About that Senate Report: The CIA and Alinsky’s Rule No. 4

[mystery-ak]

http://pjmedia.com/michaelwalsh/2014/12/09/cia-and-alinskys-rule-4/?singlepage=true

About that Senate Report: The CIA and Alinsky’s Rule No. 4
December 9th, 2014 - 10:59 am
by Michael Walsh


The Agency snuggles up to Dianne Feinstein

Just in time for Grubergate, Senator Dianne Feinstein of California has decided to horn in on the show with the release of the Senate’s report on the “enhanced interrogation techniques” of the Bush administration.  Those would be the same techniques that eventually led to the discovery and killing of Osama bin Laden, but never mind. Today of all days, the Ugly Truth must be told, in all its media-ready glory.

Still, stop and ask yourself why. Why now?  Who cares? The vast majority of Americans will lose not one wink of sleep over the fates of the prisoners in Guantanamo or those stashed away in rendition prisons in various dark and savage corners of the world. They’re getting what’s coming to them. They asked for it.

Then think about Saul Alinsky’s Rules for Radicals and its famous Rule No. 4: “Make the enemy live up to his own book of rules. You can kill them with this, for they can no more obey their own rules than the Christian church can live up to Christianity.” To the Obama administration and most of the surviving Democrats in Congress, the “enemy,” of course, is conservatives and Republicans, not radical Islam. (Hillary Clinton recently said in a speech that, based on her crackerjack stint as secretary of state, the U.S. needs to “respect” and “empathize with” our “enemies,” by whom she meant our Islamic friends we just haven’t met yet. )

What the Democrats are doing is classic Alinskyism, posturing as the defenders of the American Way and hoping like hell that nobody remembers that rendition prisons began under the Clinton administration. But let the ACLU tell it:

Beginning in the early 1990s and continuing to this day, the Central Intelligence Agency, together with other U.S. government agencies, has utilized an intelligence-gathering program involving the transfer of foreign nationals suspected of involvement in terrorism to detention and interrogation in countries where — in the CIA’s view — federal and international legal safeguards do not apply. Suspects are detained and interrogated either by U.S. personnel at U.S.-run detention facilities outside U.S. sovereign territory or, alternatively, are handed over to the custody of foreign agents for interrogation. In both instances, interrogation methods are employed that do not comport with federal and internationally recognized standards.

“This program is commonly known as ‘extraordinary rendition,’” the ACLU added.


The Devil’s Disciple

Add to this the Agency’s proven track record in deception, disinformation and double-talk. Conservatives have long been wrong about the Company — it’s not “conservative” or even particularly “patriotic” in any meaningful sense. It fell in love with its “enemy,” the KGB, and did its damnedest to prop up the Soviet Union’s self-esteem until the day it collapsed, which was why the sudden fall of the U.S.S.R. came as such a surprise to Langley. The Agency never much liked the Bush administration, and the Bush administration never much liked it, which is why the administration tried to counter the CIA by setting up its own intelligence force at the Pentagon, the Defense Clandestine Agency, as part of the also-ran Defense Intelligence Agency:

    The Pentagon has scaled back its plan to assemble an overseas spy service that could have rivaled the CIA in size, backing away from a project that faced opposition from lawmakers who questioned its purpose and cost, current and former U.S. officials said. Under the revised blueprint, the Defense Intelligence Agency will train and deploy up to 500 undercover officers, roughly half the size of the espionage network envisioned two years ago when the formation of the Defense Clandestine Service was announced.

    The previous plan called for moving as many as 1,000 undercover case officers overseas to work alongside the CIA and the U.S. military’s Joint Special Operations Command on counterterrorism missions and other targets of broad national security concern.

The Agency was not about to let that happen. And, confronted with a dying but still vengeful Democrat soon-to-be minority in Congress, and controlled by an Obama appointee, John Brennan — perhaps the least respected man in the entire Intelligence Community — it decided to get out front with this politically opportune mea culpa to keep its Democrat civilian masters happy and the Pentagon wolf from the door. Look — shiny!

Somewhere in Hell, Hillary’s mentor and Barry’s role model is smiling.


December 9th, 2014 - 10:59 am

[rangerrebew]

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Saul Alinsky’s 12 Rules for Radicals


Here is the complete list from Alinsky.

