Interview · moment 20 of 25
The Permanent War Economy and Overblown Al-Qaeda Threat
from Our Best Episode (Inside the CIA with John Kiriakou) · #136
Audio-only archive episode — no video to seek.
6 minGuest
Kiriakou argues the U.S. runs a permanent war-based economy, describes the absurd 'threat matrix' fed to presidents, and reveals that Al-Qaeda's real numbers in Afghanistan were tiny within a year of the invasion.
- 1:43:00Post-9/11 fear of al-Qaeda was wildly overblown.
- 1:43:14Senator Jeanne Shaheen reported fewer than 50 al-Qaeda fighters left in Afghanistan a year after 9/11, but nobody paid attention.
- 1:43:41Tim explains how the military mission shifted from destroying al-Qaeda to destroying the Taliban to rebuilding Afghanistan.
- 1:44:18After 16 years, the Taliban is resurgent and the mission keeps changing to new enemy groups.
- 1:44:37Al-Qaeda had a core command structure; everyone else was a freelancer, mostly teenagers aged 18, 19, 20.
- 1:44:49Captured al-Qaeda fighters were children who cried and asked for their mothers—the fearsome enemy the US was afraid of.
- 1:45:22Tim asks what motivates people to keep the perpetual war machine going on a practical level.
- 1:45:52The guest thinks intelligence officials convinced themselves terrorism has no end and will always require fighting.
- 1:46:20Post-9/11, the CIA put out information to the public that was grossly different from what they knew.
- 1:47:56The CIA hates Trump because he's impossible to control, unlike other presidents.
- 1:48:42The guest wrote that there's no good guy among the CIA, Russians, and Trump—no one should be trusted.
Donald TrumpCIATalibanJohn BrennanAl-QaedaJean ShaheenRussiaAfghanistan