Author: Todd E. Pierce

Tribute Honoring Dan Ellsberg’s Legacy
July 30, 2023, National Press Club

This is the complete, original program, as planned by Diane Perlman and Todd E. Pierce, which had to be reduced in content due to the live event’s time constraints. Which can be seen here.

But this is now complete with full, unedited, tributes, and with additional tributes by Prof. Gar Alperovitz (“Mr. Boston”), retired CIA analyst Ray McGovern, and retired FBI agent Coleen Rowley, as originally put together. With information added on each of these presenter’s connections to the “Dan Ellsberg Saga.” In addition, at the end of this video is a tribute by name to some of the most heroic Whistleblowers who came after Dan Ellsberg, who were inspired by Dan, and/or followed in his footsteps, knowing they were doing the “right thing.” With Dan having “shown the way,” and “lighting the path.”

The Washington Post "revealed" today, as their headline read: ‘Eyewash’: How the CIA deceives its own workforce about operations. This would not come as news to anyone who pays attention to CIA pronouncements and reads Antiwar.com or Consortiumnews.com. But it begs the question of why the Post limited their article to the CIA and did not mention the many other so-called "national security" agencies who routinely engage in "eyewashing" with their every pronouncement? "Common sense" should tell us that the CIA isn’t the only national security agency which engages in deception, either of their own workforce, their Congressional "watchdogs," or of the public.

"Eyewashing" agencies include the DOD and its subordinate branches of the military, particularly the NSA and the Special Operations Commands, the FBI, Homeland Security, and the many other agencies, known and perhaps unknown, engaged in "protecting" the U.S. But the greater blame for failing to keep the public informed so they can, hopefully, override disastrous and self-damaging policies cooked up in the hothouses of national security agencies might better be placed upon the journalists, lawyers, etc. who were intended by the framers to form a part of the system of checks and balances as obstacles to policies pursued by incompetent, negligent, derelict, and/or odious officials.

Continue reading “‘CIA Eyewashing’ and the Lost Political Wisdom of Hunter S. Thompson”

What do the NYPD arresting officers of Eric Garner, the CIA officials responsible for the crimes detailed in the Torture Report and US foreign policy officials all have in common? They are all agents of institutions that have adopted an “authoritarian psychology.” So what does authoritarian psychology mean?

Alexandre Kojeve, a French fascist in Vichy France, and lifelong close friend of Neocon Godfather Leo Strauss, explained authority as follows: “Authority is the possibility of an agent acting upon others without these others reacting against him, despite being capable to do so, and without making any compromises. Any discussion is already a compromise.”

This is anathema to the authoritarian because it means their absolute authority or of the institution they represent has been lost, even if only to an imperceptible degree. That is the nature of authoritarian psychology and authoritarian government by Kojeve’s and fascist logic.

What this meant to Eric Garner was explained to Ray Suarez by a retired Chicago policeman. First, it doesn’t matter whether the arrest is for a petty crime or a felony. In the case of Garner, according to the Chicago policeman, he had been given the opportunity to surrender, to submit. When he didn’t follow the “order,” (not quick enough) he was not complying and therefore the police “took it to the next level.”

Continue reading “Eric Garner, the Torture Report, and Authoritarian Psychology”