The arms dealer Soghanalian represents yet another example of
the house cleaning or board clearing that took place as the Cold War ended. The
US began to break off old ties and alliances and re-orient for a new historical
epoch, an American Century it was hoped. There were many casualties and
betrayals. The 1998 film Ronin and its allusion to the story of the 47 master-less
samurai captures a little bit of this mood, especially in the circles inhabited
by the likes of Soghanalian.
Sarkis Soghanalian was like one of the Ronin. He had worked
extensively with the United States and done a lot of their dirty work only to
be later betrayed by them and left master-less.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sarkis_Soghanalian
But there's another lesson here and one that few people
understand. The broad group with connections to the CIA which functions as
something like the Praetorian Guard is a government within the government. Like
the Mafia they have elements of their enterprise which are above board and
legitimate and yet they also engage in many pursuits which are hidden from
congressional oversight, some hidden from the White House and some of which are
wholly illegal by any official standard.
In the empire of secrets there are countless casualties,
people used and thrown away who cannot speak. Their silence is often the only
thing keeping them alive. Some are bought off and some are threatened. Some are
locked away and forgotten.
Soghanalian like Victor Bout are men with secrets. If they
speak out, they will die. But they are also subject to humiliating
manipulations and betrayals. Elements of the US government come after them, the
very government which they had been working with and supporting. How can this
be?
One of the CIA's greatest foes is the FBI. The public focused
on the lack of intelligence collation in the wake of 9/11 and yet it's not
merely a case of bureaucracies not sharing data in order to protect their own
turf.
The subsequent creation of the DNI bureaucracy has by no
means eliminated this problem. Instead it has magnified and added yet another
dimension to an already complex struggle.
It's much deeper than that. The CIA is quite literally trying
to hide much of what it knows and does from the FBI and now aspects of the DNI
as well. Sure they have to work together on many joint projects and task
forces. Their fields overlap too much and it's unavoidable but at the same time
they don't trust each other and have more than once worked against each other,
even in the field.
The CIA views itself as the entity which has the true
knowledge. The CIA is inherently anti-democratic. Democracy is a dream and
illusion for the common people that doesn't work in the real world. You can
have your elections and debates. You can have your media. We know what's really
going on and we're going to do whatever we have to protect Project America.
The FBI wields it power through arrests, prosecutions and
convictions and through garnering the power to investigate. It wants
information that allows it to track and investigate, to police. Its emphasis,
objectives and goals are quite different from the CIA and often clash with it.
They want the law followed and its use maximized. They want domestic power and
the ability to identify and target those they identify as threats. The CIA
believes the law is for the other people and that they are above it.
This is not to make it sound like the FBI is somehow a more
honourable or moral organization. Not for a moment. It is just as guilty of
abuse of power and especially under Hoover was nothing less than a criminal
organization. It is frightening to contemplate what the FBI would do if they
were allowed to operate without restraint.
The CIA breaks the law on a regular basis and funds itself
through a host of illegal operations which it works very diligently to keep
hidden. Occasionally one of these agents is caught, exposed or sacrificed.
Soghanalian was betrayed but largely delivered from severe punishment. A few
secret meetings and a phone call or two took care of that. The prosecutor gets
to keep the feather in his cap, but in the end the asset is assuaged so he'll
keep his mouth shut.
Victor Bout wasn't so fortunate and I still expect at some
point Russia will make a move to retrieve him from US custody. Originally I
thought Snowden might be Putin's ticket but when I said it the magnitude of
Snowden and his revelations was not yet apparent. His story was obviously of
consequence but it took some time for the full import to be realized... if it
has even yet.
There are many fascinating and intriguing if not evil figures
floating about with stories to tell, but few seem interesting in hearing them.
The implications are perhaps too disturbing. There are stories of geo-political
betrayal, re-written history and of personal agents who can't really tell the
full tale. It's too dangerous and there's little reward to reap because most
people won't believe them anyway.
But these stories reveal very clearly just what a joke and
deception the mainstream media represents. I sometimes wonder if they're
insecure or complete megalomaniacs as I watch the self-congratulatory and
accolading adverts on their channels.
