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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 World War 2, the head of British intelligence sought friendship with the Americans. He approached the Rockefellers, offering access to UK espionage in exchange for financial support. The Rockefellers agreed and provided an entire floor at Rockefeller Center rent-free for the operation of the OSS, the precursor to the CIA. Alan Dulles and others were involved in this Rockefeller-backed organization. The CIA's roots can be traced back to the Rockefellers, who also held a strong disdain for organized labor. This information can be easily found online.

In the past, spy agencies were only active during times of war and would be dissolved afterwards. However, after World War II, the United States established the Office of Strategic Services (OSS), which marked the birth of modern intelligence. The OSS engaged in various unconventional operations to demoralize and confuse the enemy. When the war ended, President Truman dissolved the OSS to prevent the creation of an American Gestapo. But it was too late, as the intelligence community had already gained immense power. The CIA was formed to combat the Soviet Union during the Cold War, but it soon became involved in illegal and unethical activities. The Church Committee exposed these abuses, leading to some oversight regulations. However, the events of 9/11 prompted a resurgence of unchecked power and secrecy within the intelligence community. The balance between security and democracy remains a challenge.

This video discusses the State Department's Global Music Diplomacy Initiative and its use of music as a tool for political influence. It explains that the CIA and State Department work together in covert diplomacy actions, using music to penetrate countries' cultures and create political movements. Examples include jazz diplomacy in the 1940s, where high-level jazz musicians were recruited as cultural ambassadors, and the Congress for Cultural Freedom, which onboarded classical musicians to counter the Soviet Union's cultural appeal. The video also mentions the use of music in color revolutions and regime change operations, where music galvanizes people and mobilizes them to protest against governments.

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.

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."

Okay, let's warm up by exploring intelligence operations disguised as aid. We'll start with Cambodia, just north of Vietnam, and examine State Department exchange programs like One Beat, which recruits young musicians for "social engagement." The goal is to find community leaders who can be activated for US interests. Applicants must be active in their communities, ready to promote democracy or regime change. I was able to find that the US is using music to woo Cambodians, sponsoring artists to sing positive songs about America. USAID is also funding artistic initiatives, youth leadership programs, and media outlets. The CIA's World Factbook reveals Cambodia's resources—oil, gas—aligning with US interests. They emphasize human rights violations against LGBTQ groups, for example, and fund organizations like Chemonics, whose founder aspired to "have my own CIA."

USAID, or the U.S. Agency for International Development, is not an aid organization in the traditional sense. Established in the early 1960s by JFK, its purpose is to develop institutions globally that support U.S. foreign policy. USAID coordinates capacity-building efforts for activist groups in foreign countries to align with the interests of the State Department. With a budget of $50 billion, it surpasses the combined budgets of the CIA and the State Department. Essentially, USAID acts as a facilitator for the Pentagon, State Department, and intelligence community, aiding in national security and foreign policy objectives.

The speaker describes Stepan Bandera and the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists as Nazi-aligned white supremacists who murdered Jews, Poles, and Russians. After World War II, the CIA used the Galen organization to coordinate with the Banderists as a stay-behind force to fight the Soviets, resulting in a violent war until the Soviets gained the upper hand around 1953-1954. Many Banderists were imprisoned or fled to the West, where they were welcomed and maintained connectivity through diaspora funding. After being released from the gulag, they infiltrated Ukrainian society. The CIA continued to coordinate the resurrection of Banderist ideology to weaken the Soviet Union, which succeeded in 1991. In 2014, the CIA ousted the Ukrainian president and replaced him with someone the US could support, resulting in the Banderists taking control. The speaker claims the CIA has been supporting Banderist groups since 1945.

American president Franklin Delano Roosevelt tasked Wild Bill Donovan from Columbia Law School to establish the OSS, which later became the CIA. Donovan supported communist forces in Yugoslavia, leading to Eastern Europe falling to the Soviet Union. General Patton's life was threatened by the NKVD, and Donovan had connections to Stalin. Donovan's associate Duncan Lee spied on Patton and leaked information to the Soviets. Bandera warned of an assassination attempt on Patton, but Donovan sent him back to the Russians, resulting in Bandera's execution. Donovan's actions raised suspicions of collaboration with communists.

USAID, established in 1961 by JFK, is not an aid organization despite its name. The "aid" in USAID stands for the U.S. Agency for International Development, which focuses on developing institutions that the State Department needs. It coordinates capacity-building efforts for activist groups in foreign countries to align with U.S. interests. With a budget of $50 billion, USAID surpasses the combined budgets of the CIA and the State Department, which totals $72 billion. Essentially, USAID acts as a facilitator for the Pentagon, State Department, and intelligence community, supporting national security and clandestine operations.

