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I’m glad people are finally catching on to this. The CIA has their tentacles in pretty much all aspects of society, and it has been that way for years. They hav

by craigc 5y ago

I’m glad people are finally catching on to this. The CIA has their tentacles in pretty much all aspects of society, and it has been that way for years. They have even admitted this openly: https://twitter.com/CIA/status/1034866941587087360 https://twitter.com/CIA/status/1034866941587087360 > CIA officers work as scientists, support staff, engineers, economists, linguists, mathematicians, secretaries, accountants, inventors, cartographers, architects, psychologists, police officers, editors, graphic designers, auto mechanics, historians, museum curators, & more! Curiously absent from that list is journalists…

dragonwriter 5y ago
That tweet isn't an admission of the type you are claiming. (it's a list of things people on the overt CIA payroll do as their overt jobs at CIA, not a list of industries into which CIA employees work surreptitiously or in which the CIA recruits assets.)
- jjtheblunt 5y ago
  i'm glad you said that because i read the parent comment and thought how could that list have been so miscontrued.
- adamiscool8 5y ago
  Is there any reason to believe the CIA wouldn't have covert assets surreptitiously working in all those same roles, either domestically or abroad?
- craigc 5y ago
  Or maybe it is a mixture of both? Are you sure they don’t have covert people in all the very same positions? Does the CIA have its own internal museums, mapmaking companies, architecture firms? What buildings do their architects design? Employing an internal economist might be able to give you an idea of financial things going on in the world, but employing an economist who writes for a prominent media company or is on TV allows you to shape how the public THINKS about economics and financial markets which is much more powerful. Perhaps the tweet is not an open admission of this, but it doesn’t take a lot of effort to connect the dots.
  - dragonwriter 5y ago
    > Or maybe it is a mixture of both? No. > Are you sure they don’t have covert people in all the very same positions? I’m sure they have covert assets in a much wider array of positions, but I know what “officer” means in the intelligence context, and even of I didn't have that preexisting knowledge there is only one thing that tweet can mean on the context of the thread, and it's not an admission of anything outside of the overt employment opportunities at CIA. > Does the CIA have its own internal museums, mapmaking companies, architecture firms? It has its own museum; the cartographers and architects it employs don't work in internal “companies” or “firms”, the same way software developers working for (say) the Department of Health and Human Services don't work for an internal software company. > What buildings do their architects design? They don't, they analyze information about the design of buildings on which the CIA has information (public plans, photographs, etc.) to help determine what is or may be true about them that isn't directly revealed by that information to non-experts. There’s a very wide range of experts the CIA employs for the purpose of analyzing intelligence, open-source and otherwise. > Employing an internal economist Which the CIA does, and not just one. > might be able to give you an idea of financial things going on in the world Which is more than a little important. > but employing an economist who writes for a prominent media company or is on TV allows you to shape how the public THINKS about economics and financial markets which is much more powerful. Sure, but that's a pretty unlikely role for a CIA officer; if the CIA was doing something outside like that (which would be absolutely unsurprising; in fact that it has in the past done so is well known [0]) it would be through outside assets. > Perhaps the tweet is not an open admission of this Its not, and it takes a total failure of reading comprehension to think it might be. > but it doesn’t take a lot of effort to connect the dots. There are literally no dots to connect. [0] Look up the “Propaganda Assets Inventory”, aka Wisner’s Wurlitzer.
mhh__ 5y ago
The CIA employs linguists!? All of the things you've listed sound pretty reasonable for basically any huge gov agency
- gpm 5y ago
  > The CIA employs linguists!? Not sure why this is a surprise? They're in the business of understanding information from all over the world, in all languages... and are undoubtedly interested in things like "this accent means this person came from this part of the country" too.
  - mhh__ 5y ago
    Sarcasm. I hoped it was obvious from the second paragraph.
    - gpm 5y ago
      Oops, sorry. I read it as "well this one is surprisingly, but the list is generally reasonable". My bad.
  - jessaustin 5y ago
    It could be a surprise because they always blame translation difficulties whenever they fail to predict important events e.g. fall of USSR, 9/11, no WMDs, 12-hour Taliban flash-takeover of Afghanistan, etc. One almost suspects that they don't particularly care to get "intelligence" right since they have other priorities.
aerostable_slug 5y ago
The Clandestine Service has had prohibitions against working under journalistic cover in the past. This is because it's thought that free access by journalists to trouble spots beats the possibility of tainting the profession in the eyes of the world (in other words: press access is a bigger net win). It has been violated from time to time, but at least it's talked about. To my knowledge, the only absolute bar is anything at all to do with the Peace Corps. It would be a Very Bad Thing if people start to think those nice kids digging wells and handing out rice might be intelligence officers.
- picsao 5y ago
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- deleted 5y ago
  [deleted]
- anextio 5y ago
  This logic didn't stop them from running a fake vaccination program in Pakistan to try to find Osama. It directly led to a significant rise in vaccine refusal in the region. https://www.vox.com/first-person/22256595/vaccine-covid-pakistan-cia-program https://www.vox.com/first-person/22256595/vaccine-covid-paki... So I find it unlikely that they internally enforce prohibitions against meddling with anything at all.
  - RF_Savage 5y ago
    They did not stop either. They have used being vaccination workers as cover in Kenya. https://www.dailymaverick.co.za/article/2020-08-28-revealed-the-cia-and-mi6s-secret-war-in-kenya/ https://www.dailymaverick.co.za/article/2020-08-28-revealed-...
deleted 5y ago
[deleted]

by craigc 5y ago

dragonwriter 5y ago

That tweet isn't an admission of the type you are claiming. (it's a list of things people on the overt CIA payroll do as their overt jobs at CIA, not a list of industries into which CIA employees work surreptitiously or in which the CIA recruits assets.)

