Vault 7 and the Deep State

The Nozomi Hayase piece on Wikileaks Vault 7 is the article I've been looking for. Since the leak, the story has of course permeated the media but it has often been shrouded in confusion and politicisation. The Hayase article does a good job summarizing the leaks and providing analysis of the issues.

http://www.counterpunch.org/2017/03/17/wikileaks-vault-7-reveals-cia-cyberwar-and-the-real-battleground-of-democracy/

Within the article she links a 2014 piece written by Mike Lofgren who is affiliated with Bill Moyers. Many will know Moyers from PBS and some older readers might recall when he was part of the Johnson administration. For me, Moyers' shining moment was in the wake of Iran-Contra. In a somewhat stunning piece, not only for that time but even by today's standards he broached the topic of the Deep State. It was so clearly on display in that episode that it was hard to miss. And yet it was missed by most people. The media and even the famed congressional hearings provided damage control and to a large extent downplayed and obscured the gravity of what was being revealed.

The Lofgren piece provides something of a landscape without getting too specific. A lot more could be said but he pulls out some interesting bits and pieces. The Eric Holder comment in 2013 regarding unprosecutable institutions is particularly revealing. It was really a stunning moment that has gotten play in the alternative media but very little in the mainstream. The fact that the Attorney General stood before the congress and admitted that there's a sector or tier of the Establishment that is above the law... that just about says it all doesn't it?

When some of these people, bankers affiliated with Goldman-Sachs or someone like the recently deceased David Rockefeller begin to exercise influence in terms of diplomacy, trade and geopolitical strategy, well, what then? The fact that David Rockefeller was once an intelligence agent and that his protégés are titans in diplomacy and banking certainly suggests that there are figures wielding great power that are unelected and unaccountable. Didn't Holder say as much?

And he would know, as he's part of that same apparatus even if he doesn't inhabit its highest tiers. He's an operator, an agent... not a master.

As I've said before there are hierarchies and factions and they are both fluid and sometimes at war. Power waxes and wanes. Clearly Goldman Sachs wields more power today than it did a generation ago. Even Trump who insisted he would 'drain the swamp' has filled his administration with Goldman Sachs connected figures.

And yet if you peel back a layer or two, even within the Goldman Sachs apparatus and its larger network, you'll keep finding some of the same old names and familial connections. These are the people with real power, regardless of who sits in the Oval Office.

The growth in technology has in some ways expanded the Deep State. In one sense an expansion could possibly dilute the power of some actors. And yet in another sense those who play their cards wisely or perhaps cunningly can appropriate power and influence within places like Silicon Valley and in fact expand their reach.

http://billmoyers.com/2014/02/21/anatomy-of-the-deep-state/