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.

The Cold War began after World War II, and the United States hired former Nazis to gather intelligence on the Soviet Union. Reinhard Gellan, a Nazi general, joined the US Office of Strategic Services and provided valuable information about the Soviets. Other Nazis, like Klaus Barbie and Arthur Rudolph, were also recruited by the US. Operation Paperclip was a project that relocated Nazi scientists to prevent their capture by enemy nations. Gellan created a spy network called Gellanorgh, which served as the CIA's eyes and ears in Western Germany. Gellan exaggerated the Soviet threat to maintain his position and influence US policy. This collaboration with former Nazis fueled the Cold War and allowed many war criminals to escape justice.

This is a FOIA document that reveals the use of motion pictures as psychological warfare by the CIA. The CIA groomed and recruited Ian Fleming, helping him write his books and script for the movie Thunderball to portray the agency in a positive light. The president of MPAA also provided intelligence to the CIA. The use of motion pictures for psychological manipulation dates back to pre-1947, when US intelligence aimed to alter American thinking. The CIA funnels information to Hollywood, which influences the population's beliefs. Additionally, electromagnetic influence can be used to control the entire human race through television and radio networks.

The discussion opens with a provocative line about not needing a CIA director this year because the National Endowment for Democracy is in place, followed by introductions of Carl Gershwin as founding co-president of the National Dialogue for Democracy and the plan to cover the topic at length. The speakers claim that democratic groups worldwide could be seen as subsidized by the CIA, noting that such subsidies were curtailed in the 1960s and that the Endowment was created to fund groups the CIA subsidized back then. They assert that, before grants are made, all grants are sent through the State Department to the CIA, and promise deeper exploration of “Ned CIA” material. They list prominent entities alongside the National Endowment for Democracy, including the Rockefeller Foundation, the Atlanta Council, Ellen White as an operative who prepared the way for political changes in the past two years, and efforts to take down the Soviet Union through internal coups in Poland, Bulgaria, Romania, and Czechoslovakia. George Soros and the Open Society Foundation, as well as the Atlantic Council, are also named as funders or players in this network. The conversation identifies the Rockefeller Foundation as a major funder, calling it the “hellspawn of John D. Rockefeller and the octopus of Standard Oil,” and notes its funding of the Atlantic Council alongside the Pentagon and the State Department, claiming over $1,000,000 a year. A claim is made about the Rockefeller Foundation’s involvement beyond NATO’s civil society arm, including a reference to Google as the source for who runs the Rockefeller Foundation, and a mention that the foundation had an endowment around $6,000,000,000, making it the thirtieth largest foundation globally by endowment. The discussion briefly covers Raj Shah, described as having been appointed head of USAID by Barack Obama, previously at the Gates Foundation, and later running the Rockefeller Foundation, identifying him as the number one head of USAID. Speaker 2 shifts to criticizing Raj Shah and USAID, then highlights a partnership announcement between USAID and Mr. Beast’s philanthropic endeavors, noting Mr. Beast’s substantial net worth (estimates cited around $2.6 billion, with a referenced $5 billion company valuation). The speakers then pivot to analyzing Mr. Beast’s online influence, citing his enormous view counts across multiple channels and arguing that his content represents the most popular material on the Internet, capable of shaping hearts and minds and, therefore, serving as a finely tuned instrument of statecraft. The dialogue returns to ongoing coverage of Mr. Beast videos, including a live example of a Minecraft-based Hunger Games-style video with multi-minute view counts, and ends with a broad assertion that the Rockefeller Foundation has partnered with the CIA in a civil-society capacity and that Mr. Beast’s platform, with hundreds of millions of views, could function as a tool of statecraft, given its reach and influence.

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's current issues stem from tax-free foundations it established. Initially, the CIA created dummy foundations with impressive names to funnel money to legitimate philanthropic organizations. These real foundations, ranging from obscure to well-known, agreed to mix government funds with their own and distribute them to various private organizations that were on the CIA payroll during the 1940s, 50s, and 60s. These foundations are part of the 15,000 charitable funds that emerged in America, influenced by wealthy individuals and tax laws, and they play a significant role in the American establishment, which includes influential families, law firms, and universities that have shaped U.S. life and policy since World War II.

