11-07-2013, 01:44 AM
Asked one day by VP George Bush how his POW investigation was going, Ross Perot snapped "Well, George, I go in looking for prisoners, but I spend all my time discovering the government has been moving drugs around the world and is involved in arms deals… I can't get at the prisoners because of the corruption among our own covert people."
"You do not have to be a CIA-hater to trek around the world viewing one major narcotics group after another and grow amazed at the frequency with which you encounter the still-fresh footprints of American intelligence agents." - John Mills, The Underground Empire
"If you are an American reading this, let me ask you: aren't you tired of it all? The endless pressure and anxiety, the awful atmosphere at work (that's if you can get work), the constant one-upsmanship that passes for friendship or social relations, the lack of community or of any meaningful connection with your neighbors." Morris Berman
"No matter how paranoid or conspiracy-minded you are, what the government is actually doing is worse than you imagine" William Blum, Rogue State: A Guide to the World's Only Superpower
"In my twelve years of case officering I never saw or heard of a situation in which the KGB attacked or obstructed a CIA operation…In fact CIA and KGB officers entertain each other frequently in their homes. The CIA's files are full of mention of such relationships in almost every African station." - John Stockwell, In Search of Enemies
"I spent 33 years and four months in active military service and during that period I spent most of my time as a high class muscle man for Big Business, for Wall Street and the bankers. In short, I was a racketeer, a gangster for capitalism. I helped make Mexico and especially Tampico safe for American oil interests in 1914. I helped make Haiti and Cuba a decent place for the National City Bank boys to collect revenues in. I helped in the raping of half a dozen Central American republics for the benefit of Wall Street. I helped purify Nicaragua for the International Banking House of Brown Brothers in 1902-1912. I brought light to the Dominican Republic for the American sugar interests in 1916. I helped make Honduras right for the American fruit companies in 1903. In China in 1927 I helped see to it that Standard Oil went on its way unmolested. Looking back on it, I might have given Al Capone a few hints. The best he could do was to operate his racket in three districts. I operated on three continents." Marine Corps Maj. General Smedley Butler, 1935
"Before the Freedom of Information Act, I used to say at meetings, The illegal we do immediately; the unconstitutional takes a little longer.' [laughter] But since the Freedom of Information Act, I'm afraid to say things like that." Henry Kissinger to Turkey's Foreign Minister, 1975
"Solitary maniacs who assassinate Presidents are a national tradition. The idea of a conspiracy, so logical to European minds, was alien to Americans. Then too, if even one more suspect was uncovered the whole ghastly matter would have to be reopened with unpredictable consequences. No one wanted that. It was much better all around to accept the Warren Report...For all its bulk, the report was a sloppy piece of work, carelessly researched and based on a priori judgements...Evidence that cast doubt on the single-killer hypothesis was ignored, so was material pointing to other possibilities...There was no proof that Oswald was such a marksman, considerable evidence that he was a poor shot, yet the Commission insisted that he was expert and the shot itself an easy one...There was much reason to doubt [the single-bullet theory], little to believe it, yet the Commission clung to it desperately." - William L. O'Neill, Professor of History at Rutgers University, in his history of the Sixties, Coming Apart (1971)
"An official investigating commission, headed by Chief Justice Warren, found that the President had been shot by a solitary psychotic, like Lincoln and McKinley before him; but it tortured the evidence to arrive at this conclusion. It seems more likely that the assassination was the work of a small-time, semi-criminal, semi-political conspiracy, but the truth has never been satisfactorily established. Whatever it may be, the event was a reminder of all the ugly, chaotic forces in American life..." - Hugh Brogan, British historian and author, The Penguin History of the United States of America (1985)
"All the good young reporters and public officials who mistakenly swallowed the official FBI-CIA line on the assassination 30 years ago have been waiting all this time for someone to relieve them of the self-doubt they are too smart not to have suffered under." - Jonathan Kwitny on the media reaction to Posner's Case Closed.
"The Vietnam War is getting worse. The US army communiques about recent victories sound eerily identical to the French news I heard as a child. They speak of police operations,' of routine rounding-up of suspects, of mounting casualties among the rebels,' of their imminent defeat." (Jacques Vallee diary entry, Feb 1965, Forbidden Science)
"You read, you're televised to, you're radioed to, you're preached to, that it is necessary that we have our armed forces fight, get killed and maimed, and kill and maim other human beings including women and children because now is the time we must stop some kind of unwanted ideology from creeping up on this nation. The place we chose to do this is 8000 miles away...I don't think the whole of South East Asia, as related to the present and future safety and freedom of the people of this country, is worth the life or limb of a single American. I believe that if we had and would keep our dirty, bloody, dollar-crooked fingers out of the business of these nations so full of depressed, exploited people, they will arrive at a solution of their own." - Retired Gen. David M. Shoup, former Marine Corps Commandant, Feb 20 1967
"Republican or Democrat, this nation's affluent urban and suburban classes understand their bread is buttered on the corporate side. The primary difference between the two parties is that the Republicans pretty much admit that they grasp and even endorse some of the nastiest facts of life in America. Republicans honestly tell the world: "Listen in on my phone calls, piss-test me until I'm blind, kill and eat all of my neighbors right in front of my eyes, but show me the money! Let me escape with every cent I can kick out of the suckers, the taxpayers, and anybody else I can get a headlock on, legally or otherwise." Democrats, in contrast, seem content to catalog the GOP's outrages against the Republic, showing proper indignation while laughing at episodes of The Daily Show. But they stand behind the American brand: imperialism. They "support our troops," though you will be hard put to find any of them who have served alongside them or who would send one of their own kids off to lose an eye or an arm in Iraq. They play the imperial game, maintain their credit ratings, and plan to keep the beach house and the retirement investments if it means sacrificing every damned Lynndie England in West Virginia." ― Joe Bageant, Deer Hunting with Jesus: Dispatches from America's Class War
