The CIA 'restructuring' is like Nixon's saturday night massacre

[Zuni]

No longer can the CIA report intelligence--now they will just report what Cheney wants to hear.

This purge is going to be the end of us

[Thtwudbeme]

1. Disagree--the Saturday Night Massacre

was almost (the Pentagan papers, the CREEPS and plumbers, etc) the beginning of the end for that son of a bitch.

This is more of a Nazi style, or Soviet style takeover of the government. The Bushitas are effectively canning any and all checks and balances that were left after the past 4 years.

[PurityOfEssence]

3. Exactly. It's the "Night of the Long Knives"

Those who enabled the acquisition and consolidation of power are now destroyed because they're not necessary anymore.

The Saturday Night Massacre was an act of desperation. This is methodical.

[willysnout]

2. It's Nothing Like That

The Saturday Night Massacre occurred because Nixon ordered the dismissal of a special prosecutor whose investigation of the White House was coming too close for comfort. There is nothing similar to that happening at the CIA; no one is being dismissed to block a special investigation of the agency's wrongdoing.

I don't like what's happening at the CIA, but this wolf-crying about a "Saturday Night Massacre" is foolish, juvenile and historically inaccurate.

[PurityOfEssence]

4. Step back and think

The Saturday Night Massacre was an imperious backlash against the mechanism of encroaching accountability. As such, there are many parallels here.

This is much like Stalin's demand that the secretariat swear personal allegiance to him. It's like Hitler's reciprocity of having the military swear allegiance to him personally as a payback for getting rid of the "common" and gay SA (Brownshirts).

The CIA does two things: gather intelligence and analyze it for the purpose of assessing what's going on in the world, and fucking, killing and otherwise destroying those who stand in our way. Sure, the latter has a pretty much understood element of obedience to the current power-holders, but the former is incredibly important for understanding what the hell's going on. By purging all who don't cleave instantly to the beliefs of the administration, we don't know what's going on.

Purging those who generate policy is one thing, but purging those who try to accurately depict the world is stupid, dangerous, selfish and flat-out insane.

The parallels are quite interesting: crush anyone who doesn't fall in line, and demand strict loyalty everywhere.

[willysnout]

6. Disagree

The Saturday Night Massacre had no ideological component. It was a purely tactical move, i.e., a hit to protect a criminal. The CIA restructuring is ideological in nature, and doesn't arise from any legal dispute. Mind you, this doesn't mean I approve of what's happening there. Far from it. But dismissing someone doesn't mean that it's "another Saturday Night Massacre."

[PurityOfEssence]

7. The tactics of their ideology is pure binary reaction

These are thugs, pure and simple. Whether it's a question of belief or not, in the calculus of cold-blooded power, it's an issue of whether you're "with me" or "agin me".

This is ham-fisted power consolidation. Ideology has nothing to do with it; Junior ONLY cares about winning, and because of that, he has less moral compass than creeps like Pat Buchannan.

It's about money. It's about winning. I don't claim anything about ideology being the impetus in my post to which you respond, I simply address the imperiousness of power blocs. In this, it's pretty clear: these two people share the trait of crushing anyone who stands in their way.

Nixon is a VERY good model for predicting the actions of this little snit. Yes, Nixon was very smart, and Junior's got nothing more than the most primitive circuitry, and yes, Nixon came from dirt while Junior is a Prince of the Realm, but their pettiness, meanness, vindictiveness and ruthlessness cast them as soulmates in many ways.

[w4rma]

5. He's creating a CIA of sychophants. That's dangerous. Thats what Stalin

did. And you know well what Stalin did after that.