Ron Paul's Texas Straight Talk

[Obushma]

12/10/12: A Dangerous Expansion of Our Secret Military



http://paul.house.gov/index.php?opti...2032&Itemid=69

Expanding Covert Warfare Makes Us Less Safe
Earlier this month we learned that the Obama Administration is significantly expanding the number of covert Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) agents overseas. From just a few hundred DIA agents overseas today, the administration intends to eventually deploy some 1,600 covert agents. The nature of their work will also shift, away from intelligence collection and more toward covert actions. This move signals a major change in how the administration intends to conduct military and paramilitary operations overseas. Unfortunately it is not a shift toward peace, but rather to an even more deadly and disturbing phase in the “war on terror.”


Surely attacks on foreign countries will increase as a result of this move, but more and more the strikes will take place under cover of darkness and outside the knowledge of Congress or the American people. The move also represents a further blurring of the lines between the military and intelligence services, with the CIA becoming more like a secret military unto itself. This is a very troubling development.

In 2010, I said in a speech that there had been a CIA coup in this country. The CIA runs the military, the drone program, and they are in drug trafficking. The CIA is a secretive government all on its own. With this new expanded Defense Intelligence Agency presence overseas it will be even worse. Because the DIA is operationally under control of the Pentagon, direct Congressional oversight of the program will be more difficult. Perhaps this is as intended. The CIA will be training the DIA in its facilities to conduct operations overseas. Much of this will include developing targeting data for the president’s expanding drone warfare program.

Already the president has demonstrated his preference for ever more drone attacks overseas. In Pakistan, for example, President Obama has in his first four years authorized six times more drone strikes than under all eight years of the Bush Administration. Nearly three thousand individuals have been killed by these drones, many of those non-combatants.

President Obama said recently of Israel’s strikes against the Palestinians in Gaza, "No country on Earth would tolerate missiles raining down on its citizens from outside its borders.” This announcement by the administration amounts to precisely that: the US intends to rain down ever more missiles on citizens overseas. I believe what the president says about Israel is true everywhere, so what about those overseas who live in fear of our raining missiles? How will they feel about the United States? Is it not possible that we may be inviting more blowback by expanding the covert war overseas? Does that make us safer?

An exhaustive study earlier this year by Stanford and New YorkUniversity law schools found that US drone strikes on Pakistan are “damaging and counterproductive,” potentially creating more terrorists than they kill. Its recommendations of a radical re-appraisal of the program obviously fell on deaf ears in the administration.

Thousands of new DIA spies are to be hired and placed undercover alongside their CIA counterparts to help foment ever more covert wars and coups in foreign lands. Congress is silent. Where will it all end?

[Requiem]

Good points, Ron.

[mhgaffney]

Syria is now at stage center.

But undoubtedly other nations are involved. There was a report out of Ecuador recently about a CIA covert operation there to destabilize the present government.

The new gov't has grass roots support which of course means that Wall Street wants regime change. Any government that favors its own people over the US will find itself targeted.

MHG

[cutthemdown]

I'd be against it if i wasn't part of the secret war program. I was doing really well on my flight simulator and the CIA contacted me about flying a drone through my xbox. It's the best work from home job ever!

[Meck77]

An old friend of mine just landed some kinda job spying on people. Apparently new huge government contracts have been put out there to spy on America. He says they are following everybody in most cities across the USA now. This is no gaffo story. We are flat out being watched now.

We joke about Obama being a commie but our government is truly moving in that direction.

[cutthemdown]

Orwell was so right its scary.

[Requiem]

Originally Posted by Meck77

An old friend of mine just landed some kinda job spying on people. Apparently new huge government contracts have been put out there to spy on America. He says they are following everybody in most cities across the USA now. This is no gaffo story. We are flat out being watched now.

We joke about Obama being a commie but our government is truly moving in that direction.

They are hiring DCI agents under the greater DIA/CIA umbrella in almost every town these days. Can't get enough of 'em.

[Meck77]

Originally Posted by Requiem

They are hiring DCI agents under the greater DIA/CIA umbrella in almost every town these days. Can't get enough of 'em.

I don't know the details like I said. He's been my friend for 20+ years. He's not excited about the job and it goes against his principals but he can't find work. I guess it pays good money. They got him in costumes following people around, flying to different towns. He flat out says it's crazy how many people this organization is following. They even follow other people who are following others for other organizations.

It sounds pretty ****ed up to me.

I think after 4 more years more Americans will be open to voting for third party person when more **** like this gets exposed.

*edit* On a side note Hickenlooper just ratified Colorado's pot bill legalizing weed. At least Obama's agents wont' be following pot heads in Colorado.