"You do not have to be a CIA-hater to trek around the world viewing one major narcotics group after another and grow amazed at the frequency with which you encounter the still-fresh footprints of American intelligence agents." - John Mills, The Underground Empire
"If you are an American reading this, let me ask you: aren't you tired of it all? The endless pressure and anxiety, the awful atmosphere at work (that's if you can get work), the constant one-upsmanship that passes for friendship or social relations, the lack of community or of any meaningful connection with your neighbors." Morris Berman
"No matter how paranoid or conspiracy-minded you are, what the government is actually doing is worse than you imagine" William Blum, Rogue State: A Guide to the World's Only Superpower
"In my twelve years of case officering I never saw or heard of a situation in which the KGB attacked or obstructed a CIA operation…In fact CIA and KGB officers entertain each other frequently in their homes. The CIA's files are full of mention of such relationships in almost every African station." - John Stockwell, In Search of Enemies
"I spent 33 years and four months in active military service and during that period I spent most of my time as a high class muscle man for Big Business, for Wall Street and the bankers. In short, I was a racketeer, a gangster for capitalism. I helped make Mexico and especially Tampico safe for American oil interests in 1914. I helped make Haiti and Cuba a decent place for the National City Bank boys to collect revenues in. I helped in the raping of half a dozen Central American republics for the benefit of Wall Street. I helped purify Nicaragua for the International Banking House of Brown Brothers in 1902-1912. I brought light to the Dominican Republic for the American sugar interests in 1916. I helped make Honduras right for the American fruit companies in 1903. In China in 1927 I helped see to it that Standard Oil went on its way unmolested. Looking back on it, I might have given Al Capone a few hints. The best he could do was to operate his racket in three districts. I operated on three continents." Marine Corps Maj. General Smedley Butler, 1935
"Before the Freedom of Information Act, I used to say at meetings, The illegal we do immediately; the unconstitutional takes a little longer.' [laughter] But since the Freedom of Information Act, I'm afraid to say things like that." Henry Kissinger to Turkey's Foreign Minister, 1975
"Solitary maniacs who assassinate Presidents are a national tradition. The idea of a conspiracy, so logical to European minds, was alien to Americans. Then too, if even one more suspect was uncovered the whole ghastly matter would have to be reopened with unpredictable consequences. No one wanted that. It was much better all around to accept the Warren Report...For all its bulk, the report was a sloppy piece of work, carelessly researched and based on a priori judgements...Evidence that cast doubt on the single-killer hypothesis was ignored, so was material pointing to other possibilities...There was no proof that Oswald was such a marksman, considerable evidence that he was a poor shot, yet the Commission insisted that he was expert and the shot itself an easy one...There was much reason to doubt [the single-bullet theory], little to believe it, yet the Commission clung to it desperately." - William L. O'Neill, Professor of History at Rutgers University, in his history of the Sixties, Coming Apart (1971)
"An official investigating commission, headed by Chief Justice Warren, found that the President had been shot by a solitary psychotic, like Lincoln and McKinley before him; but it tortured the evidence to arrive at this conclusion. It seems more likely that the assassination was the work of a small-time, semi-criminal, semi-political conspiracy, but the truth has never been satisfactorily established. Whatever it may be, the event was a reminder of all the ugly, chaotic forces in American life..." - Hugh Brogan, British historian and author, The Penguin History of the United States of America (1985)
"All the good young reporters and public officials who mistakenly swallowed the official FBI-CIA line on the assassination 30 years ago have been waiting all this time for someone to relieve them of the self-doubt they are too smart not to have suffered under." - Jonathan Kwitny on the media reaction to Posner's Case Closed.
"The Vietnam War is getting worse. The US army communiques about recent victories sound eerily identical to the French news I heard as a child. They speak of police operations,' of routine rounding-up of suspects, of mounting casualties among the rebels,' of their imminent defeat." (Jacques Vallee diary entry, Feb 1965, Forbidden Science)
"You read, you're televised to, you're radioed to, you're preached to, that it is necessary that we have our armed forces fight, get killed and maimed, and kill and maim other human beings including women and children because now is the time we must stop some kind of unwanted ideology from creeping up on this nation. The place we chose to do this is 8000 miles away...I don't think the whole of South East Asia, as related to the present and future safety and freedom of the people of this country, is worth the life or limb of a single American. I believe that if we had and would keep our dirty, bloody, dollar-crooked fingers out of the business of these nations so full of depressed, exploited people, they will arrive at a solution of their own." - Retired Gen. David M. Shoup, former Marine Corps Commandant, Feb 20 1967
"Republican or Democrat, this nation's affluent urban and suburban classes understand their bread is buttered on the corporate side. The primary difference between the two parties is that the Republicans pretty much admit that they grasp and even endorse some of the nastiest facts of life in America. Republicans honestly tell the world: "Listen in on my phone calls, piss-test me until I'm blind, kill and eat all of my neighbors right in front of my eyes, but show me the money! Let me escape with every cent I can kick out of the suckers, the taxpayers, and anybody else I can get a headlock on, legally or otherwise." Democrats, in contrast, seem content to catalog the GOP's outrages against the Republic, showing proper indignation while laughing at episodes of The Daily Show. But they stand behind the American brand: imperialism. They "support our troops," though you will be hard put to find any of them who have served alongside them or who would send one of their own kids off to lose an eye or an arm in Iraq. They play the imperial game, maintain their credit ratings, and plan to keep the beach house and the retirement investments if it means sacrificing every damned Lynndie England in West Virginia." ― Joe Bageant, Deer Hunting with Jesus: Dispatches from America's Class War