Unusually, just a single speaker this week: one two hour interview with the doyen of deep political research, Canadian Professor Peter Dale Scott. He provides not only a lot of details of the evolution of the post WW2 deep state in the USA, but also sketches out its guiding principles, some of the deeper patterns which allow one to understand the superficially confusing and contradictory actions of the US deep state.
Mindful of the recent increase in listeners, I decided to have both hours on a single, fundamental topic. From January 2015, Peter Dale Scott summarizes the contents of his latest book, The American Deep State, introducing the term "deep state", and briefly outlining the four layer model:
1. Public Government & Legal apparatus
2. CIA, Clandestine Agencies
3. Large Corporations such as Booz Alan Hamilton, Intel Groups, Big Oil
4. Extreme wealth & The Individuals and Institutions which manage it
As he points out, the whole thing is much more fluid than the public state, with roles and personnel constantly changing, but with its own logic and processes which provide insight into the deliberately obfuscated phenomenon.
Scott notes that the main two competing factions in the CIA, were the intelligence gathering section and the cover ops branch. During the Cold War, the former was well aware that the USSR's military was no match for the USA, but it was consistently overruled by the black ops branch, which had aligned itself with the hawkish policies of the arms dealers. Of course real enemies did exist, even if - as we heard last episode - on occasions they had to be funded and trained by the CIA themselves. As Scott points out, internecine rivalries are intense but are suspended when the secrecy of the deep state is at stake. The commercially-controlled media, which provide cover for the deep state, are just as essential as the private intelligence agencies such as Booz Allen Hamilton, which provide the boots on the ground. With an ever increasing black budget at their disposal, even the congressional investigations of the 1970s failed to halt the advance of the deep state. In fact, by forcing it 'offshore' - into deep political milieus such as the Safari Club and Le Cercle - their practical upshot was to render it harder to eradicate.
"I do not posit that there has been a secret conspiracy to take over the government... I think there are processes. Nobody really controls it... People at certain moments made some key decisions. I think... they were always ad hoc things. Not like "this is step one in establishing a deep state". It was just "The President has to go". These are processes. The instruments are there, the machinery are there, the personnel keep changing... But once these these processes are in motion, then they acquire their own logic. For example, if the governing media of this country commit themselves to the position that the position that the president was killed by a 'lone nut' then they're committed to lying for eternity, really. For them to tell the truth about the Kennedy assassination would mean they would have to say "we participated in a lie for the public good, but nonetheless, a lie"." — Peter Dale Scott
Peter Dale Scott explains that in spite of it all, he is working on another book, and remains optimistic. Although the deep state it using ever more repressive force at the moment, he believes, the "long arc" of history favors discussion and persuasion rather than brute force.
1. Public Government & Legal apparatus
2. CIA, Clandestine Agencies
3. Large Corporations such as Booz Alan Hamilton, Intel Groups, Big Oil
4. Extreme wealth & The Individuals and Institutions which manage it
As he points out, the whole thing is much more fluid than the public state, with roles and personnel constantly changing, but with its own logic and processes which provide insight into the deliberately obfuscated phenomenon.
Scott notes that the main two competing factions in the CIA, were the intelligence gathering section and the cover ops branch. During the Cold War, the former was well aware that the USSR's military was no match for the USA, but it was consistently overruled by the black ops branch, which had aligned itself with the hawkish policies of the arms dealers. Of course real enemies did exist, even if - as we heard last episode - on occasions they had to be funded and trained by the CIA themselves. As Scott points out, internecine rivalries are intense but are suspended when the secrecy of the deep state is at stake. The commercially-controlled media, which provide cover for the deep state, are just as essential as the private intelligence agencies such as Booz Allen Hamilton, which provide the boots on the ground. With an ever increasing black budget at their disposal, even the congressional investigations of the 1970s failed to halt the advance of the deep state. In fact, by forcing it 'offshore' - into deep political milieus such as the Safari Club and Le Cercle - their practical upshot was to render it harder to eradicate.
"I do not posit that there has been a secret conspiracy to take over the government... I think there are processes. Nobody really controls it... People at certain moments made some key decisions. I think... they were always ad hoc things. Not like "this is step one in establishing a deep state". It was just "The President has to go". These are processes. The instruments are there, the machinery are there, the personnel keep changing... But once these these processes are in motion, then they acquire their own logic. For example, if the governing media of this country commit themselves to the position that the position that the president was killed by a 'lone nut' then they're committed to lying for eternity, really. For them to tell the truth about the Kennedy assassination would mean they would have to say "we participated in a lie for the public good, but nonetheless, a lie"." — Peter Dale Scott
Peter Dale Scott explains that in spite of it all, he is working on another book, and remains optimistic. Although the deep state it using ever more repressive force at the moment, he believes, the "long arc" of history favors discussion and persuasion rather than brute force.
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