I can't vote to abolish the CIA. No way.

[showblue22]

The CIA keeps us safe. Does it need reform? Sure.. This is making Putin very happy. This is a losing issue across all Americans. Does Bernie want to lose the election?

Link to tweet

[jmg257]

1. Huh - and here I thought it was NASA who recruited Nazis?

[Voltaire2]

2. The cia flooded American cities with

cheap cocaine as part of their scheme to circumvent the prohibition on providing material support to the contras in Nicaragua. That is not a tin foil conspiracy theory, it was an actual conspiracy.

[bucolic_frolic]

3. Nation States have intelligence operatives since the Middle Ages

It goes with the territory. A State must have the capability and exercise it or it is not a state at all. You've got a security program and plan for your own home!

Trump is kneecapping our intelligence, why is Bernie running parallel ideas?

[showblue22]

5. We're fucked. nt

[DanTex]

4. what does this have to do with Bernie?

[TwilightZone]

7. It's a reference to Sanders previously calling to abolish the CIA.

Hence, the hashtag from a guy who is clearly a Sanders supporter.

As I noted below, Sanders has since reversed his position.

[showblue22]

9. well

“As a Senate candidate for an anti-war party in 1974, [Sanders] once went so far as to call for abolishing the CIA.”

Now #AbolishTheCIA is trending. Bernie supporters are joyful at the prospect

[DanTex]

13. 1974. Lol.

[TwilightZone]

6. Pretty sure that Mr. AwkwardRap isn't an official campaign spokesperson.

As for Sanders, he says that no longer wants to get rid of the CIA.

https://www.realclearpolitics.com/video/2016/02/24/sanders_i_no_longer_want_to_abolish_the_cia_but_i_have_a_lot_of_problems_with_their_activities.html

[Kurt V.]

8. we posting boot now? lol remember when JFK wanted the same? or Moynihan?

without a real threat (from any candidate) the CIA will not reform.

[lapfog_1]

10. Create the crack epidemic... probably not.

Run drugs for money... very likely.

The CIA did recruit "Nazis" (as in members of the Nazi party) and bring them to the US...

mostly the scientists like Wernher Von Braun (without whom we would not have landed on the moon).

Thousands? More like hundreds... but I don't know the exact count.

Experiment on Unknowing American innocents... sure... Yup they did that, so did our military.

torture of innocents... very likely... directly, not so much until the Iraq war, but we certainly trained our fair share of dictators around the world (and their minions) during the cold war.

get rid of the CIA... not on your life.

[showblue22]

12. Thank you .

Despite what we know the CIA did and did not do getting rid of the CIA would be suicide of out nation.

[Kaleva]

14. The Nazis were brought to the US prior to the creation of the CIA

Operation Paperclip

"The Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) established the first secret recruitment program, called Operation Overcast, on July 20, 1945, initially "to assist in shortening the Japanese war and to aid our postwar military research".[4] The term "Overcast" was the name first given by the German scientists' family members for the housing camp where they were held in Bavaria.[5] In late summer 1945, the JCS established the JIOA, a subcommittee of the Joint Intelligence Community, to directly oversee Operation Overcast and later Operation Paperclip.[6] The JIOA representatives included the army's director of intelligence, the chief of naval intelligence, the assistant chief of Air Staff-2 (air force intelligence), and a representative from the State Department.[7] In November 1945, Operation Overcast was renamed Operation Paperclip by Ordnance Corps (United States Army) officers, who would attach a paperclip to the folders of those rocket experts whom they wished to employ in America.[5]

In a secret directive circulated on September 3, 1946, President Truman officially approved Operation Paperclip and expanded it to include one thousand German scientists under "temporary, limited military custody".[8][9][10]"

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Paperclip

The CIA was formed on September 18, 1947.

[guillaumeb]

11. #s 3 and 4 are correct.

#s 1 and 2 are incorrect as written, but the US did recruit Nazis, and Reagan and Bush Sr. used cocaine to raise money for the Contras in Nicaragua.

And Bush Sr. was the Director of the CIA at one time.

There are not conspiracy theories, but this history is not generally told in textbooks.

[Autumn]

15. One tweet from a person who believes in some CT is "Bernie supporters"

Okay. I'm thinking one of those for sure is true, possibly two. Also, Bernie will not be abolishing the CIA. But he's not the first candidate to ever suggest ending the CIA, as we know it. JFK comes to mind.

https://www.politico.com/story/2016/02/bernie-sanders-cia-219451

It turns out that the Vermont senator has railed against that coup — assisted by the Central Intelligence Agency against Iran’s prime minister, Mohammad Mosaddegh — since he was a young radical activist in the mid-1970s.

One big difference between then and now: Forty years ago, Sanders didn’t just complain about CIA interventions abroad; he called for abolishing the spy agency altogether.

The CIA is “a dangerous institution that has got to go,” Sanders told an audience in Vermont in October 1974. He described the agency as a tool of American corporate interests that repeatedly toppled democratically elected leaders — including, he said, Mosaddegh. The agency was accountable to no one, he fumed, “except right-wing lunatics who use it to prop up fascist dictatorships.

https://www.realclearpolitics.com/video/2016/02/24/sanders_i_no_longer_want_to_abolish_the_cia_but_i_have_a_lot_of_problems_with_their_activities.html
CHRIS CUOMO, CNN: All right. So, now I know this was a while ago, but it has been reported that in 1974 you said the CIA is a dangerous institution that has "got to go." You went on to say the CIA was accountable to no one except "right-wing lunatics who use it to prop up fascist dictatorships."

Do you stand by those comments that you said back then?

SEN. BERNIE SANDERS: No, I don't.
That was 40 years ago.
Since then I've served as eight years as mayor of the city of Burlington. I spent 16 years in the House and nine years in the United States Senate.

But let me tell you this, I do have concerns about past activities of the CIA. CIA was involved in the overthrow of a gentleman named Mohammad Mosaddegh way back when in Iran, overthrew him on behalf of British oil.
And you know what happened? That led to the Iranian Revolution and we are where we are today.

The CIA was involved in the overthrow of Salvador Allende in Chile, a democratic candidate, he won a fair election, the CIA overthrew him.

CUOMO: But the institution itself of the CIA?

SANDERS: Oh, the CIA plays an important role. But have they done things which they should not have done on behalf of the United States government? Absolutely.