jjtheblunt 5y ago
i'm glad you said that because i read the parent comment and thought how could that list have been so miscontrued.
adamiscool8 5y ago
Is there any reason to believe the CIA wouldn't have covert assets surreptitiously working in all those same roles, either domestically or abroad?
craigc 5y ago
Or maybe it is a mixture of both? Are you sure they don’t have covert people in all the very same positions? Does the CIA have its own internal museums, mapmaking companies, architecture firms? What buildings do their architects design? Employing an internal economist might be able to give you an idea of financial things going on in the world, but employing an economist who writes for a prominent media company or is on TV allows you to shape how the public THINKS about economics and financial markets which is much more powerful. Perhaps the tweet is not an open admission of this, but it doesn’t take a lot of effort to connect the dots.
- dragonwriter 5y ago
  > Or maybe it is a mixture of both? No. > Are you sure they don’t have covert people in all the very same positions? I’m sure they have covert assets in a much wider array of positions, but I know what “officer” means in the intelligence context, and even of I didn't have that preexisting knowledge there is only one thing that tweet can mean on the context of the thread, and it's not an admission of anything outside of the overt employment opportunities at CIA. > Does the CIA have its own internal museums, mapmaking companies, architecture firms? It has its own museum; the cartographers and architects it employs don't work in internal “companies” or “firms”, the same way software developers working for (say) the Department of Health and Human Services don't work for an internal software company. > What buildings do their architects design? They don't, they analyze information about the design of buildings on which the CIA has information (public plans, photographs, etc.) to help determine what is or may be true about them that isn't directly revealed by that information to non-experts. There’s a very wide range of experts the CIA employs for the purpose of analyzing intelligence, open-source and otherwise. > Employing an internal economist Which the CIA does, and not just one. > might be able to give you an idea of financial things going on in the world Which is more than a little important. > but employing an economist who writes for a prominent media company or is on TV allows you to shape how the public THINKS about economics and financial markets which is much more powerful. Sure, but that's a pretty unlikely role for a CIA officer; if the CIA was doing something outside like that (which would be absolutely unsurprising; in fact that it has in the past done so is well known [0]) it would be through outside assets. > Perhaps the tweet is not an open admission of this Its not, and it takes a total failure of reading comprehension to think it might be. > but it doesn’t take a lot of effort to connect the dots. There are literally no dots to connect. [0] Look up the “Propaganda Assets Inventory”, aka Wisner’s Wurlitzer.

mhh__ 5y ago

The CIA employs linguists!? All of the things you've listed sound pretty reasonable for basically any huge gov agency

gpm 5y ago
> The CIA employs linguists!? Not sure why this is a surprise? They're in the business of understanding information from all over the world, in all languages... and are undoubtedly interested in things like "this accent means this person came from this part of the country" too.
- mhh__ 5y ago
  Sarcasm. I hoped it was obvious from the second paragraph.
  - gpm 5y ago
    Oops, sorry. I read it as "well this one is surprisingly, but the list is generally reasonable". My bad.
- jessaustin 5y ago
  It could be a surprise because they always blame translation difficulties whenever they fail to predict important events e.g. fall of USSR, 9/11, no WMDs, 12-hour Taliban flash-takeover of Afghanistan, etc. One almost suspects that they don't particularly care to get "intelligence" right since they have other priorities.

aerostable_slug 5y ago

The Clandestine Service has had prohibitions against working under journalistic cover in the past. This is because it's thought that free access by journalists to trouble spots beats the possibility of tainting the profession in the eyes of the world (in other words: press access is a bigger net win). It has been violated from time to time, but at least it's talked about. To my knowledge, the only absolute bar is anything at all to do with the Peace Corps. It would be a Very Bad Thing if people start to think those nice kids digging wells and handing out rice might be intelligence officers.

picsao 5y ago
[dead]
deleted 5y ago
[deleted]
anextio 5y ago
This logic didn't stop them from running a fake vaccination program in Pakistan to try to find Osama. It directly led to a significant rise in vaccine refusal in the region. https://www.vox.com/first-person/22256595/vaccine-covid-pakistan-cia-program https://www.vox.com/first-person/22256595/vaccine-covid-paki... So I find it unlikely that they internally enforce prohibitions against meddling with anything at all.
- RF_Savage 5y ago
  They did not stop either. They have used being vaccination workers as cover in Kenya. https://www.dailymaverick.co.za/article/2020-08-28-revealed-the-cia-and-mi6s-secret-war-in-kenya/ https://www.dailymaverick.co.za/article/2020-08-28-revealed-...

deleted 5y ago

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