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United States News Title: The Pentagon, the CIA, and the NSA Are in Charge The U.S. mainstream press can easily recognize the dominant and influential role that the military plays in society, so long as they are referring to countries like Pakistan and Egypt. Unfortunately, the same reporters and commentators turn a blind eye to the similar phenomenon here in the United States. For example, the Washington Post writes: “When not in power, [Pakistan’s generals] have exerted outsize control over foreign policy, the economy, and local politics.” The New York Timeswrites: “Even during civilian rule, the country’s generals have wielded enormous power, setting the agenda for the country’s foreign and security policies…. As prime minister, Mr. Sharif ran afoul of the military early on by trying to assert control over foreign and defense policy, which is seen as the army’s domain.” It’s the same in Egypt. Newsweek points out that after the military coup that ousted democratically elected President Mohammed Morsi from office, “The army stepped in…. Five years on from the coup, the military government — led by general-turned-president Abdel Fattah el-Sisi — has established a firm grip on the nation….” Meanwhile, not surprisingly, the U.S. government is flooding the Egyptian military with hundreds of millions of dollars that the IRS has forcibly taken from the American people. What the mainstream media and, unfortunately, all too many Americans, fail to recognize is that the Egyptian, Pakistani, and American governments all have a fundamental governmental principle in common: All three are national-security states and, consequently, in all three regimes the military and intelligence sections of the government play the dominant role within the government and within society. What is a national-security state? It is a type of government that has a vast and permanent military-intelligence establishment. Secrecy is a core element, with threats of severe punishment on anyone who discloses secrets of the regime. The most important principle of a national-security state is, not surprisingly, a concept called “national security.” Everything revolves around recognizing and eradicating threats to “national security.” There is no established definition of “national security.” The military and the intelligence forces wield the omnipotent and non-reviewable power to determine who and what constitutes a threat to ”national security” and the omnipotent and non-reviewable power to eradicate it. In Pakistan and Egypt, the entire national-security establishment is subsumed in what is simply referred to as “the military.” In the United States, the national-security establishment is divided principally into three parts: the vast military establishment, led by the Pentagon, the CIA, and the NSA. I say “principally” because to a certain extent the FBI, over time, has been absorbed into the national-security establishment. What many Americans fail to realize is that the United States wasn’t always a national-security state. When the Constitution called the federal government into existence, the federal government was a limited-government republic. The size of the army was extremely small and there was no CIA, NSA, or FBI. There was no concept of “national security.” Transparency, not secrecy, characterized the republic. That all changed after World War II. Americans were told that in order to successfully confront America’s World War II partner and ally, the Soviet Union, in a “cold war,” it would be necessary to convert the federal government from a limited-government republic into a national-security state, which is what the Soviet Union was. That’s how America ended up with essentially the same type of governmental system that exists in Pakistan and Egypt. It’s also how the country ended up with such programs as assassination, torture, indefinite detention, mass surveillance, and denial of due process, none of which existed when the federal government was a limited-government republic. What many Americans also fail to recognize is that it’s the national-security establishment that is really the part of the federal government that is in charge, especially when it comes to foreign policy. That’s why President Trump was unable to pull U.S. troops out of Syria after expressing a desire to do so — the Pentagon wouldn’t permit it. It’s also why he was unable to release the CIA’s long-secret JFK records last fall, as he announced he was going to do and as the law required — the CIA wouldn’t permit it. It’s why Americans continue to be saddled under a regime that engages in mass secret surveillance, no different in principle from that which exists in Pakistan and Egypt — the NSA will not permit the federal courts to interfere with its surveillance operations. It’s why no congressional candidate would ever dare to call for a dismantling of military installations or projects in his district — the Pentagon as well as the local press would skewer him. When it comes to enforcing the Constitution, the U.S. Supreme Court and the federal judiciary are permitted to maintain an appearance of being ultimately in charge but only up to a certain point. That’s why there are people in Guantanamo Bay who have now been incarcerated by the Pentagon and the CIA for 14 years without a trial. A book that every American should read is National Security and Double Government by Michael J. Glennon, professor of law at Tufts University. Glennon explains perfectly how the U.S. national-security state works compared to nations like Pakistan and Egypt. In