During the Cold War, the US government secretly funded various cultural activities, including the works of renowned artists like Jackson Pollock and Mark Rothko. This covert patronage by the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) is often ignored by the arts establishment. The CIA had specific aims and aesthetics, aiming to counter the influence of fascist or Stalinist concepts in art, literature, and music. The government's cultural program denied its existence, claiming that creative works were independent, which was not always true. The agency sought to inspire attitudes that aligned with the US government's actions, hoping to convince people of their righteousness.

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 outlines a framework for understanding current information control by the US and its allies, arguing that the State Department, the Pentagon, and the Central Intelligence Agency operate together to shape information in society. They describe three roles: the State Department conducts overt information control through funding media institutions (which are presented as “free and independent” but labeled government-backed); the Pentagon engages in information control through psychological operations; and the CIA operates covert information control, influence campaigns, propaganda, and censorship work. Between the State Department and the CIA sits a vast network of soft power institutions that implement this influence. Soft power is defined as the alternative to hard power, enabling a country to win “hearts and minds” and influence other countries’ governments by manipulating populations. The speaker connects this framework to the Brazil situation, stating at the top level the involvement of three or more organizations: the State Department, USAID, and the National Endowment for Democracy (NED). USAID and the NED are described as intermediaries between the State Department and the CIA, with the NED characterized as a CIA cutout established after the Church Committee era to fund dissident groups in a publicly firewalled way, though the speaker asserts there is no real divide between the NED and the CIA. The NED’s founders explicitly noted it would do what the CIA used to do, but via a private, publicly named entity. The speaker cites Christopher Walker (NED) as a participant in this ecosystem. The narrative then moves to a 2017 GlobSec video, described as the origin of today’s censorship industry’s consensus. The video’s description is read, highlighting concerns about traditional media being challenged by internet news and social networks, the spread of “unfiltered” alternative media, and the problem of algorithms that personalize content and reinforce confirmation bias. It identifies populist and extremist right-wing groups as exploiting these algorithms, and asks how to protect users from fake news and propaganda without censorship. It questions the role of information technology companies and the responsibility of social platforms for content, while debating how to fight extremism without undermining free speech. The panel includes figures tied to the CIA, DHS, and private security and consulting groups. Key participants highlighted include Michael Chertoff (Executive Chairman of the Chertoff Group, former DHS Secretary, linked to censorship governance), and Christopher Walker (Vice President of NED), among others. The speaker emphasizes Chertoff’s connections to BAE Systems and to the broader military–intelligence–policy network, noting Chertoff’s role in shaping how platforms were to police “unfiltered” content in 2017. The speaker also references Nina Janković, who was connected to the disinformation governance board and the Integrity Initiative, asserting a lineage from Chertoff to the broader censorship apparatus. The speaker then broadens the geopolitical frame to Russia’s resource wealth (citing a claim of $75 trillion in resources vs. the US’s $45 trillion), noting that the Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) theater is the battleground for Eurasian influence. The montage in the video is described as starting with 1917 and Woodrow Wilson, portraying the blob’s view of democracy as a vector for hegemonic influence, and linking it to propaganda, censorship, and the need to control online discourse. The montage proceeds through references to 1936, Goebbels and the 1936 Olympics, Hitler, 1943, Elvis, 1960s–70s conspiracy theories about the CIA and JFK, and 1990s declassification of Northwoods-era plans, culminating in the framing of Internet propaganda as a modern battlefield. The session transitions to a live moderator, with a check on audio levels and an introduction to the next segment, announced as taking place in Bratislava for a global audience.

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."

International broadcasting played a critical role in the USSR and Eastern Europe. Information poured across borders from Beijing to Budapest to Warsaw to Vilnius. News that millions stood up to oppressors helped others sweep oppressors away. International broadcasters were equally important in laying the groundwork for democratic revolutions. Eastern Europeans sound Western in talking about freedom, democracy, free enterprise, and environmental concerns. They got these ideas mainly from international broadcasters like Voice of America, BBC, Radio Liberty, and Radio Free Europe, not from their own media or textbooks.

Following the Bay of Pigs in 1961, JFK and the CIA were at war. JFK advisor Arthur Schlesinger wrote a memo detailing the CIA's covert actions and paramilitary warfare. Kennedy was preparing for a major shakeup of the CIA. JFK fired Alan Dulles, the head of the CIA. Kennedy also went after how the CIA financed their operations. The International Cooperation Administration (ICA) was the financial arm that funded foreign assistance and non-military security programs. It was accused of being a CIA cutout. The ICA was replaced by USAID. Questioning history is important, and one should always ask questions and question everything.