him to slap would-be academic conspiracy theorists firmly into their place.
If the MJ-12 documents really were faked, it would seem that whoever created them knew of Menzel’s intelligence activities and background. That would have been very rarified information. Or perhaps, as Friedman believed, the documents were real after all.
The term Majestic has been used occasionally in this book to describe the group charged with managing the many problems posed by these Others. This may be its actual name, or it may not. Either way, it is logical and reasonable that President Truman—not wanting to pass the buck—created it from the most trusted members of the U.S. military, political, and scientific establishment.
Once that decision was made and the group formed, a machinery was created and set in motion. Machinery that was so complex, so labyrinthian, and so powerful, that it became alive.
Choke Points
Threats and intimidation, such as those made on Frankie Rowe and others, are not the only ways to keep a secret. Management of the press is also critical.
By the early 1950s, the CIA had developed relationships with most major media executives in the United States. This does not mean something so crass as CIA agents telling executives what to print or broadcast. Rather, it means that some executives voluntarily killed stories that would damage perceived American interests. Sometimes, when necessary, the CIA would be consulted. Sometimes stronger medicine was prescribed, like planting disinformation or even stories that were flatly untrue.
Even a partial list of the participating organizations is breathtaking: the New York Times , the Washington Post , the Christian Science Monitor , the New York Herald-Tribune , the Saturday Evening Post , the Miami Herald , Hearst Newspapers, Scripps-Howard Newspapers, and Time-Life. Major news wire services, such as Reuters, the Associated Press, and United Press International, also cooperated. So, too, did television and radio broadcast concerns such as CBS News, the Mutual Broadcasting System, and others. In addition to these, the CIA owned many newspapers and publishing houses overseas.
Some of this information came out during the 1970s, when the CIA admitted to having paid relationships with more than 400 mainstream American journalists. 8 Consider the possibilities available to any person or group covertly employing 400 journalists. Although the CIA claimed it ended such relationships, it tacitly acknowledged the need to cultivate them in cases of national security. More recently, one inside military source told the authors that CIA influence among freelance journalists today is “pervasive.” Former CIA Chief William Colby, a cold man who made his mark during the murderous Project Phoenix, who rose to the top of the Agency during the 1970s, and whose life ended in a boating “accident” on the Potomac in 1995, once told a confident that every major media was covered by the long reach of the CIA.
But the CIA sought to manage more than the media. It also gained influence over the world of the intellectuals by funding all political flavors: those on the right, in order to promote American global interests; and those on the left, to wean socialist-leaning Americans away from Communism and toward an acceptance of “the American way.” 9 This also happened in the world of academia, which several studies have amply exposed. 10
The CIA’s management of information is deft. Naturally, one cannot control all journalists, professors, and independent researchers. However, one can create chokepoints of information guarded by leading figures. If some maverick publishes something dangerous, the appropriate CIA proxy at the Los Angeles Times or Harvard University makes sure to attack it, and if necessary ridicule it. It is always the nail that sticks out that gets hammered.
More typically, unwelcome stories were blocked from going national. Throughout the 20th century, the wire services,
If the MJ-12 documents really were faked, it would seem that whoever created them knew of Menzel’s intelligence activities and background. That would have been very rarified information. Or perhaps, as Friedman believed, the documents were real after all.
The term Majestic has been used occasionally in this book to describe the group charged with managing the many problems posed by these Others. This may be its actual name, or it may not. Either way, it is logical and reasonable that President Truman—not wanting to pass the buck—created it from the most trusted members of the U.S. military, political, and scientific establishment.
Once that decision was made and the group formed, a machinery was created and set in motion. Machinery that was so complex, so labyrinthian, and so powerful, that it became alive.
Choke Points
Threats and intimidation, such as those made on Frankie Rowe and others, are not the only ways to keep a secret. Management of the press is also critical.
By the early 1950s, the CIA had developed relationships with most major media executives in the United States. This does not mean something so crass as CIA agents telling executives what to print or broadcast. Rather, it means that some executives voluntarily killed stories that would damage perceived American interests. Sometimes, when necessary, the CIA would be consulted. Sometimes stronger medicine was prescribed, like planting disinformation or even stories that were flatly untrue.
Even a partial list of the participating organizations is breathtaking: the New York Times , the Washington Post , the Christian Science Monitor , the New York Herald-Tribune , the Saturday Evening Post , the Miami Herald , Hearst Newspapers, Scripps-Howard Newspapers, and Time-Life. Major news wire services, such as Reuters, the Associated Press, and United Press International, also cooperated. So, too, did television and radio broadcast concerns such as CBS News, the Mutual Broadcasting System, and others. In addition to these, the CIA owned many newspapers and publishing houses overseas.
Some of this information came out during the 1970s, when the CIA admitted to having paid relationships with more than 400 mainstream American journalists. 8 Consider the possibilities available to any person or group covertly employing 400 journalists. Although the CIA claimed it ended such relationships, it tacitly acknowledged the need to cultivate them in cases of national security. More recently, one inside military source told the authors that CIA influence among freelance journalists today is “pervasive.” Former CIA Chief William Colby, a cold man who made his mark during the murderous Project Phoenix, who rose to the top of the Agency during the 1970s, and whose life ended in a boating “accident” on the Potomac in 1995, once told a confident that every major media was covered by the long reach of the CIA.
But the CIA sought to manage more than the media. It also gained influence over the world of the intellectuals by funding all political flavors: those on the right, in order to promote American global interests; and those on the left, to wean socialist-leaning Americans away from Communism and toward an acceptance of “the American way.” 9 This also happened in the world of academia, which several studies have amply exposed. 10
The CIA’s management of information is deft. Naturally, one cannot control all journalists, professors, and independent researchers. However, one can create chokepoints of information guarded by leading figures. If some maverick publishes something dangerous, the appropriate CIA proxy at the Los Angeles Times or Harvard University makes sure to attack it, and if necessary ridicule it. It is always the nail that sticks out that gets hammered.
More typically, unwelcome stories were blocked from going national. Throughout the 20th century, the wire services,
Similar Books
