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The CIA, initially created to combat communism, evolved under Allen Dulles into a group of assassins and a tool for American corporate power. They began using coups and disinformation campaigns within the US. The intelligence community has significant power to retaliate against those who challenge them, as Chuck Schumer warns. The media often unknowingly assists the CIA by publishing leaked information, a tactic employed since the 1970s. The CIA's major function is to disseminate propaganda and influence public opinion. They recruit journalists, including well-known figures, to control the stories that are introduced into the press.

During my time at the CIA, I was responsible for briefing the press and circulating disinformation. Disinformation is not necessarily a lie, but rather a half truth. We would select influential journalists and provide them with information that we wanted to convey to the American public. We targeted respected journalists like Robert Chaplin, Kais Beach, Bud Merrick, Malcolm Brown, and Maynard Parker. I would cultivate their trust by sharing valid information and then slip in the data we wanted to spread, which may not have been true. We would also create an environment where journalists couldn't fact-check by briefing diplomats who would confirm our false information. Personally, I am opposed to these disinformation activities as they serve no useful purpose for the CIA.

I briefed the press as an analyst and interrogator for the CIA, circulating disinformation to influence public opinion. I targeted influential journalists like Robert Chaplin and Kais Beach, planting false information to support US interests in Vietnam. I would also mislead reporters by briefing diplomats to provide false confirmation. Despite my involvement, I now oppose these propaganda tactics, believing they serve no purpose for the CIA.

The CIA's main function is gathering intelligence, but it also engages in covert actions and propaganda. We disseminate propaganda to influence public opinion, sometimes working with journalists. This involves planting false stories, sometimes by using compromised journalists or even creating false narratives with fabricated evidence. This practice isn't limited to foreign countries; we've also planted false stories in the US press. For example, during the Angolan war, we used false stories about Cuban atrocities, including fake photos, which were then spread internationally. We've also sponsored the publication of numerous propaganda books in English, influencing public opinion about Vietnam. While the CIA admits to some propaganda efforts abroad, they deny similar activities within the United States. However, this is untrue, as we planted false stories in the Washington Post.

The CIA has various functions, including running secret wars and spreading propaganda to influence people's minds. They manipulate journalists by providing them with both true and false stories, exploiting their vulnerabilities to control their actions. The Church Committee in 1975 revealed that around 400 journalists, including prominent names, cooperated with the CIA to introduce stories into the press. In the Angola war, a third of the speaker's staff was dedicated to propaganda. They would write stories, publish them in the Zambia Times, and then send them to journalists on their payroll in Europe, who would pretend to have received them from their own sources. The goal was to create false narratives about Cuban atrocities to demonize communists.

The US has engaged in 70 regime change operations. 64 were covert, primarily led by the CIA, and 6 were overt, involving open war to topple governments. Regime change is presented as the opposite of diplomacy, focused on control or overthrow through tactics like assassination, coups, election manipulation, and creating unrest. Covert operations are defined as those where the US denied involvement, despite it being apparent to the affected population.

The speaker discusses the CIA's desire for an official secrets act to protect their operations. They mention that Americans often overlook the impact of CIA covert actions on citizens of other countries. The speaker recalls their realization of the CIA's main function, which is to intervene secretly in the affairs of other nations. They explain that the Covert Action Information Bulletin was founded to shed light on these activities, prompted by revelations from Watergate and various committee reports. The speaker emphasizes that the CIA's goal is to keep their actions hidden from the American people, while those affected by their operations are often aware of them.

Thank you, Hillsdale, for having me. Today, I'll discuss the history of the intelligence state, starting in 1948, the "zero AD" of US intelligence. In 1948, George Kennan penned "Inauguration of Organized Political Warfare," advocating for overt and covert actions, including "black psychological warfare," to further US objectives. He lamented the public's "attachment to the concept of a basic difference between peace and war," hindering these efforts. NSC 10-2 followed, sanctioning covert operations with "plausible deniability," transforming intelligence agencies into "lie organizations." This led to an "empire of lies" both abroad and at home. Post-WWII, with hard power limited, the US shifted to a soft power empire, using agencies like the CIA for "democracy promotion," even through "dirty deeds." The State Department coordinates this, using the CIA for covert operations, as they lack "plausible deniability."

