The number one thing that the CIA did that became known as the 'Family Jewels'? Well, you still can't know. But you can know a lot of the other things. My guess is that the worst possible thing that might be revealed is some complicity in the murder of King, X, Kennedy or Kennedy and probably through complicity with the FBI's complicity with local police. Which is to say perhaps some sources, but more likely methods were intentionally leaked from CIA to FBI and such info found its way into the wrong hands which acted in effective ways they otherwise could not.
This is my speculation given the 12 pages I've read of the newly declassified Family Jewels document released this week by the CIA.
The Roselli thing seems to be rather old news, or at least a secret that wasn't very well kept. There was plenty of Wikipedia on that guy long before the disclosure of this document. Basically , everybody knew in some way that the CIA was trying to kill Castro. No big deal in that release.
So where was Nosenko's jail. Hmmm. GTMO? Anyway, here's a guy out there debunking (for profit?) various aspects of the Nosenko legend. If I were particularly interested, I'd take an MD5 of that webpage and see if it changes within the next year.
The Mockingbird project seems almost tame considering the kinds of things that Chomsky would suggest that the CIA does or has done with respect to manufacturing consent. When I first read that book, I was convinced that the CIA was up to having plants at the NYT who were deep, deep undercover. And to tell you the God's honest truth there was always something about Jack Valenti that made me suspect that he was up to a lot more than he let on.
All of this divulging is good, of course. There will certainly be people who will take the time and effort to get through this large document to adjust their understanding of various CIA dirty laundry. But as various folks pick through it, I am brought to mind of the various firewalls that AG Ashcroft mentioned during his testimony about 'connecting the dots' and Homeland Security. I thought he was being particularly scrupulous in an environment of fingerpointing and political spin. The interests that enjoyed portraying the government as corrupt and stupid, especially those who find 'military intelligence' an oxymoronic joke appeared ever so willing to bulldoze those firewalls in the days of Ashcroft's complaint. That these revelations of piercing that veil remain high on the list of CIA faux pas (is 'faux' plural and singular?) suggests to me that these firewalls are taken very seriously.
But it also suggests to me that like the NSA, there are probably other agencies which "do not exist" who are less restrained. The AGs office must certainly know. We don't do jack without attorneys.
Also one more thing. I remain fascinated by the potentials of 'proprietaries' and cutout organizations. Consider this claim about the Ford Foundation.
By the late 1950s the Ford Foundation possessed over $3 billion in assets. The leaders of the Foundation were in total agreement with Washington's post-WWII projection of world power. A noted scholar of the period writes: "At times it seemed as if the Ford Foundation was simply an extension of government in the area of international cultural propaganda. The foundation had a record of close involvement in covert actions in Europe, working closely with Marshall Plan and CIA officials on specific projects" (Ibid, p.139). This is graphically illustrated by the naming of Richard Bissell as President of the Foundation in 1952. In his two years in office Bissell met often with the head of the CIA, Allen Dulles, and other CIA officials in a "mutual search" for new ideas. In 1954 Bissell left Ford to become a special assistant to Allen Dulles in January 1954 (Ibid, p. 139). Under Bissell, the Ford Foundation (FF) was the "vanguard of Cold War thinking".
One of the FF first Cold War projects was the establishment of a publishing house, Inter-cultural Publications, and the publication of a magazine Perspectives in Europe in four languages. The FF purpose according to Bissell was not "so much to defeat the leftist intellectuals in dialectical combat (sic) as to lure them away from their positions" (Ibid, p. 140). The board of directors of the publishing house was completely dominated by cultural Cold Warriors. Given the strong leftist culture in Europe in the post-war period, Perspectives failed to attract readers and went bankrupt.
The collaboration isn't shocking, and today we already know what's up with Sciafe and Right Radio. But you gotta admit it's a bold, if not particularly effective idea whose time will inevitably return.
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