group... The Special Group
was created early in the Eisenhower years under the secret Order
54/12. It was known in the innermost circle of the Eisenhower
Administration as the '54/12 Group'... [The Special Group] has
operated for a decade [written ca. 1964] as the hidden power
center of the Invisible Government."

Around 1955 the Eisenhower administration, alarmed by the
mushrooming power of the CIA, established a committee to
get to the bottom of things. The Hoover Commission's Intelligence
Task Force, headed by General Mark W. Clark, expressed its
concern "over the absence of satisfactory machinery for
surveillance of the stewardship of the Central Intelligence
Agency."

Senator Mike Mansfield, of Idaho, introduced a resolution to
create a Joint Committee to oversee the operations of the CIA.
When introducing the resolution, Mansfield declared, "An urgent
need exists for regular and responsible Congressional scrutiny of
the Central Intelligence Agency... If we accept this idea of
secrecy for secrecy's sake, we will have no way of knowing
whether we have a fine intelligence service or a very poor one.
Secrecy now beclouds everything about the CIA." Mansfield's
resolution was defeated 59 to 27.

                 -+- "Black" Radio -+-

"The Invisible Government is heavily engaged in 'black radio'
operations of every conceivable type." These activities range
from the Voice of America "to highly secret CIA transmitters in
the Middle East and other areas of the world... [Many] radio
operations, financed and controlled in whole or in part by the
Invisible Government, are [skillfully concealed]."

Some of the CIA's radio operations "are hybrids -- broadcasting
organizations that solicit funds from business corporations and
the general public but also receive secret funds from the CIA.
While allegedly 'private' organizations, they receive daily
policy direction from the State Department and take orders from
the CIA."

"In some cases it is possible, indeed probable, that lower-level
employees of such an organization are unaware of the true point
of control of the particular activity."

"It is sufficient to note that an inevitable by-product -- as in
clandestine operations generally -- is that the American public
has been beguiled by some of this allegedly 'private'
broadcasting work."

                   -+- A Conclusion -+-

"The Invisible Government emerged in the aftermath of World War
II as one of the instruments designed to insure national
survival. But because it was hidden... it posed a potential
threat to the very system it was designed to protect."

As President Truman warned in the previously mentioned
*Washington Post* article (December 22, 1963):

    We have grown up as a nation, respected for our free
    institutions and for our ability to maintain a free and
    open society. There is something about the way the CIA
    has been functioning that is casting a shadow over our
    historic position and I feel that we need to correct it.


Despite the CIA's "wide-ranging clandestine activities, and
despite the importance, the power and the vast sums at the
disposal of the CIA and the other agencies of the Invisible
Government, there has not been enough intelligent public
discussion of the role of this secret machinery. In general,
critics of the CIA have been hobbled by a lack of sure knowledge
about its activities."

Yet "even when a clear policy [regarding the CIA] has been
established, a President may find it difficult to enforce.
Presidential power, despite the popular conception of it, is
diffuse and limited. The various departments and agencies under
his authority have entrenched sources of strength."

Furthermore, "a President operates under a constant awareness of
the capacity of disgruntled members of the Invisible Government
to undercut his purposes by leaking information to Congress and
the press... The Invisible Government has achieved a quasi-
independent status and a power of its own."

Congress "has been denied information about the increasing
involvement of the Invisible Government in domestic activities...
No rationale has been offered for a broad spectrum of domestic
operations: maintenance of a score of CIA offices in major
cities; the control of private businesses serving as CIA covers;
academic programs; and the financing and control of freedom radio
stations, publishing ventures and of exile and ethnic groups."

"There should be a thorough reappraisal by private organizations
and by the universities of the wisdom of their ties to the
Invisible Government. There is a real danger that the academic
community may find itself so closely allied with the Invisible
Government that it will have lost its ability to function as an
independent critic of our government and society. The academic
world should re-examine its acceptance of hidden money from the
CIA."

"These unseen domestic activities of the CIA have become
disturbingly complex and widespread. To the extent that they can
be perceived, they appear to be outside the spirit and perhaps
the letter of the National Security Act. No outsider can tell
whether this activity is necessary or even legal. No outsider is
in a position to determine whether or not, in time, these
activities might become an internal danger to a free society."

"In a free society attention should be given as well to the
increasing tendency of the American Government to mislead the
American people in order to protect secret operations. For
example:"

    U-2 Spy Plane Incident: "There was absolutely no -- NO
    -- no deliberate attempt to violate Soviet airspace.
    There never has been." -- Lincoln White, State
    Department Spokesman

    Bay of Pigs: "The American people are entitled to know
    whether we are intervening in Cuba or intend to do so in
    the future. The answer to that question is no." --
    Secretary of State Dean Rusk

    Missile Crisis: "The Pentagon has no information
    indicating the presence of offensive weapons in Cuba."
    -- Department of Defense


"The secret intelligence machinery of the government can never be
totally reconciled with the traditions of a free republic. But in
a time of Cold War, the solution lies not in dismantling this
machinery but in bringing it under greater control. The resultant
danger of exposure is far less than the danger of secret power."

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[Above excerpted from *The Invisible Government* by David Wise
and Thomas B. Ross. New York, Random House, 1964]

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Today's conspiracy brought to you by.......
Brian Francis Redman
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"The State is the coldest of all cold monsters."  -- Nietzche