[Goose]

OF, Back in the day, you might have found the people in Langley involved.  Considering that it involves Russa, my guess is that you would never get the approvals you would need to try something like this.  We do not have a wonderful track record in trying to overthrow other governments.  Perhaps our biggest disaster was Eisenhower approving the CIA over throw of the democratically elected government in Iran.  Done because Churchill was under a lot of pressure from BP to save their business in Iran.  We all know how that turned out.

While I agree with you that it is highly improbable US intelligence agencies are involved in any organized effort to "overthrow" the Russian government, I do think one thing you said needs clarifying. IMO the US has a "pretty good" record in overthrowing other governments. The question of whether that these attempts were "a good idea" is a different one. IMO there is a lot of historical speculation that is just as suspect as the determination at the time was a "good idea". Counterfactuals are always perfect because they cannot be tested. In reality, the consequences of NOT doing what we did may actually have been worse. We simply will never know.

Actually supporting operations in Russia against the Russian government is almost certainly a bridge too far.  Too risky in the eyes of those who would approve such a thing.  We always need to remember that sometimes the devil you know is better than devil you don't.  That doesn't mean you can't have a 3rd party buy a boatload of Russian weapons from somewhere in Africa and then sell them again to someone else who then sells them to whoever is supply these rebel groups.

But you better be real, real careful who you deal with. Talk to Oliver North about that. I do agree that going after the Russian government is a bridge too far for all the "higher ups". One might worry about a "rogue" operation though.

 

Unfortunately in todays world and today's politics I don't think we could get involved in something like this without someone talking.  We just can't keep our mouths shut, and Need to Know is a joke in todays Washington, everyone thinks he or she has a need to know and there lies the problem.

A very serious problem, to be sure. It could actually be solved if the executive branch (all parties) would lead the way and require empowered SSOs for all sensitive materials, and live with the constraints imposed by doing so. Until that happens, things will not get better. However, there are plenty of things that are indeed kept secret. This can only be done by keeping the program "small" and possibly embedding it in several layers of cover operations. It isn't supposed to happen though :-).

[Goose]

OF, Back in the day, you might have found the people in Langley involved.  Considering that it involves Russa, my guess is that you would never get the approvals you would need to try something like this.  We do not have a wonderful track record in trying to overthrow other governments.  Perhaps our biggest disaster was Eisenhower approving the CIA over throw of the democratically elected government in Iran.  Done because Churchill was under a lot of pressure from BP to save their business in Iran.  We all know how that turned out.

While I agree with you that it is highly improbable US intelligence agencies are involved in any organized effort to "overthrow" the Russian government, I do think one thing you said needs clarifying. IMO the US has a "pretty good" record in overthrowing other governments. The question of whether that these attempts were "a good idea" is a different one. IMO there is a lot of historical speculation that is just as suspect as the determination at the time was a "good idea". Counterfactuals are always perfect because they cannot be tested. In reality, the consequences of NOT doing what we did may actually have been worse. We simply will never know.

Actually supporting operations in Russia against the Russian government is almost certainly a bridge too far.  Too risky in the eyes of those who would approve such a thing.  We always need to remember that sometimes the devil you know is better than devil you don't.  That doesn't mean you can't have a 3rd party buy a boatload of Russian weapons from somewhere in Africa and then sell them again to someone else who then sells them to whoever is supply these rebel groups.

But you better be real, real careful who you deal with. Talk to Oliver North about that. I do agree that going after the Russian government is a bridge too far for all the "higher ups". One might worry about a "rogue" operation though.

 

Unfortunately in todays world and today's politics I don't think we could get involved in something like this without someone talking.  We just can't keep our mouths shut, and Need to Know is a joke in todays Washington, everyone thinks he or she has a need to know and there lies the problem.

A very serious problem, to be sure. It could actually be solved if the executive branch (all parties) would lead the way and require empowered SSOs for all sensitive materials, and live with the constraints imposed by doing so. Until that happens, things will not get better. However, there are plenty of things that are indeed kept secret. This can only be done by keeping the program "small" and possibly embedding it in several layers of cover operations. It isn't supposed to happen though :-).