The Club
by digby
A couple of years ago Matt Damon made a movie called The Good Shepherd about the creation of the CIA. As you all undoubtedly know, for years the CIA recruited only the best and the brightest waspy ivy leaguers, which was always part of the reason for the Nixonian resentment among the wingnuts toward it. Damon’s waqspy, ivy league character Edward Wilson had a line that I thought rather cleverly explained how the CIA thinks of itself:
Joseph Palmi: Let me ask you something… we Italians, we got our families, and we got the church; the Irish, they have the homeland, Jews their tradition; even the ni**ers, they got their music. What about you people, Mr. Wilson, what do you have?
Edward Wilson: The United States of America. The rest of you are just visiting.
Capitalizing on the financial crisis, the CIA has launched a recruiting campaign targeting Wall Streeters with an appeal to patriotism. It’s been running radio and print ads in New York and financial media, and has made a pitch on its Web site.
“Economics, finance, and business professionals: If the quest for the bottom line is just not enough for you, the Central Intelligence Agency has a mission like no other,” beckons one recent radio advertisement. “Make a difference in your career and for your nation.”
The owners of America. The rest of us are just visitors here.
Update: Jonathan at ATR has the goods. The economic and national security elites literally are the same people — they always have been.
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