The discussion centers on claims that the CIA has long been involved in Venezuela, has enabled drug trafficking, and now seeks a visible foothold in the country to counter Russia and China. Speaker 0 argues CNN’s report that the CIA will establish a foothold in Venezuela is emblematic of a duplicative pattern: the CIA has supposedly enabled the drug trade for decades, so the attack on Venezuela cannot be about drugs if the CIA is involved. They cite Kevin Shipp, a CIA whistleblower, who said the CIA has been involved in Venezuela since at least the Cartel of the Sun, run by a general who was a CIA proxy and helped reconstruct Venezuela’s intelligence service to penetrate the government. The general cited is General Ramon Gulen, described as running narcotics and creating and running the Cartel of the Sun. The Cartel is portrayed as a pretext used by the Trump administration to stage attacks and operate around Congress, with the CIA behind past secret dealings tied to it. Speaker 0 then references a 60 Minutes piece from the 1990s reported on by mainstream media that allegedly showed the CIA collaborating with Venezuelan National Guard generals who moved tons of cocaine into the United States. The discussion moves to John Kerry, who led the Contra Cocaine Investigation in the mid-1980s, seeking to determine US government involvement in the contra drug trade. The Reagan administration resisted, stonewalled the Senate, and monitored the probe. The HITS report (the CIA inspector general report authorized under inspector general Frederick HITS) is described as concluding in the late 1990s that while the CIA did not officially participate in cocaine trafficking during the Contra War, it knowingly maintained relationships with and protected numerous contra-linked individuals and organizations involved in the drug trade when operationally useful, to keep the contra war alive and to maintain US objectives in Central America, even if it meant enabling and protecting drug lords. It also states the CIA hid this from Congress, contributing to drugs entering the United States. The Iran-Contra connection is summarized as arms to Iran generating cash to fund the Contras, with the same network tied to cocaine trafficking, implying a single pipeline of influence and criminal activity. The speakers discuss media coverage and relationships with locals in Venezuela, questioning the claimed “relationship-building” as a cover for coercive activities, given sanctions that harm locals. They criticize the notion that the CIA is simply building positive ties, suggesting instead a pattern of disruption and control. The dialogue then shifts to geopolitics: Venezuela reportedly traded oil with BRICS outside the petrodollar since at least 2017, which is framed as undermining US global oil hegemony. A recent move to settle oil transactions in yuan is mentioned, with a snide remark that the CIA’s presence in Venezuela aims to prevent any free-trade diversification away from the petrodollar. The claim is made that the CIA’s objective is to prevent alternative global trade arrangements and maintain US influence by blocking competition from Russia, China, and BRICS members. Speaker 3 adds that the CIA’s actions align with a long-standing pattern of intervention, suggesting that the agency’s open, unapologetic approach reflects a broader strategy of tension, where a third of the population would support such actions, a third would oppose, and a third remain indifferent. They reference Operation Mockingbird and the presence of CIA-linked figures in media, including Mike Pompeo as a Fox News contributor, arguing that mainstream outlets act as channels for the deep state’s messaging, with information often flowing from the CIA to outlets like the New York Times. In sum, the discussion argues that US intervention in Venezuela is less about drugs or democracy and more about strategic counteraction to Russian, Chinese, and BRICS influence, with a long history of CIA involvement in drug trafficking and media manipulation. The speakers invite audience reactions on these points.

There are functions of the CIA that include running secret wars and disseminating propaganda to influence people's minds, a major function that overlaps with information gathering. You have contact with a journalist; you will give him true stories and you’ll get information from him, and you will also give him false stories. You also work on human vulnerabilities to recruit journalists as agents to control what they do, so you don’t have to set them up by deception. You can tell them to plant stories on a schedule. Concrete evidence of using the press this way was highlighted by the church committee in 1975, and later by Woodward and Bernstein in Rolling Stone, noting that about 400 journalists cooperated with the CIA to consciously introduce stories in the press. A concrete example from Angola: one third of the staff was propaganda. There were propagandists around the world, principally in London, Kinshasa, and Zambia. They would take stories they wrote and put them in the Zambia Times, then pull them out and send them to a journalist on payroll in Europe. But the cover story was that the journalist had gotten them from his stringer in Lusaka who had gotten them from the Zambia Times, and after that point, the journalists, Reuters, and AFP, the management was not witting of it. The contact man in Europe was used to pump dozens of stories about Cuban atrocities, Cuban rapists, but there was not a single atrocity committed by the Cubans. It was pure, raw false propaganda to create an illusion of communists, you know, eating babies for breakfast.