* RULE 1: “Power is not only what you have, but what the enemy thinks you have.” Power is derived from 2 main sources – money and people. “Have-Nots” must build power from flesh and blood. (These are two things of which there is a plentiful supply. Government and corporations always have a difficult time appealing to people, and usually do so almost exclusively with economic arguments.)
 * RULE 2: “Never go outside the expertise of your people.” It results in confusion, fear and retreat. Feeling secure adds to the backbone of anyone. (Organizations under attack wonder why radicals don’t address the “real” issues. This is why. They avoid things with which they have no knowledge.)
 * RULE 3: “Whenever possible, go outside the expertise of the enemy.” Look for ways to increase insecurity, anxiety and uncertainty. (This happens all the time. Watch how many organizations under attack are blind-sided by seemingly irrelevant arguments that they are then forced to address.)
 * RULE 4: “Make the enemy live up to its own book of rules.” If the rule is that every letter gets a reply, send 30,000 letters. You can kill them with this because no one can possibly obey all of their own rules. (This is a serious rule. The besieged entity’s very credibility and reputation is at stake, because if activists catch it lying or not living up to its commitments, they can continue to chip away at the damage.)
 * RULE 5: “Ridicule is man’s most potent weapon.” There is no defense. It’s irrational. It’s infuriating. It also works as a key pressure point to force the enemy into concessions. (Pretty crude, rude and mean, huh? They want to create anger and fear.)
 * RULE 6: “A good tactic is one your people enjoy.” They’ll keep doing it without urging and come back to do more. They’re doing their thing, and will even suggest better ones. (Radical activists, in this sense, are no different that any other human being. We all avoid “un-fun” activities, and but we revel at and enjoy the ones that work and bring results.)
 * RULE 7: “A tactic that drags on too long becomes a drag.” Don’t become old news. (Even radical activists get bored. So to keep them excited and involved, organizers are constantly coming up with new tactics.)
 * RULE 8: “Keep the pressure on. Never let up.” Keep trying new things to keep the opposition off balance. As the opposition masters one approach, hit them from the flank with something new. (Attack, attack, attack from all sides, never giving the reeling organization a chance to rest, regroup, recover and re-strategize.)
 * RULE 9: “The threat is usually more terrifying than the thing itself.” Imagination and ego can dream up many more consequences than any activist. (Perception is reality. Large organizations always prepare a worst-case scenario, something that may be furthest from the activists’ minds. The upshot is that the organization will expend enormous time and energy, creating in its own collective mind the direst of conclusions. The possibilities can easily poison the mind and result in demoralization.)
 * RULE 10: “If you push a negative hard enough, it will push through and become a positive.” Violence from the other side can win the public to your side because the public sympathizes with the underdog. (Unions used this tactic. Peaceful [albeit loud] demonstrations during the heyday of unions in the early to mid-20th Century incurred management’s wrath, often in the form of violence that eventually brought public sympathy to their side.)
 * RULE 11: “The price of a successful attack is a constructive alternative.” Never let the enemy score points because you’re caught without a solution to the problem. (Old saw: If you’re not part of the solution, you’re part of the problem. Activist organizations have an agenda, and their strategy is to hold a place at the table, to be given a forum to wield their power. So, they have to have a compromise solution.)
 * RULE 12: Pick the target, freeze it, personalize it, and polarize it.” Cut off the support network and isolate the target from sympathy. Go after people and not institutions; people hurt faster than institutions. (This is cruel, but very effective. Direct, personalized criticism and ridicule works.)

http://www.bestofbeck.com/wp/activism/saul-alinskys-12-rules-for-radicals

[Free Vulcan]

You can use that same principle in reverse. They key is this is a one sided report - the people they indict were never interviewed. It's is a straw man and needs knocked down. Then simply continue to pick apart the inaccuracies, which there seem to be many.

Not saying the CIA is a church choir, but this is a partisan witch hunt to get Bush, Cheney, and everyone around them and get eyes off Obama's failed foreign policy.

[Bigun]

You can use that same principle in reverse. They key is this is a one sided report - the people they indict were never interviewed. It's is a straw man and needs knocked down. Then simply continue to pick apart the inaccuracies, which there seem to be many.

Not saying the CIA is a church choir, but this is a partisan witch hunt to get Bush, Cheney, and everyone around them and get eyes off Obama's failed foreign policy.

EXACTLY right!