Thursday, June 16, 2011

Two Gunwalker Scandal cautions from "Old Hands."

COINTELPRO (an acronym for Counter Intelligence Program) was a series of covert, and often illegal, projects conducted by the United States Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) aimed at surveilling, infiltrating, discrediting, and disrupting domestic political organizations.

COINTELPRO tactics included discrediting targets through psychological warfare, planting false reports in the media, smearing through forged letters, harassment, wrongful imprisonment, extralegal violence and assassination. Covert operations under COINTELPRO took place between 1956 and 1971; however, the FBI has used covert operations against domestic political groups since its inception. The FBI's stated motivation at the time was "protecting national security, preventing violence, and maintaining the existing social and political order." -- Wikipedia.


First, I received this from an old DC hand who cautioned me, "don't forget COINTELPRO and the 60s/70s."

Especially recall that Lyndon Johnson was convinced there were foreigners agitating the students, etc. to protest the VietNam War, and directed then-CIA Director Richard Helms to study the issue. Helms, who noted the instruction was "outside the charter of the agency", did the study anyway; personally delivered the only (presumed, ha-ha) copy to LBJ; and said if even the existence of the study became known, it could destroy CIA. It is also well known that CIA and probably other entities have and do routinely plant/write articles in newspapers, magazines, professional journals, etc., for purposes of influencing foreign and other policies.

In looking at some of the stuff (you have) posted from other sources, it would be the height of naivete to assume the Government is NOT concocting such mischief to try and (1) counteract the Gunwalker abomination, (2) foist off a serious anti-gun agenda, and (3) inappropriately influence public and legislative opinion by some combination of flat out lying, misleading and deceiving, and meddling in domestic politics.

I am not sure what, if anything, can be done to stop the former; however, being AWARE of it is essential, and exposing it where it can be proven will be doing a good thing. As always in these matters, there are some people who have been ordered to carry out such atrocities who gag sufficiently on their own vomit, to the point they will drop hints or leave clues that astute observers can follow to the source(s). I'm sure such activities are highly compartmentalized and done with the utmost secret intentions. But history has shown that many of them are exposed; unfortunately, many are not.

This scandal has all the makings of the highest political stakes that I've seen come down the pike in a good long while, because it brings together so many things: foreign policy, domestic policy, gun rights and gun control, and more than ever the nervousness of the Government about people who are armed and wanting to marginalize those people simply because those people own guns.


Shortly after that, I had this exchange with an "old dog" from the spook side of things. I was talking about Dan Restrepo and the National Security Council involvement in the Gunwalker debacle.

"It likely won’t get to the NSC," he told me.

I replied, "Why not? What about Restrepo?"

"It’s my understanding the politics are about to get a bit self-protective. There are no heros in the entire group. Be careful about those who might seem to be your friends."

Good advice. Heads on the swivel, we go forward into the Gunwalker jungle.

7 comments:

Sean D Sorrentino said...

Dude, I don't want to be insulting here, but don't be stupid. There's no need for any .gov agency to write articles as propaganda. They have the Bradys, VPC, CSGV, and a whole host of other orgs to do all that for them.

Why take a chance at getting caught doing something like that when you can pick up the phone and have your minions in the private sector do it for you? You know that the compliant press will print just about anything to save Obama's butt.

Anonymous said...

Gee whiz!

These items and issues have always sounded like the operational aspects of somebody's intelligence operations. As time goes by I am ever more convinced of it. This has always been more than simple corruption and criminality. It always had that feel of some kind of on going operational coordination and reactivity.

If that is so and I believe it is, then almost everybody knows about it in the upper echelons and most certainly the media know of it and approve, which is why we have a black hole when it comes to information and public understanding. Which means there are no accidents or oversights, just serious and deadly intent.

The seizure of government from within. The blinding of the population and the inhibition and misdirection of communication. For illeraly, years. This is actually happening before our eyes and yet we hear nothing of is in the media. Think of that and then think of Pravda. This can only work if they conrtol information and news and therby, public opinion.

Lergnom said...

Sean D Sorrentino said;
>and a whole host of other orgs to do all that for them.<
If I may offer my $.02, they are not orgs so much as wholly-owned subsidiaries.

>You know that the compliant press <
I like tro call them the round-heel press.

Stay safe

Dedicated_Dad said...

Sean: It's not just Dear Reader -- it's all of The Enemy.

It's obvious that TBC, VPC, CSGV et al are The Enemy -- even a child would know this instinctively.

What's harder for most adults to grasp is that the entire "Authorized Journalist" cabal has abandoned its sacred trust and become the Propaganda Ministry for the collectivist revolution -- hence their inclusion in the collective (see what I did there?) descriptor "The Enemy."

The "JournoList" debacle was sloppiness on their part -- they're amateurs but they're learning! Still, it would be enough to show most people their true nature, except most will never see it at all except for sources already smeared as right wing -- such as Breitbart, Drudge and PERHAPS Fox.

The latter is the most insidious IMHO... They're just as compromised as the rest, but they masquerade as "fair and balanced", while being portrayed everywhere else as "extreme right wing"...

The TRUTH is that Fox (1) is the ONLY network whose political NEWS programming is even close to balanced and (2) still promotes The Enemy's party-line, just in a less obvious way.

Pew Media Center did a "study" wherein they tracked the political coverage on all the networks, and categorized each story as "positive" to one party, neutral, or "negative" to one party.

The results showed that Fox was the ONLY network whose coverage really was "balanced" -- and PERFECTLY so -- while all the others had a DISTINCT and UNQUESTIONABLE bias in favor of The Left.

By constantly decrying the ONLY "neutral" news-source as "extreme right wing" The Enemy accomplishes several important goals:
(1) Re-defines the nature of "right wing" -- if NEUTRAL is "extreme right" then it's a simple matter for them to repaint "Extreme Left as "neutral"!
(2) Makes REAL conservatism seem EXTRA-Super-Extreme-Right -- thus making those of us who go around quoting our Founding Fathers (PBUT) and Constitution into "potential domestic terrorists."
(3) MOST importantly, they lull the more conservative sheep into thinking they're represented in the media, thus preventing any real demands for a return to their proper role as unbiased reporters of fact.

It's actually BRILLIANT, in a truly evil way....

Mr Jones said...

At any rate, at least the story of Weiner's weiner is finally about to go flaccid.

Pericles said...

We may have one good bit of information from this - we know a line our opponents will use is "If nobody could buy guns, they would not have ended up in Mexico, could they?"

fgd-anchorage said...

COINTELPRO (an acronym for Counter Intelligence Program)

Ver-ry Interesting!

As a wee lad during WWII, I (dimly) remember gasoline rationing. My (maternal) grandfather owned a pre-war Pontiac. He lived with my family (1528 E 85 Place, Chicago, Illinois) in a tiny room in the attic. The automobile was used only on special occasions because of the rationing.

Many years later, I read a commentary regarding this particular rationing which claimed there was no shortage of gasoline. There was a shortage of natural rubber, so to keep the civilians from needing to replace tires and inner-tubes in the normal course of use, gasoline was rationed to reduce the need for rubber.

The rationale for this ruse was the need to keep secret the shortage of rubber from the enemy.

I am sure there are many examples prior and subsequent that show the government, elected and appointed, were feeding We the People false information for our own good.

Yes: "Head is on the swivel, we go forward into the Gunwalker jungle."

God be with you.