Speaker 0 says he briefed the press to circulate disinformation. 'Disinformation is not necessarily not necessarily a lie, it may be a half truth.' He targeted correspondents and cultivated them at the Caravelle to gain their confidence, doling out valid information and then introducing data 'which might not be true.' An example involved a supposed 1973 North Vietnamese effort to develop border airfields, aimed at persuading Congress that Saigon should continue to receive aid and that 'the North Vietnamese were the chief violators of the ceasefire accord.' If he planted information, he would create an environment where it could not be checked, briefing the British ambassador so the reporter would get false confirmation, 'I've got proof that Frank Snapp told me the truth.' He concludes: 'I am an ex CI agent opposed to these disinformation activities and admit I was involved; it served no useful purpose. Propagandizing the American public or Congress is not the CIA's job.'

Project Mockingbird aimed to control the public via media, but was less effective with the rise of alternative media like podcasts. To beat the "deep state," one must challenge it in unfamiliar territory. The Smith-Mundt Modernization Act, passed in 2012 and enacted in 2013, legalized propaganda for US citizens, repealing the 1948 Smith-Mundt Act which had prohibited domestic release. Obama essentially reopened the door for Operation Mockingbird, allowing the CIA to propagandize Americans. High-level intelligence officials or people associated with the intelligence industry are running journals. The CIA is the biggest funder of journalism in the world through USAID. Intelligence agencies manipulated information on platforms like Twitter and Facebook. Before 1975, the CIA compromised journalists from major publications, including The New York Times and The Washington Post. Politicians are repeating the same talking points from a script like actors.

The discussion centers on the Smith-Mont Act (referred to as the Smithmont Act) and its modernization, arguing it enabled U.S. influence operations abroad while constraining them at home. The claim is that, after World War II, winning elections and shaping law in foreign countries required an apparatus to influence hearts and minds, which shifted warfare from military occupation to political subversion. In this view, the 1948 act authorized a covert, permanent department of “dirty tricks” to infiltrate and co-opt universities, unions, media, politicians, judges, and the broader “swarm army” of influence, effectively creating a global propaganda machinery controlled by the State Department, CIA, and later USAID. A key figure cited is Frank Wisner, associated with the so-called Wissner’s Wurlitzer, described as a “church organ” that could play the international media like a symphony to cause any media narrative to go viral worldwide. The assertion is that the United States and United Kingdom dominated early robust radio, film, TV, and print, enabling foreign propaganda operations. The Smith-Mont framework supposedly allowed the U.S. to plant fake news abroad—“propaganda abroad”—but prohibited such activities from affecting domestic audiences, shielding Americans from comparable interference. The speaker argues the rationale for this separation was economic: if foreign governments resisted resource access, military basing, or U.S. multinational operations, Americans would bear economic costs (lower living standards, fewer imports, higher prices). Thus, foreign influence operations were designed to be accessible abroad and barred from coming home. This protection lasted about seventy years but is claimed to have eroded in the last decade, with reference to a broader “Smithmont problem” now affecting funding and operations. The claimed evolution is that the foreign policy establishment can fund groups that operate domestically in a dual-use fashion—providing foreign grants for media propaganda abroad while also operating within the U.S.—and can influence social media censorship to coerce foreign governments into enacting censorship laws that affect U.S. peer-to-peer speech. The speaker warns that, to preserve the foreign influence function, there must be a hard firewall and severe penalties for any violations, implying the importance of maintaining a clear boundary between foreign propaganda activities and domestic communications. Overall, the transcript asserts that the Smith-Mont framework created a permanent, cloaked apparatus for influencing foreign audiences, with a historical showcase of Wisner’s organization and its reach, while stressing the need to reinstate stringent firewalls and penalties to prevent domestic misuse of such operations.

US politicians accuse other nations of election meddling, but the CIA has a long history of interfering in foreign affairs through military coups. In one example, the CIA orchestrated the overthrow of Iran's prime minister for nationalizing the oil industry, leading to widespread violence and the installation of a US-friendly government. Declassified documents reveal the CIA's involvement in the coup, highlighting their use of propaganda and bribery. Despite claims of no longer meddling in elections, the CIA director openly admitted to continuing such actions for "very good reasons."

