Al Qaeda Was Overblown, and the CIA's Grip on Trump and Obama

• 1:00:21The CIA follows J. Edgar Hoover's playbook, securing massive budget increases year after year by hyping existential threats.
• 1:00:44Post-9/11 fear of Al Qaeda was wildly overblown; Senator Jean Shaheen said fewer than 50 fighters remained in Afghanistan a year after the attacks.
• 1:01:26The mission in Afghanistan shifted repeatedly—from destroying Al Qaeda to destroying the Taliban to rebuilding the country—prolonging a pointless occupation.
• 1:02:34Captured Al Qaeda recruits were teenagers who cried for their mothers, hardly the fearsome enemy Americans feared.
• 1:03:37Intelligence officials convinced themselves terrorism has no end and that declaring victory is impossible, guaranteeing perpetual war.
• 1:03:59Post-9/11, the CIA deliberately fed the public information grossly different from what it knew to be true.
• 1:05:32The CIA hates Trump because he's impossible to control, whereas they prefer presidents they can manipulate easily.
• 1:06:27There's no good guy in the Trump-Russia situation: not the CIA, not Russia, and not Trump.
• 1:07:48The Council on Foreign Relations isn't a secret CIA front—it's mostly wealthy, well-meaning businesspeople who want to influence foreign policy.
• 1:10:19The CFR and similar think tanks create consensus on economic and foreign policy that gets adopted by people in power through shared social circles and schools.
• 1:11:22The CIA spied on the congressional commission investigating Bush-era torture, despite Brennan's denials.

Donald TrumpAl-QaedaCouncil on Foreign RelationsJohn BrennanTalibanJ. Edgar HooverJean ShaheenHenry KissingerJames Baker