Bart Gellman and Greg Miller of the Washington Post report on the long secret “black budget” of U.S. intelligence agencies. Obtained from NSA contractor Edward Snowden, the document “maps a bureaucratic and operational landscape that has never been subject to public scrutiny.”
One finding refutes the cliche, sometimes heard in discussions of the causes of JFK’s assassination, that “Washington can’t keep a secret.”
“Spending by the CIA has surged past that of every other spy agency, with $14.7 billion in requested funding for 2013. The figure vastly exceeds outside estimates and is nearly 50 percent above that of the National Security Agency, which conducts eavesdropping operations and has long been considered the behemoth of the community.”
http://money.cnn.com/2013/06/07/news/economy/nsa-surveillance-cost/
One look at their parking lot tells a lot
John. F. Kennedy’s assassination happened 50 years ago and a majority of Americans do not believe The Warren Commission Report. After 50 years of denials, free the files.
“Sunny Day in Dallas” – Gerry Segal https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mRH7qTLzxvU
http://www.gerrysegal.com
Several friends of mine from over the ponds intrigued with the possibility that NSA might have every phone call ever made in the US in its data mines gave me an interesting question: If the NSA has been practicing electronic eavesdropping since the 1950’s do they have recordings or transcripts of people talking on the phone in 1963 that may have been involved in the ambush of President Kennedy? What if any such material originated from Pentagon, CIA or other agencies, Federal or civilian? Did any of them ask NSA about it in the past?
Robert Harper says it nicely about Snowden, many globally view him as a courageous practitioner of civil disobedience, a sort of modern day Thomas Paine for making a stand against what he feels is wrong in government. Smear tactics used against Paine were so severe & effective the US didn’t even want to bury him on US soil when he died; only 6 turned up to pay their respects to the former hero that authored ‘Common Sense’.
As more is learned about the secret ‘black budget & its connection between intelligence agencies & NSA eavesdropping it’s possible the desire for the CIA to ‘come clean’ may be taking place if dedicated people (especially investigative journalists)don’t let the issue go cold.
The Warren Commission did have Jack Ruby’s long distance telephone call records. Seth Kantor wrote about these and how they show Ruby in frequent telephonic contact with underworld figures in the weeks before the assassination. I have heard that there are no such records on Oswald because he did not have a telephone.
While I agree with most of the sentiments expressed by JSP, I do not consider Snowden a “traitor.” If one believes, as I do, that a coup d’etat took place in Dallas, then ALL subsequent governance is illegitimate. Until the government owns up to the security-state related assassinations of 3 men between 1963 and 1968, anything that is said by that same government is tinged with an aura of falsity.In my mind, Snowden is helping the deconstruction that has to be done. The UK finally held hearings on the massacres of “Bloody Sunday” and gave immunity to all to get the truth. The US hasn’t done that yet. Someday, truth will out, and the government of the US will have moral authority and respect from its own people and from around the world.
The depravity and incompetence of the CIA, and the failure of our “defense” department to defend the US on 9/11, are yet ongoing cancers from the original evil act from the same actors JFK was unto.
Hear, hear!
We used to compare department stores in the old days for prices, service, etc. and decide which ones we wanted to shop in, back before the internet opened up all kinds of shopping that changed the market landscape. Back then my friends used to call Neimann-Marcus “Needless Markup” because, although it had a very nice selection of goods, even its own credit card early on when many other stores didn’t have them, it was EXPENSIVE. We thought the ‘mark up’ on their goods was high for the dollar spent. I would characterize CIA in the same vein: it’s the “Needless Markup” of the intelligence agencies we have, and for those who don’t know, there are many other intelligence agencies operating in a kind of ‘bureaucratic soup’ in this country. Salon did an article recently on how costly CIA has been, and how little we have received for the tax dollar from them. It’s not that they haven’t done anything—they have—but the cost of their work is EXPENSIVE. And was secret, even to those at OMB (Office of Management and Budget), for many years. I don’t like the way Snowden is shooting off, like a loose cannon, to all of the world, how our intelligence works (what he knows of it anyway). I regard that as being a ‘traitor’. But if what he says about CIA is correct, we are wasting a TON of tax dollars on a government boondoggle that should be reined in. It’s wasteful, it’s not the thing to do when we face a ballooning deficit, and it should stop. That’s my opinion, and I believe I share that with the late President Kennedy, who I think lost his life because he wanted to do this.