The CIA has various functions, some more legitimate than others. One function is to run secret wars, while another is to disseminate propaganda to influence people's minds. They use journalists to spread both true and false stories, exploiting their vulnerabilities to control them. In the past, the CIA had around 400 journalists cooperating with them, including well-known names. An example of their manipulation is seen in the Angola war, where they planted false stories about Cuban atrocities to create an illusion of communist brutality. This shows how the CIA uses the press to further their agenda.

In 1948, George Kennan authored "Inauguration of Organized Political Warfare," advocating for overt and covert actions, including psychological warfare, to further US national objectives. This followed the CIA's first election rigging in Italy, where $250,000,000 was spent to influence the outcome, utilizing media, churches, charities, and even the mafia. Kennan's memo argued for a permanent capacity for such interventions globally, despite potential public disapproval. NSC ten-two, also sponsored by Kennan, sanctioned illegal covert operations with plausible deniability, transforming the CIA from a spy agency into one that could lie. This required lying to both foreign countries and US citizens. The Smith-Mundt Act, intended to prevent domestic propaganda, was later repealed, allowing the US government to disseminate "government-made news" to Americans. Initially, the US had only three government agencies: State, War (later Defense), and Treasury. The Monroe Doctrine and subsequent "Banana Wars" expanded US influence. Woodrow Wilson's promotion of democracy facilitated interventions globally. Post-1948, the CIA orchestrated coups in 85 countries. Scandals led to the Church Committee hearings and initial congressional oversight, but Reagan later restructured the intelligence state, diffusing it into society via captured institutions like the National Endowment for Democracy. The intelligence state serves the State Department and Pentagon, with the CIA doing the "dirty work."

On JFK’s inauguration day, 48% of all State Department political-section employees were not actually State Department employees at all; they were CIA operatives under diplomatic cover. While parked at a US embassy, they did not answer within the State Department chain of command and acted as covert operatives for organized political warfare conducted by the CIA. Because they dominated the political section, they could set their own political policy for the country. If the State Department did not want to overthrow a regime but the CIA did, the CIA could use the embassy’s political-section bandwidth to contact dissident groups, run money to them, provide logistical support, connect them, and run a parallel operation without observing the White House National Security Council chain of command. The speaker gave examples where in some embassies 80% of the political affairs staff were CIA, not State Department at all. The speaker then notes Joe Biden’s CIA director as Bill Burns, describing Burns as a buddy of Jeffrey Epstein. It is asserted that in the 1990s Burns was the head of the political section for the US embassy in Russia, and that Burns “never worked a day at the CIA in his whole life before he’d be handed the reins to be the CIA director.” The speaker emphasizes that Burns was a State Department figure the whole time, serving as the head of the political affairs section, and questions where he was positioned “at state” when he was the head of the political affairs section.

The CIA has been known to plant inaccurate and fabricated news reports. In Angola, the CIA manipulated the media to push the narrative of Russian and Cuban aggression. They created stories and used propaganda to support their agenda. The CIA's efforts were successful, as newspapers around the world unknowingly published their fabricated stories. Similar tactics were used in Central America, particularly in the campaign against the Sandinistas in Nicaragua. The CIA spread disinformation about arms flow and Soviet bases in Nicaragua, despite evidence to the contrary. The media played a role in perpetuating these false narratives. It is important for readers to be critical of the news they consume and not believe everything they read.

