Interview · moment 7 of 11
Hollywood, Brennan, and the CIA's PR Machine
from Inside the Cia (with John Kiriakou) · #54
Audio-only archive episode — no video to seek.
12 minGuest
Discussion of the CIA's Office of Public Affairs shaping Hollywood films like Argo and Zero Dark Thirty, John Brennan's career and closeness to Obama, the CIA's fear/threat matrix used to manipulate presidents, and the idea of a permanent war-based economy benefiting D.C. elites.
- 47:57A CIA officer with no operational, security, or weapons training was made Chief of Base in Khos, Afghanistan solely for promotion purposes.
- 48:09An unvetted volunteer claiming to know Bin Laden's location was allowed onto the compound without being frisked or searched, then detonated a bomb killing half a dozen CIA officers including the Chief of Base.
- 48:48The CIA's Office of Public Affairs maintains a dedicated office to shape Hollywood studio productions, similar to how J. Edgar Hoover's FBI crafted its public image in the 1950s.
- 49:36Ben Affleck walked through CIA headquarters without a security escort during the filming of Argo.
- 50:43Tim raises questions about whether CIA officers had critical discussions about 9/11 beyond the standard narrative, given Saudi Arabia's possible involvement and the apparent state backing of the attack.
- 51:28The CIA and FBI had intense institutional hatred and refused to share information unless asked, a rivalry that contributed to the intelligence failure before 9/11.
- 52:21The CIA and FBI didn't have access to each other's databases, so even when the CIA collected information about terrorists in the United States, it required a specific person in the Counterterrorism Center to manually decide whether to share it.
- 53:48John Brennan was probably one of the worst CIA directors in modern history because he was intensely partisan and too close to President Obama, unable to challenge the president when necessary.
- 55:10Judge Webster was the closest to an optimal CIA director because he had been both an FBI and CIA director and could actually stand up to presidents.
- 56:07The CIA deliberately seduces inexperienced presidents by showing them highly classified secrets and sensitive intelligence, hooking them so they never question the agency.
- 58:09The threat matrix given to the president daily is unvetted and unanalyzed information that includes claims from anyone who walks into an embassy, intentionally keeping fear elevated to justify increased counter-terrorism spending.
- 59:40America has entered a permanent war-based economy where continued growth requires ongoing military conflict, which is why Washington D.C. now has the most millionaires per capita in the country.
John BrennanCIAFBIBarack ObamaZero Dark ThirtyDynCorpSaudi ArabiaBlackwaterJudge WebsterBen AffleckHillary ClintonGeorge W. BushDonald TrumpLeon PanettaDavid PetraeusArgoAllen Dulles