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Politics : Foreign Affairs Discussion Group -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: tekboy who wrote (18093)	2/5/2002 8:51:19 PM
From: 49thMIMOMander	Respond to of 281500

"above your paygrade" , almost included that in my comment, now I have done it. However, I would like to listen to Ritter for one hour on CSPAN.

To: tekboy who wrote (18093)	2/6/2002 12:46:21 PM
From: Win Smith	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 281500

I had a peon's view of the events described here, and let's just say that Baer's presentation (which was excerpted in Vanity Fair recently) is pretty self-serving. Oops. I can't match your view. In general, though, I think people often underestimate the kind of risks that internal opposition to well-entrenched police states face. It's one thing to overthrow an Allende or Lumumba, but quite another to stage manage an insurrection from Langley where all the insurrectionists may very likely disappear without a trace. Anyway, elsewhere on the CIA front, did you notice this article? nybooks.com ? Do you know of Thomas Powers? Judging from nybooks.com , he seems to have been on the Company watch for quite some time. I haven't read any of that stuff, but I remember an old article of his from the Atlantic, early '80s, on nuclear policy. It was alternately chilling and entertaining.

To: tekboy who wrote (18093)	6/24/2002 4:54:47 PM
From: LindyBill	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 281500

the decision to go to war with Iraq was something to be made by people "above your paygrade," and the same holds for Baer. Having read the book, my take was that Baer kept Lake, et al, informed of what the Iraqi opposition was up to, they let the opposition go ahead and get ready to pull a "Coup", then Lake pulled the plug at the last moment. He was mainly pissed off at the double dealing with the insurgents. Baer hated Lake because of this, and was instrumental in making sure that he did not get confirmed as Director of the CIA. In any case, the mechanics of how the CIA "Ops" actually works and how bureaucratic it has become makes for a very interesting read. And a very discouraging one.