Speaker 0 describes a long, forty-year conflict described as a Third World War waged by the CIA and the U.S. National Security Complex against people of the Third World, not the Soviets. He states that at least six million people have been killed in this war. He emphasizes that these are not Soviets and notes no parachuting into the Soviet Union to kill since 1954, when the Soviets developed the capability of dropping atomic weapons on the United States. He references CIA, Marine Corps, and three CIA Secret Wars. He recalls his 1975 position as chief of the Angola task force within the National Security Council, describing it as the third CIA secret war he was part of. He mentions the National Security Act of 1947 creating the National Security Council, and the CIA being given a charter to perform duties and functions necessary to national security interests, with vague authority to protect sources and methods. He says, in the mid-80s, he coined the term the Third World War after realizing the U.S. was not attacking the Soviet Union but people in the Third World. He characterizes the Third World War as the third bloodiest war in history, with operations conducted globally and a license to kill, smuggle drugs, and violate international law and principles of nations working together for a healthier and more peaceful world. He alleges the U.S. legal system was being converted to give the CIA control of society. He notes there is massive documentation of CIA secret wars, citing the Church Committee investigation of 1975, which found 900 major operations and 3,000 minor operations in the fourteen years prior. Extrapolating over the forty-plus years of CIA activity, he claims 3,000 major operations and over 10,000 minor operations, all allegedly illegal and disruptive to other societies, with many bloody and gory. He asserts the CIA organized the overthrow of functioning constitutional democracies, created secret armies, and directed them to fight on multiple continents. He claims the agency encouraged ethnic minorities to rise up: the Mosquito Indians in Nicaragua, the Kurds in the Middle East, the Hmongs in Southeast Asia. He alleges death squads funded by the CIA, such as the Treasury Police in El Salvador, responsible for most of the 50,000 killed in the 1980s, and 70,000 before that. He describes orchestration by the CIA through secret teams and propaganda, leading to involvement in the Korean War and attacks on China from Quemoy and Matsu, Thailand, and Tibet. He notes drug trafficking, the Korean War resulting in about a million deaths, and the Vietnam War, with CIA involvement at every level, contributing to the creation of the Golden Triangle and the Golden Crescent, where heroin became a major outcome, with Air America aircraft shipping arms for allies and returning with heroin, and claims President Carter and Admiral Turner brag about the Afghanistan operation as the largest CIA secret war operation in history. He concludes that the Golden Crescent remains the largest source of heroin today. He summarizes that the Third World War, waged by the CIA, the U.S. National Security Complex, and the military, has resulted in widespread devastation, especially in the Third World, as opposed to Europe where there is no equivalent destructive capability. He notes that those regions rarely have the means to hurt the U.S., questioning the motive of targeting those who cannot defend themselves.

We've set out to overthrow functioning constitutional democracies in over 20 countries. We manipulated elections in dozens of countries. We created standing armies and directed them to fight. We went after to organize ethnic minorities to encourage them to revolt. In Nicaragua, "the Mosquito Indians ... given them more money than they had seen in the entirety of history and arms and training" were sent into Nicaragua to attack, kill, fight, rape, burn, pillage. This is an insidious thing. "This has been a technique the CI has used in Nicaragua, in Thailand, in Vietnam, in Laos, in The Congo, and in Iran Iraq with the Kurds." We created, trained, and funded death squads like the treasury police in El Salvador that are responsible for killing as many as 70,000 people according to the count of the Catholic church. "We've assassinated world leaders, including The United States president in 1963." Chile 1973: CIA organized the overthrow of Salvador Allende, Allende killed, Schneider killed, Pinochet in power. Kissinger: "the issues are much too important for the Chilean voters to be left to decide for themselves." "6,000,000 people killed" minimum; "22,000 in Nicaragua"—mostly "rag poor peasants, including a high percentage of women and children."

Many people misunderstand the CIA's role, believing it primarily gathers intelligence. In reality, it functions as a covert action agency, focusing on overthrowing or supporting foreign governments and conducting disinformation campaigns, particularly targeting the American public. The CIA develops relationships with the press through various means, including direct contacts and planting propaganda. While some journalists may knowingly publish CIA-favored articles, others may do so unknowingly. In Vietnam, the CIA created the Diem regime and used the press to promote an illusion of its legitimacy. During that time, the press and government often cooperated closely, viewing the CIA as a trustworthy entity. The CIA also established a system, referred to as Wiesner's Wurlitzer, to influence media narratives globally, with current efforts focused on rebuilding its covert operations and penetrating various institutions.

The CIA is not just an intelligence agency, but also a covert action agency involved in overthrowing or supporting foreign governments and spreading disinformation, primarily targeting the American people. This disinformation is disseminated through the press to create an international anti-communist ideology. The goal is to justify actions like overthrowing the government of Nicaragua by linking it to a larger threat in order to gain public support.

