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Much more at link, but:
Any CIA plot against Trump’s regime or any other government will begin and end with concerted propaganda campaigns and political intrigue. This is fundamental to every coup, because they are always trying to convince a small group of people that they can take on the entire government at once and win. In the end, coups are always rooted in psychological warfare.And all we can do is hope the insider resistance is playing lame pending a serious smackdown.
The CIA-orchestrated coup in Guatemala in 1954 provides a case in point. Targeted at the freely elected government of progressive populist Jacobo Arbenz, the agency managed to use a wildly successful radio station and various other deception tactics to convince that country’s government and military that they were facing an existential threat from U.S. Marines and CIA-backed rebels.
In fact there were no Marines. And the rebels — numbering fewer than 500 — were complete military failures who never managed to capture any territory beyond small, undefended border towns.
Much broader than just a radio station, a similar program in Iran codenamed BEDAMN laid the foundation for the plot in that country. “Under the propaganda arm of BEDAMN, anti-communist articles and cartoons were planted in Iranian newspapers, books and leaflets critical of the Soviet Union and the Tudeh party [Iran’s communist-affiliated party at the time] were written and distributed, rumors were started,” political scientist Mark Gasiorowski wrote in a definitive 1987 history of the coup.
BEDAMN also involved a political arm that used “black operations” such as hiring street gangs to break up Tudeh rallies, funding right-wing political organizations and other tactics. The group also targeted the mass supporters of coalition parties in Mossadeq’s National Front political movement, stoking their specific prejudices with targeted propaganda and creating conflict within the organization.
Overt press manipulation also made a big difference. Once CIA planted stories appeared in The New York Times — and the “newspaper of record” repeatedly published such pieces — or the major papers in Latin American capitals it was only natural that other major newspapers in the region would pick them up and spread the story. That slant would then pervade elite opinion around the world.
It is in this regard that we see the see the most obvious present evidence of possible CIA machinations against Trump. CIA sources leaked surveillance of the Russian foreign minister to force the removal of Michael Flynn as national security adviser. Other sources for other key stories on this front seem to be coming from the CIA, but this one proves that at least one spy with the highest levels of access was working the press.
The more of this we see, the more we should be concerned. Most importantly — if formerly pro-Trump publications quickly turn on the president without warning or if we begin to see a great deal of very targeted propaganda clearly trying to flip Trump’s base against him or against other elements of his support structure then we should be especially concerned.
pipe up any time....
