The transcript of a recent talk (Sep 17/2015) given by Deputy Director David Cohen at Cornell University and preserved verbatim on the CIA website, titled “The CIA of the Future,” makes for rather spectacular if not laugh-out-loud reading.
Particularly in light of the recently-released 500-page Summary of the CIA’s post-911 Torture Report, and the CIA’s continuing involvement in non-consensual and clandestine MKULTRA-extended human experimentation on Americans, in America, covered here under Human Rights, and widely discussed online, including in this excellent post at The Vigilant Citizen, 
Origin and Techniques of Monarch Mind Control, which details the absolutely grisly and unimaginably sadistic methodologies of torture and trauma-based mind control and psychological “alter” formation used by the CIA in its clandestine ’50s-’70s experiments on children, as well as other “unwitting human subjects, including CIA employees, military personnel, doctors, other government agents, prostitutes, mentally ill patients, and members of the general public,” Mr. Cohen’s remarks ring rather hollow.
Predictably, the talk contained a lot of bemoaning of violence and stress abroad, as if the CIA had had absolutely nothing to do with the creation of any of this violence, directly or indirectly, covertly or overtly, clandestinely or publicly, in particular with the creation of ISIS, which even the New York Times ended up covering.
“First, the ideas, institutions, and states that have formed the foundation of the post-Cold War system, and have delivered at least a modicum of governance, service, and security to often multi-ethnic populations, are under stress. Nowhere is this more apparent than in the brutal extremism of the so-called Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), which seeks to erase the borders—and, tragically, the ancient communities—of Syria and Iraq.”
Yes, tragically, the ancient communities of Syria and Iraq, which the US military –assisted by the CIA–has been trying to wipe off the map.
He goes on directly though to hint that other countries, elsewhere, are engaging in such horrors as “media manipulation, ubiquitous surveillance, criminalization of dissent, and controlled elections.”
“At the same time, democratic governance is under siege. For the ninth consecutive year, Freedom House in 2014 reported more declines than gains in the quality of democracy worldwide. Worsening ethno-sectarian and socioeconomic strains are contributing to the trend. So, too, does the rise of a more sophisticated form of authoritarianism that forgoes brute force and heavy-handed propaganda in favor of technology-enabled media manipulation, ubiquitous surveillance, criminalization of dissent, and controlled elections.“
Descent into outright mendacity appears soon enough, as once more–the CIA as a whole seems to want to keep stressing this, even in their noncommittal and perfectly blase responses to FOIA requests (including mine/at Muckrock), perhaps in the hope that repetition might succeed where deception fails:
“Let me emphasize up front that CIA collects only foreign intelligence—that is, information relating to foreign governments, foreign organizations, foreign persons, or international terrorists.
“And contrary to what you may have seen on “Homeland,” CIA does not undertake foreign intelligence collection in the United States to acquire information concerning the domestic activities of US citizens. Our efforts are focused overseas, on identifying threats and opportunities linked to foreign individuals, governments and organizations outside our borders.”
Sure. And MKULTRA never happened. Nor does the current targeting of individuals, domestically and abroad, with mind-control, directed-energy, SIGINT-collection methodologies, and brain-entrainment methodologies in the realm of “behavior modification,” which we can see is based entirely on MKULTRA, although possibly concealed under a different name, have anything to do with the CIA, no doubt.
Just in reference to that foreign/not-domestic claim, here’s a Thought for the Day from a CIA mind-control programmer, quoted in ex-CIA scientist Dr. Robert Duncan’s rather revealing book on the “mind-hacking” (and quite domestic) activities of the CIA, on one aspect of the ubiquitous mind-control CIA program, a creation of “sleeper cells and sleeper agents”:
“Sleeper cells and sleeper agents are activated for different purposes. Let’s say hypothetically John Lennon sounds like communist propaganda, we will send out a psycho-sleeper to kill him. Hypothetically speaking, if Ronald Reagan is becoming senile, he is a security risk for national secrets, we will activate a sleeper. If a Defense contractor becomes an alcoholic or sex addict, he/she may be a security risk, so we silently assassinate them with seemingly natural causes. If the Kennedys don’t fit in line with our country’s objectives—you get the point.” CIA programming braggart.
Chapter 1, Hacking Computer and Biological Systems/Project Soul Catcher, Volume 2–Robert Duncan
(From the back cover: Project Soul Catcher, Volume 2 “details the CIA practices of interrogation and cybernetic mind control in their pursuit to weaponize neuropsychology.”)
But there’s more. Mr. Cohen spends a few paragraphs working up fervor in the CIA’s devotion to diversity in the workplace, throwing in little anecdotes to demonstrate its usefulness in action, adding:
“On countless occasions, our cooperation with foreign liaison has quietly achieved significant results. Working together, we have disrupted terrorist plots, broken vicious insurgencies, intercepted transfers of dangerous weapons and technology, and brought international criminals to justice, among many other accomplishments. And as CIA assists many of these services in building their human-intelligence collection capability while insisting that, in the process, they respect fundamental human rights, we can count even more on their partnership in helping us expand our own collection efforts around the globe.”
Yes, that’s more than rich. Please note, the CIA insists they respect fundamental human rights. Really? Small quote from a Huffington Post article on the CIA Torture Report, just as a reminder, to Mr. Cohen, who appears to have forgotten what the CIA was doing in their “enhanced interrogation” program:
“The study reveals several gruesome instances of torture by mid-level CIA officers who participated in the program, including threats of sexual violence using a broomstick and the use of “rectal hydration” in instances of harsh interrogations that lasted for days or weeks on end. And, contrary to the agency’s prior insistence that only three detainees were subject to waterboarding, the Senate report suggests it was likely used on more detainees.”
Also drop in here, for a revealing look at the CIA’s No-Touch Torture program, covered by Dr. Duncan, who used to work for the Department of Defense, CIA, and Justice, and helped develop the technologies now unfortunately in use by them.
It’s a sad reflection on America today that a government agency–with a horrific history of torture, among other atrocities--which purports to be a foreign-intelligence collection and espionage agency yet practices deadly “behavior-modification” torture technologies in secret on citizens (including this writer/hence those FOIA requests) and detainees while engaging in blatant deception propaganda in public is permitted to continue spreading propaganda and continue functioning at all, when it really should be exposed for what it is, and completely disbanded.