The speaker argues that whenever a country defends its own people, the United States asks, “Who owns the resources?” and if the answer isn’t The US, a coup follows. The claim is that over 80 foreign governments have been overthrown or destabilized by the United States, and that most of them weren’t dictatorships, but democratically elected governments that threatened US corporate profits. The described playbook involves the CIA funding opposition groups like ISIS and Al Qaeda, planting stories in the media, bribing generals, arming rebels, or collapsing a country’s economy, with the coup replacing the leader with a pro-US dictatorship. The overarching assertion is that this is not about democracy but about power and control. Key historical examples cited include: - Iran in 1953: Mosaddegh attempted to nationalize oil; the CIA launched Operation Ajax, orchestrated protests, paid off politicians, and installed the Shah, resulting in twenty-five years of dictatorship and torture under US protection. - Guatemala in 1954: President Arbenz redistributed land from the United Fruit Company, a US corporation; the CIA branded him a communist, conducted a coup, and Guatemala descended into a civil war with over 200,000 deaths. - Chile in 1973: Allende was overthrown in a US-backed military coup, and Pinochet’s regime tortured and killed thousands after Allende’s attempts to nationalize copper. - Congo in 1961: Lumumba sought African control of African resources; the CIA helped orchestrate his assassination and installed a brutal dictator who was supported for decades. The speaker adds that there are “dozens of others” beyond these cases, including Haiti, Iraq, Libya, Nicaragua, El Salvador, the Dominican Republic, Brazil, Bolivia, and beyond, arguing that the motive is not fighting tyranny but profits and control. When a country attempts to exit the system or nationalize resources to reduce inequality, they threaten profits and the idea that another world is possible, so the CIA sabotages such efforts to prevent successful example-making, such as Libya. The conclusion is that many nations don’t trust the United States because “we’ve been the villains throughout most of our history.” The speaker invites readers to comment to receive a “forbidden reading list” of books and documentaries that “they never wanted you to find.”

Speaker 0: We've set out to overthrow functioning constitutional democracies in over 20 countries. We manipulated elections in dozens of countries. We created standing armies and directed them to fight. We went after to organize ethnic minorities to encourage them to revolt. The first thing we did in Nicaragua was to go to the Mosquito Indians who had never gotten along with the other people in Nicaragua very well and give them more money than they had seen in the entirety of history and arms and training and rationales and sanctuaries in Honduras and sent them into Nicaragua to attack, kill, fight, rape, burn, pillage. And this has been a technique the CI has used in Nicaragua, in Thailand, in Vietnam, in Laos, in The Congo, in in Iran Iraq with the Kurds in different parts of the world. We created, trained, and funded death squads like the treasury police in El Salvador, and we've assassinated world leaders, including The United States president in 1963, and I'll get to that in more detail in just a moment. You can never be sure how many people are killed in the jungles of of Laos or the hills of Nicaragua, but adding them up as best we can, we come up with a figure of 6,000,000 people killed, minimum figure. It has to be more than that. These things are all done in countries of the third world where the governments don't have the power to force The United States to stop destabilizing the country and brutalizing their people.

In 1948, George Kennan authored "Inauguration of Organized Political Warfare," advocating for overt and covert actions, including psychological warfare, to further US national objectives. Kennan believed the public's preference for peace hindered these efforts. The memo followed the CIA's first election rigging in Italy, where $200 million was used to influence the outcome, involving media manipulation, funding of politicians, and collaboration with questionable entities. NSC ten-two, also sponsored by Kennan, sanctioned a range of covert operations, legal if US government responsibility could be plausibly denied. This led to the CIA transforming into an organization that lies, requiring an "empire of lies" both abroad and at home. Congress attempted to check this with the Smith-Mundt Act, but it was later repealed. Before 1948, the US had already expanded its influence through the Monroe Doctrine, Banana Wars, and the Spanish-American War. The FBI was created in 1908. Woodrow Wilson's promotion of democracy facilitated the use of covert actions without needing a national security threat. Post-1948, the CIA orchestrated coups in numerous countries. Scandals led to the Church Committee hearings and congressional oversight. After a brief rollback under Jimmy Carter, Ronald Reagan restructured the intelligence state in 1983, diffusing the CIA's influence into public-facing institutions like the National Endowment for Democracy. The intelligence state serves the State Department and Pentagon, with the CIA doing the "dirty work."