If there is any truth to that, we clearly have another prize candidate -- giving us as blowback the Pakistani Bomb and nuclear sales -- in the category of "worst covert operation in U.S. history": rivaling such contenders as the Bay of Pigs, Iran-Contra, and the secret CIA torture camps abroad. '
Perhaps there are real compelling secrets that Ellsberg and Edmonds are privy to that have yet to be disclosed to the public! If there are, please don't wait in the name of 'national security' until another civilization is criminally laid to nuclear rubbles at the hands of your own 'hectoring hegemons'! Ellsberg however is indeed on the mark when he notes covert-ops as being “criminal”:
' “Sensitive" and "covert" are often synonyms for "half-assed" 'or "idiotic," as well as for "criminal," as the pattern of activities revealed by Edmonds would appear to be if it were truly presidentially authorized.'
And thus Sibel Edmonds eagerly accepting “very important covert-ops” to be silenced under 'state-secrets privilege' is incredibly telling of the red herring nature of her disclosures. Almost as if, perhaps unwittingly, she has become one of the 'good-cop bad-cop' team members. Can't tell which one. But it matters little, for both have the pursuit of the same goals as their overarching mission statement. In a tortuous way, she is echoing the policy of the Pentagon and its DIA, and its children the CIA, the NSA, the ABC and the XYZ – keep criminal covert-ops a secret, until at least they are fait accompli! Such is the case with Brzezinski's and Gates' confessions regarding CIA's covert interventions in Afghanistan. President Jimmy Carter even won a Nobel Peace Prize – despite this blood-drenched covert operation having been initiated during his watch, and upon his approval – after an entire civilization was decimated to hand the “USSR its Vietnam War”!
Some 'hectoring hegemons' somewhere surely must have un-gentle smiles slowly uncurling upon their 'ubermensch' Straussian lips at the prospect of tortuously reaping multiple harvests from a single seed!
Manufacturing consent to keep the masses acquiesced to “imperial mobilization” is plenty understood. Manufacturing dissent to keep the handful of courageous gadflies opposing it busy pursuing the various lies, red herrings, and gullibly absorbed in the 'low order bits' which do not penetrate to the core that matters, in the 'technique of infamy', has been least examined by the so called profound intellectuals of modernity. See its superficial first order examination by a mere plebeian: “Responsibility of Intellectuals – Redux”!
The overarching first principles of imperial mobilization that, if we are wise, should become the touchstone of all forensic unraveling of secrets and interpretation of 'contemporary history', were brilliantly captured by Zbigniew Brzezinski in his book 'The Grand Chessboard' thusly:
“the pursuit of power is not a goal that commands popular passion, except in conditions of a sudden threat or challenge to the public's sense of domestic well-being. The economic self-denial (that is defense spending), and the human sacrifice (casualties even among professional soldiers) required in the effort are uncongenial to democratic instincts. Democracy is inimical to imperial mobilization.”
And also additionally elaborated upon by Noam Chomsky in his book “Rogue States” by highlighting comments from a 1995 study by the U.S. Strategic Command:
'A secret 1995 study of the Strategic Command, which is responsible for the strategic nuclear arsenal, outlines the basic thinking. Released through the Freedom of Information Act, the study, Essentials of Post-Cold War Deterrence, "shows how the United States shifted its deterrent strategy from the defunct Soviet Union to so-called rogue states such as Iraq, Libya, Cuba and North Korea," AP reports. The study advocates that the US exploit its nuclear arsenal to portray itself as "irrational and vindictive if its vital interests are attacked." That "should be a part of the national persona we project to all adversaries," in particular the "rogue states." "It hurts to portray ourselves as too fully rational and cool-headed," let alone committed to such silliness as international law and treaty obligations. "The fact that some elements" of the US government "may appear to be potentially 'out of control' can be beneficial to creating and reinforcing fears and doubts within the minds of an adversary's decision makers." The report resurrects Nixon's "madman theory": our enemies should recognize that we are crazed and unpredictable,...'
Indeed, deliberately cultivated 'crazed and unpredictable', and 'out of control' persona explains the facile selling of America's nuclear secrets as an authorized and sanctioned official covert-ops at the highest levels far more convincingly than any rogue foreign spies running rings around the world's largest national security state as Ms. Edmond's own interpretation of her disclosures would have the world believe! And with that psyops persona as the backdrop, the crazed superpower actually acting that way as a wounded elephant in response to 911 works great for “imperial mobilization”. And for deflection purposes in case public criticism of official foreign policy becomes too loud, 'blowback' theories and 'incompetence' make wonderful red herrings to explain away premeditated execution of international monumental crimes for which adverse consequences to the national security of the hectoring state were inadvertently not anticipated! Right, as if brilliant-morons are building empire! Only in a 3-stooges Hollywood spoof, or in Alice's Wonderland, mes amis!
The veritable proof of the empirical validity of this assessment is in the many ex post facto 'we are shocked at the incompetence' type statements of feigned surprise, like this famous one:
“We conclude that the intelligence community was dead wrong in almost all of its prewar judgments about Iraq's weapons of mass destruction. This was a major intelligence failure,” (Iraq Study Group report, March 31, 2005)
And to forensically relate this bit of disingenuousness of not too distant history from the highest levels of the United States Government, to the present, in order to prevent an abhorrent future, here is the dark meat of the matter:
