The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) is one government agency that remains largely hidden from the American public. It operates with a secret federal budget and appears to run independent activities, even having the means to generate its own revenue.

By now most people who follow politics understand how the CIA and State Department operate collaboratively in most foreign endeavors.  Many CIA operatives have State Department covers.  The CIA also works jointly with the State Dept on influence operations through USAID, which makes some recent events a little uncomfortable.

Against revelations about the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) funding violent domestic extremist groups, consider this graphic:

It is hard to argue against the possibility that behind some of the domestic violent extremists (what the FBI calls DVEs) is a network of finance that traces back to the CIA.  It is a fact that USAID is -in part- a CIA influence operation.  If the SPLC is funded by USAID, then who was ultimately funding the SPLC influence operations?  It is an uncomfortable question.

As we researched several serious issues in the past two decades one thing always surfaces, the intelligence community is often at the heart of the matter. As a historic example, during research into the Benghazi, Libya chaos that ultimately led to the death of Ambassador Chris Stevens it became almost impossible to distinguish the CIA operatives from the State Dept objective.

In fact, we said the same thing about the CIA and the Qatar officials who were part of that background Libya story. It was almost impossible to tell a difference between the CIA operatives and the Qatari facilitators.  The money was fungible and the Libya operation was an enmeshed network of mutually aligned government interests.

♦ When President Obama signed the finding memos for covert Libya and Syria operations, it is more than likely the last direct engagement on the matter as everything from that moment then sank below the surface into some system of CIA operations (Panetta) that was no longer controlled by the White House.

The boondoggled Libya mess known as “Operation Zero Footprint” burst back through the surface like a fast-breeching Trident submarine when the al-Qaeda attack against the Benghazi “consulate” took place.

Political chaos erupted on the surface and the only thing the White House could do was try to ignore the chaos until the water calmed again.  As the fires raged at the CIA annex in Benghazi, Obama literally went to Las Vegas for a fundraising event.  The quick removal of the current CIA Director (Petraeus) and a compliant media helped his team manage the issue.

♦ More recently we would not know of a CIA operation in Mexico if it were not for a car crash that killed two covert CIA operatives.  Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum said she knew nothing about the operation, I don’t think she was lying. “A statement from Mexico’s Ministry of Security said one U.S. agent entered Mexico as a visitor while the other entered with a diplomatic passport.” {source} If their car didn’t “drive off a ravine and explode” we would never even know about it.

As many people now understand, intercepting drugs, picking the winning and losing drug cartels and receiving money from the mechanics of illegal drug and human trafficking are part of how the CIA self-finances beyond their dark budget.

When we watch the Pentagon blowing up drug boats coming from Columbia and Venezuela, many people wonder if those were just the arrogant idiots who forgot to pay a CIA transit fee.

It is doubtful that CIA Director John Ratcliffe, or any modern CIA Director since George H.W. Bush ((’76/’77), has specific working knowledge of every operation the CIA is actually carrying out.  That Occam’s Razor acceptance frames the doorway between Chuck Schumer’s “six ways from Sunday” mindset and the group of mutually assured recipients of envelopes at George H.W. Bush’s funeral.

We start to exit the discussion through the same door we entered.  If the SPLC is funded by USAID, then who was ultimately funding the SPLC influence operations, or, wait for it, the ongoing operations to resist and remove President Donald Trump.

Yes, it remains a series of very uncomfortable questions.  However, ultimately at the end of the SPLC goal was the removal of President Trump, no?

FBI Agent Peter Strzok, who originated the Crossfire Hurricane operation then set up the parameters for the targeting effort itself, received a coin of recognition and appreciation from what agency?  The CIA.

The Trump-Russia collusion narrative was fabricated by Eric Ciaramella and Julia Gurganus inside the National Intelligence Council and Directorate of Analysis, at the behest of CIA Director John Brennan.

The same operatives from within the same agency then organized an anonymous whistleblower complaint in an effort to trigger an impeachment investigation and subsequent trial.  All of it was fraudulently created, fabricated, spun to give the illusion of something that did not exist, and all of it came from where?  The CIA.

Additionally, every time you find yourself confused or perplexed by events and outcomes that seemingly contradict themselves creating chaos and confusion, it is a best practice to pause remember what it feels like to be reviewing an intelligence operation.

The hallmark patterns of chaos and confusion run consistent when reviewing intelligence operations from the outside, and that includes the inability of anyone to explain just how algorithmically controlled narratives seem to find mysterious support.

Yes folks, it’s time for a national conversation about the Central Intelligence Agency.