those countries, the control of the national-security establishment is direct, while in the United States it is indirect. Here, the Pentagon, the CIA, and the NSA permit the president, the Congress, and the judiciary to appear to be in control of the federal government. But as Glennon shows, it’s just a veneer. The real control lies with the part of the government that wields the largest amount of force, and that part consists of the Pentagon, the CIA, and the NSA. Recall what George Washington is reputed to have said, “Government is not reason. It is not eloquence. It is force.” But not all parts of the government are equal. Some wield more force than others. It is undeniable that the national-security part of the government wields the most force of all. If anyone in Washington, D.C., had doubts about the overwhelming power of the U.S. national-security establishment, such doubts came to an end on November 22, 1963, when President Kennedy was assassinated after taking on the military and the CIA. (See FFF’s book JFK’s War with the National Security Establishment: Why Kennedy Was Assassinated by Douglas Horne and my new video-podcast series “The National-Security State’s Assassination of John F. Kennedy.) Kennedy had reputedly vowed to tear the CIA into a thousand pieces, to end the racket of the Cold War, to withdraw all U.S. troops from Vietnam, and to normalize relations with Russia, Cuba, and the rest of the communist world, all of which, needless to say, was considered heresy to the national-security establishment. Suddenly, after Dallas, it dawned on everyone in Washington that there was a new sheriff in town, one that would not countenance any threat to the power of the national-security establishment and, of course, to its existence, just like in Pakistan and Egypt. That’s undoubtedly a lesson that President Trump himself is now learning.
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To a certain extent. Central Intelligence Agency Press Release Archive Joint CIA-FBI Press Release on Arrest of Harold James Nicholson November 18, 1996 [Excerpt] - - - - - - - - - - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Evanina William R. Evanina (born 1967) is an American law enforcement official who is currently the NCIX, which is the executive officer of the United States Office of the National Counterintelligence Executive (ONCIX), and who is also the director of the National Counterintelligence and Security Center. As NCIX he is the head of national counterintelligence for the U.S. Government. Prior to his appointment to ONCIX, he was the chief of the Counterespionage Group for the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA). He gained his initial law enforcement as an agent for the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI). [...] Career After college Evanina went to work for the General Services Administration, where he was a project manager in the new construction division. In 1996 he joined the Federal Bureau of Investigation where as a special agent he served in the violent crimes unit, the organized crime unit, and the Bank Robberies and Counterterrorism divisions. He also later served in the FBI's National Security Branch and Counterintelligence Division. He became a certified SWAT team member as well as a certified sniper. During this time he was involved with the investigation into the hijacking of United Airlines Flight 93 on 11 September 2001, the mail-distributed anthrax attacks also in 2001, and the Daniel Pearl kidnapping. In June 2004, he was appointed as a Supervisory Special Agent in the new Joint Terrorism Task Force. While there, following a tipoff from Customs, he led the investigation into the activities of an FBI intelligence analyst at Fort Monmouth, New Jersey, who was leaking classified information to parties in the Philippines. Evanina's work led to the conviction of Leandro Aragoncillo for espionage, in appreciation of which Evanina received the FBI Director’s Award for Excellence. In January 2006 he was appointed as Senior Supervisory Resident Agent (SSRA) heading the FBI's New Jersey office in Trenton. In March 2009, he was assigned to the Washington office, and worked in the FBI's National Security Branch, where he led both counterintelligence and counterterrorism operations. In September 2013, Evanina was put in charge of the joint FBI and CIA Counterintelligence Division/Counterespionage Group, where he coordinated personnel from multiple intelligence agencies in countering foreign espionage. In June 2014, he was appointed by James R. Clapper to head the office of the National Counterintelligence Executive, replacing Frank Montoya, and since the reorganization of December 2014 now wears a second hat as the Director of the National Counterintelligence and Security Center. His office is in the ONCIX offices in Bethesda, Maryland, but he also spends time at the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI) headquarters in McLean, Virginia. After the firing of James Comey in May 2017, Evanina was under final consideration as interim director of the FBI; instead Andrew G. McCabe remained as acting director until the appointment of Christopher A. Wray in August 2017. In February 2018, President Trump formally nominated Evanina to the directorship of the National Counterintelligence and Security Center, as Congress had made the position subject to Senate confirmation as of 2015. The FBI main office is in DC and its training academy is in Quantico, VA. The CIA headquarters is in Langley (neighborhood) McLean (town), VA.
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