Recently made available by Cryptome this NSA report originally appeared in an issue of their publication Cryptolog in 1992. It examines the role that signals intelligence (SIGINT) plays in the storylines of several John le Carré novels and considers whether the inaccuracies and limitations in these portrayals are of benefit to the NSA.
By Daniel Espinosa Winder
The Russians are coming! Once again, the structural bias of the American news media in favor of the ‘official version’ turns them into a propaganda tool. Intelligence sources point out Russian interference in recent elections. However, WikiLeaks-related sources say the Democratic Party’s mail leak was the working of a whistle-blower within that institution.
Pearse invited me back onto his new radio show to discuss my recent piece on Three Days of the Condor and some of the alternative history of Watergate.
In the first hour I am joined by Tom Secker of Spy Culture. We discuss his recent article examining the 1975 conspiracy classic Three Days of The Condor. We examine the film and its bizarre history; having former CIA Director Richard Helms on set for a day of shooting. Tom and I explore the notion that this was a first step for the CIA and their evolving relationship with Hollywood. Next we move on to the recently declassified CIA report on the Watergate scandal. We talk about the admission by the CIA that they had an active operative, Eugenio R.
While the CIA have been assisting films such as Scorpio for decades they maintain very few records of their involvement in these productions, making it difficult to know how influential the Agency is in this arena. A different but somewhat fruitful angle of inquiry is in the CIA's records of the media discussion of spy books and films in the form of reports, reviews, ratings and discussions.
Peter B. Collins Presents Saint John Hunt
Minimum wages, BAFTA and Bowie's Blackstar + this day in history w/Hollerith punch cards and our song of the day by Pillar Point on your Morning Monarchy for January 8, 2016.
Watergate is the quintessential conspiracy, one that went all the way to the White House and took down a presidency. But it is a story that is almost always provided without context, and with no mention of certain key facts. J Edgar Hoover died only a couple of months before the Watergate break-in, so the FBI was in the midst of a succession crisis when they were hit with the most controversial investigation in their history. Did this lead their deputy director Mark Felt, passed over by Nixon for promotion, to leak the story to Bob Woodward under the guise of Deep Throat?
The [Washington] Post lied to its readers by printing stories it knew were false, and they allowed Woodward to lie with impunity. That included printing stories that claimed that Moorer or others had never talked to us for Silent Coup, when in fact the Post’s reporters not only knew they had been interviewed, but they had done so on tape. Their editors and allies waged a campaign of disinformation and intimidation against other media organizations that considered printing parts of Silent Coup or airing stories about the book.
I joined Tom Secker once again to discuss the 1997 film Wag the Dog. The film revolves around a White House spin doctor who orchestrates a fake war in Albania to shift attention away from a sex scandal which would cost the president reelection.
