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Comment by Gibbon1 | Hacker News Reader

Far as I understand the first director the FBI J. Edgar Hoover had blackmail on a lot of federal politicians. Which is why he left his position feet first. When Hoover died Nixon replaced him with someone with no previous ties to the agency.

The CIA has deep ties to the American upper classes. And probably serves their interests over the states. Or their own interests. Aldrich Ames was living well beyond is means for years. A good supposition is people at his level routinely trade intel to 'friendly' government an corporate interests.

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Right. Look at the din over the Epstein stuff, due to covering/blackmailing/etc over the misbehavior by a small group.

Then imagine a single entity that has every domestic text, phone call, and email ever sent, searchable and indexed, on any politician, judge, or candidate. It's far, far, more power than merely spying on foreign powers.

The security services have to do some unpleasant stuff in order to attempt some control over people. Whats the oldest profession in the book, then ask yourself what is the second oldest profession in the book? Would that be blackmail?

> The CIA has deep ties to the American upper classes

That’s hardly unique to the US. Other nations’ intelligence agencies tend to attract the aristocracy, e.g. all the Oxbridge alum at MI6/GCHQ.

Joining the intelligence services was basically the way the British upper class avoided combat service in ww2

You can level a lot of shit at the British upper classes, but being war-shy isn’t one of them. Until about 50 years ago, the entirety of the officer corps was picked from the gentry, and it’s not _that_ different today. Junior officers are just as much cannon fodder as other ranks.

I'm pretty sure junior officers were actually one of the hardest hit sections of the Army in WW1 and WW2.

I read a book recently about a young (19!) year old tank commander in WW2 and he was told by his CO when arriving in Normandy that his life expectancy was 10 days.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Tank-Action-Armoured-Commanders-194...

No, they actually serve the country and the government. This conspiracy theory has no basis. Ames was a double agent, not a great example.

Which part of the parent are you saying "has no basis"?

Where's the evidence the CIA serves the country and government? There's not a lot of evidence that it is effective at protecting the American people from anything.

There is a lot of evidence that the CIA is doing whatever it can to ensure that the %1 of American society get their way with the world, however. That's not the same as 'serving country and government', by any stretch of the imagination.

I don’t think there is any evidence that they are doing whatever they can to serve the 1%.

There is in fact a lot of evidence that they serve the country.

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