by Dr. Joseph Mercola, Mercola:
STORY AT-A-GLANCE
- In 1967, the CIA’s covert use of the National Student Association to spread countermessages to communism was revealed by a college dropout named Michael Wood. The revelation sent shockwaves through the U.S., and as journalists started to pull at the strings, the CIA’s covert propaganda operations unraveled
TRUTH LIVES on at https://sgtreport.tv/
- Journalists discovered the CIA had set up nonprofit foundations to funnel taxpayer money into philanthropic foundations that then sent the CIA’s “donations” to organizations that had joined the CIA’s payroll to promote government-sponsored propaganda
- These included youth organizations and student groups, church groups, public radio and news organizations. Sen. Wayne Morse, D-Ore., slammed the CIA’s covert propaganda activities, arguing the agency had created a “credibility chasm” within public opinion — a gap that could not and would not be bridged unless the government made clear that it would “fill the chasm with the truth”
- The CIA was never reined in and is more involved in propaganda activities today than ever before
- While many still have not realized it, we are at war, and the aggressors are government intelligence and security agencies that have turned their weapon of choice — information — against their own citizens
The video above features a 1967 CBS special report titled “In the Pay of the CIA: An American Dilemma,”1 hosted by Mike Wallace. It examines how the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) was secretly paying students, labor organizations, broadcasting networks and other organizations to do their bidding.
CBS News correspondents interview several of the people who at the time had received secret CIA payments, and the implications these activities have for the American way of life.
Gloria Steinem, for example, who headed the Independent Research Service, was paid by the CIA to send American students to attend and represent American values at communist youth festivals overseas, as was Philip Sherburne, former president of the National Student Association.
In 1967, the CIA’s covert use of the National Student Association to spread countermessages to communism was revealed by a college dropout named Michael Wood.2 The revelation sent shockwaves through the U.S., and as journalists started to pull at the strings, the extent of the CIA’s propaganda operations started to unravel.
A Condensed History
The National Security Act of 1947, signed by President Truman, created the CIA, the National Security Council, the Office of Secretary of Defense and the U.S. Air Force.3 As explained by the Office of the Historian,4 the Act “was a major reorganization of the foreign policy and military establishments of the U.S. government.”
The CIA was an outgrowth of the World War II era Office of Strategic Services and several small post-war intelligence organizations, and as noted by Wallace:
“Since the beginning, the CIA has suffered a personality split, because in addition to intelligence, the Security Act of 1947 orders the CIA to ‘perform other functions and duties as directed by the President and his National Security Council.’ That phrase has become a sort of blank check, authorizing CIA excursions into everything from simple propaganda to the overthrow of unfriendly governments.”
Wallace goes on to explain how the CIA ended up with fingers in so many pies. First, it set up several nondescript nonprofit foundations, the function of which were to funnel taxpayer money from the CIA to other, real foundations involved in real-world philanthropy.
However, in return for CIA funds, these foundations “agreed to become conduits for central intelligence,” and funneled the exact dollar amounts received on to other organizations that, in the 1940s, ’50s and ’60s, joined the CIA’s payroll to promote government-sponsored propaganda.
These included not only youth organizations and student groups, but also church groups, public radio and news organizations. Sen. Wayne Morse slammed the CIA’s covert propaganda activities, arguing the agency had created a “credibility chasm” within public opinion — a gap that could not and would not be bridged unless the government made clear that it would “fill the chasm with the truth.”
“The CIA has corrupted the stream of truth, objectivity and academic learning,” Morse told CBS News, “and it must be removed from all activities, except the very limited activity of what we know as intelligence activity, the field of spying and espionage.”
Another senator, Eugene McCarthy, was also critical of the CIA’s use of students and church groups to manipulate public opinion. He also said he felt there was “empire building” going on within the CIA — a statement that rings all the more true today.
Sen. John Stennis, member of the CIA Watchdog Subcommittee, defended the CIAs actions, reminding the CBS audience about the climate in which the agency was founded. In 1954, the U.S. Congress passed a bill outlawing communism, and the CIA was still basically protecting American liberty and democracy.
Former CIA director Allen Dulles also defended the agency’s behavior, citing the need to manage the threat of communism. The counterargument presented by critics was that by using covert propaganda techniques, the U.S. government was using the same strategies as the enemy, thereby undermining the idea of America being a country dedicated to free speech and the diversity of ideas.
At the end of the day, the overarching message of the CBS News report was that the CIA needed to change with changing times, clean up its act and get out of the covert propaganda business, as its interventions were harming the American image of being a free and open country.
Operation Mockingbird Is Alive and Well
Unfortunately, the CIA was never reined in, and its propaganda activities have only expanded and become more sophisticated over time. The 1976 Church Investigation exposed how the CIA had corrupted the media by paying journalists to promote the agency’s narratives.
The program, called Operation Mockingbird, was officially dismantled, but while the operational name may have been retired, there’s plenty of evidence to suggest the CIA never discontinued its media influence.5
In fact, we have evidence the CIA is controlling mainstream media to this day, and it’s doing so with unprecedented efficiency, as it can now push its narratives out through the three global news agencies, which are responsible for crafting and curating most of the news disseminated worldwide.
The only thing that has changed, really, is the CIA’s narrative. Whereas in the past it was dedicated to undermining communism, today, the CIA is a disinformation fountainhead for an unelected global Deep State that is hellbent on implementing a technocratic, totalitarian One World Government, the tyranny of which makes communism pale in comparison.
The CIA is now neck-deep in a global psyop to ensure the successful implementation of The Great Reset and the Fourth Industrial Revolution — two terms that describe different aspects of the same agenda of enslavement. And the CIA is not alone in this endeavor.
The FBI is also in on the action, as are most of the world’s intelligence agencies. They’re all pushing the same Great Reset and Fourth Industrial Revolution narratives, the aim of which is the technocratic control of the global population. That’s why we’re seeing the same narratives playing all over the world, including the Orwellian argument that we must censor to protect democracy.
A New Type of War
While many still have not realized it, we are at war. The aggressors are government intelligence and security agencies that have turned their weapon of choice — information — against their own citizens.
And, while the organizations doing the CIA’s dirty work may have changed, the basic organizational structure is the same as it was in 1967. Taxpayer money gets funneled through various federal departments and agencies into the hands of nongovernmental agencies that carry out censorship activities as directed. As recently reported by investigative journalists Alex Gutentag and Michael Shellenberger:6
“The Anti-Defamation League (ADL), the Center for Countering Digital Hate (CCDH), and the Institute for Strategic Dialogue (ISD) are nongovernmental organizations, their leaders say.
When they demand more censorship of online hate speech, as they are currently doing of X, formerly Twitter, those NGOs are doing it as free citizens and not, say, as government agents.
But the fact of the matter is that the US and other Western governments fund ISD, the UK government indirectly funds CCDH, and, for at least 40 years, ADL spied on its enemies and shared intelligence with the US, Israel and other governments.
The reason all of this matters is that ADL’s advertiser boycott against X may be an effort by governments to regain the ability to censor users on X that they had under Twitter before Musk’s takeover last November.
Internal Twitter and Facebook messages show that representatives of the US government, including the White House, FBI, Department of Homeland Security (DHS), as well as the UK government, successfully demanded Facebook and Twitter censorship of their users over the last several years.”
Censorship by Proxy
What we have now is government censorship by proxy, a deeply anti-American activity that has become standard practice, not just by intelligence and national security agencies but federal agencies of all stripes, including our public health agencies.
September 8, 2023, the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals upheld a lower court’s injunction banning the White House, the surgeon general, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the FBI from influencing social media companies to remove so-called “disinformation.”7
