Transcribing an Angleton tape forced me to think about the man behind the voice, not what he was saying because unfortunately I’m not familiar enough with the dynamics he was being asked to elaborate about, but how he was saying it. The obvious intermittent slurred speech coloured my assessment initially, but once I accepted that he was either drunk, on drugs, tired or maybe even bored or a combination of any of these – and as unpopular as it will be – I thought I heard a genuineness. It occurred to me that he wanted to ‘tell the story’ on his terms and that he was attempting to “inform”, but again, only on his terms. It was the interrogator’s responsibility to draw from him greater revelations and they didn’t that I recognized; that would be an equally interesting aspect of the research imv. So there you have it, a superficial assessment, that Angleton came across to me just as authentic as did the interrogators. I know, not a popular view,
I am not that familiar with American FOI law but my understanding was that if the CIA has some control over the material, even without having custody of the material, that is sufficient jurisdiction to begin the FOI process.
Transcribing an Angleton tape forced me to think about the man behind the voice, not what he was saying because unfortunately I’m not familiar enough with the dynamics he was being asked to elaborate about, but how he was saying it. The obvious intermittent slurred speech coloured my assessment initially, but once I accepted that he was either drunk, on drugs, tired or maybe even bored or a combination of any of these – and as unpopular as it will be – I thought I heard a genuineness. It occurred to me that he wanted to ‘tell the story’ on his terms and that he was attempting to “inform”, but again, only on his terms. It was the interrogator’s responsibility to draw from him greater revelations and they didn’t that I recognized; that would be an equally interesting aspect of the research imv. So there you have it, a superficial assessment, that Angleton came across to me just as authentic as did the interrogators. I know, not a popular view,
I am not that familiar with American FOI law but my understanding was that if the CIA has some control over the material, even without having custody of the material, that is sufficient jurisdiction to begin the FOI process.
He is still a national security issue because the CIA refuses to release his files.
FREETHEFILES, all of them, for us, the people you represent.
Very good article. Though I am still laughing at the”insufficiently paranoid” crack.