This Democrat Lawmaker Wants You to Believe the CIA Is Totally Harmless

Sen. Elissa Slotkin (D-MI) must have purchased tons of fuel to gaslight the public about the activities of the CIA during a recent appearance on Stephen Colbert’s show.

During the conversation, Colbert noted that “conspiratorially-minded people out there like to think that some of the trouble the United States has is because of what they call the ‘Deep State.’

“Is there a Deep State? What do they mean by Deep State?” he asked.

Slotkin responded by pretending that CIA agents are generally regular people just doing their jobs. “Yeah, I just… I wish people could understand that a lot of the guys that I served with—guys and gals at the CIA or at the Pentagon where I served—first of all, a lot of them are former military,” she began. “So, you know, if you can’t be like pro-military and then anti-intelligence community and Deep State.”

She continued, saying, “a lot of the guys are also like wearing mom jeans and white sneakers on the weekends. Like, these are good, corn-fed people who just want to help their country.”

And this idea that there’s some network of people that are running the world… it’s just—it doesn’t really match reality. These people, in the dead of night, are doing things to protect this country and make sure things don’t blow up here.

And for me, you know, the way that Trump is going after them is just—it’s particular. It’s—first of all, it’s nasty. Second of all, it’s completely counter to our interest to be demoralizing the people that are protecting us.

She might think people don’t know about Project MK-Ultra, a top-secret program the agency launched in the early 1950s. The objective was to develop mind control techniques to use for espionage and interrogations. Under Dr. Sidney Gottlieb, the CIA experimented with a range of mind control methods, including LSD< sensory deprivation, hypnosis, and electroshock therapy.

The agency performed these experiments on willing and unwilling human subjects. The CIA funded these operations at universities, hospitals, and prisons.

One of the most egregious cases involved Dr. Frank Olson, a US Army scientist who died under mysterious circumstances after he was unknowingly dosed with LSD. Then-CIA Director Richard Helms ordered most MK-Ultra documents to be destroyed. But a cache of files resurfaced in 1977, which led to a series of Senate hearings aimed at getting to the bottom of the matter.

There was also the Iran-Contra Affair, which involved illegal arms sales and covert foreign funding to prohibited nations. Senior US officials facilitated the sale of weapons to Iran, which was under an arms embargo. In exchange, Iran would help to secure the releases of American hostages in Lebanon.

The officials used the profits from the sale to fund the Contras, a rebel group fighting against the socialist government of Nicaragua. This scandal provided one of many examples of the CIA operating outside of its boundaries.

There was also Operation CHAOS, a covert CIA program that ran between 1967 and 1974. It involved the surveillance of American citizens and organizations with suspected ties to foreign communists.

Despite the fact that the agency’s charter expressly forbade spying on American citizens, the agency collected information on over 300,000 people. These included civil rights leaders, anti-war activists, and student organizations.

Agents infiltrated peaceful organizations and compiled a treasure trove of files. They also monitored protests under the guise of protecting national security.

The 1975 Church Committee hearings exposed the operation. It concluded that the CIA had “improperly intruded into the lives of American citizens and into their political activities.” The CIA’s activities led to the creation of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA), which prohibited spying on American citizens without a warrant.

We would also be remiss to forget the role the CIA played in promoting the Russia collusion hoax. It was one of three federal agencies that produced the Intelligence Community Assessment claiming that the Kremlin interfered in the 2016 election to help President Donald Trump win. The CIA, under the direction of former National Intelligence Director John Brennan, excluded evidence showing that Hillary Clinton’s campaign sought to promote the lie that Trump’s campaign collaborated with the Russian government.

Of course, there are some in the agency who might genuinely be trying to protect the American people. But the scandals I mentioned are only a small smattering of instances where the agency abused its authority. Like most federal agencies, corruption is rife in the CIA. It is far from the rosy picture Slotkin paints.

But, of course, folks like Colbert and others are content to protect the corruption by pretending those who question government agencies are merely “conspiratorially-minded” people who shouldn’t be taken seriously.