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26 Sep, 4 tweets, 2 min read
1/3 The notion that the CIA is a rogue agency operating independently of Presidential authority is one of @ggreenwald most pernicious and stupid conspiracy theories. Presidents use intelligence agencies as instruments of their own foreign policy, not the other way around.
2/3 This insipid zombie conspiracy theory has been given life by countless spy movies, but as George and Audrey Kahin demonstrated years ago, it masks the role of the CIA in US foreign policy as an effective instrument of executive power. thenewpress.com/books/subversi…
3/3 There are times when Presidents have empowered the CIA against other bureaucracies (most often the State Department), or as a shield from effective Congressional oversight. But Pompeo didn't 'snow' MAGA land or Trump, and no serious observer can believe this.
4/4 I've written about the history of CIA covert operations in Indonesia. Any covert operation, assassination plans, etc. is a heavily bureaucratized process that is in part designed to shield the Executive from accountability. But there are no rogue, deep state operations.

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More from @bradleyrsimpson

Brad Simpson Profile picture
15 Aug
1/7 I was a radio producer for Democracy Now! on September 11, 2001 and in the months afterwards. I had a unique vantage point to witness the antiwar movement against the US invasion of Afghanistan. There was a mass antiwar movement: decentralized, local, and ignored by media.
2/7 Shortly after 9/11 we had Rita Lazar on the show. She lost her brother in the Twin Towers. She talked about her opposition to killing innocent Afghan civilians as revenge for the murder of innocent US civilians. There were many, many Rita Lazars.
3/7 One morning we had Colleen Stevens on. She lived in suburban CT and her husband had died on 9/11. She held a candlelight vigil to protest the prospects of war against Afghanistan and 5,000 people showed up. It merited 1 line in an AP report. There were more Colleens.
Read 8 tweets
Brad Simpson Profile picture
22 Apr
1/10 Four years ago today was Elijah's last day at school. He died two days later. His brain tumor was ravaging his body and stealing the last bit of life from him. He could barely eat, and had trouble breathing. But what I remember now, looking back, was how joyous he was.
2/10 He lived for 51 weeks after diagnosis with that brain tumor killing him inside out, stealing his bodily and motor functions one by one, but he was determined to suck as much joy out of life as he could, even when he could barely move, as in his last therapy session.
3/10 On his last day the class celebrated earth day (he didn't want to celebrate his birthday) and made little paper mache globes where they described their ideal world. Elijah made his with Miss Jennifer, his assistant. "In my world there would be no mosquitos," he wrote.
Read 11 tweets
Brad Simpson Profile picture
10 Apr
Other acceptable Republican infrastructure?
Read 4 tweets
Brad Simpson Profile picture
19 Feb
1/ On the 25th Anniversary of @democracynow I will share one of my favorite memories: being Amy Goodman's producer on election day 2000 when she interviewed President Bill Clinton, who called into WBAI for what he thought would be a routine GOTV call. democracynow.org/2000/11/8/demo…
2/ I was in grad school, living in NYC, and had run out of money. I owed Amy a few huge favors after breaking a $1200 digital tape recorder of hers, and ran into her on election eve, telling her if she ever needed a producer I could help. She said "can you come in tomorrow?"
3/ I came in the next day and was given curt instructions: cut and paste headlines for Amy to read at the start of the show, keep my head down, and don't screw anything up. We literally cut the daily papers and taped headlines together, writing intros and transitions.
Read 12 tweets
Brad Simpson Profile picture
18 Feb
1/5 So 17 years ago I was living in a house in cooperative in Chicago with 18 of my closest friends. It happened to be international pancake day, and the famous Dr. Patch Adams was in town. Some of my housemates knew him and went downtown and clowned with him all day long.
2/5 They had said they would be coming back at night, and we were wondering what to do to make the visit of Patch Adams special. One of my housemates noticed it was international pancake day, so we decided to hold a pancake Olympiad that night.
3/5 We spent several hours making hundreds of pancakes, told our friends, about 40 of whom showed up. We waited until around midnight when Patch and my housemates came back. Patch Adams walks in at 12am, sees dozens of people and hundreds of pancakes and was like, no big deal.
Read 6 tweets
Brad Simpson Profile picture
8 Jan
1/4 The issuing of a State Department Dissent Cable directed directly at the US government itself is, to my knowledge, unprecedented. The Dissent Channel was created in 1971 to give diplomats the ability to voice unpopular views about US policy elsewhere without retaliation.
2/4 Here is the full text of the cable itself.
3/4 @lizzyshackelfor, a former diplomat who resigned in protest in 2017, has written a definitive history of the dissent channel in an important book: publicaffairsbooks.com/titles/elizabe…
Read 6 tweets

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