Tag Archives: l-fletcher-prouty

History of the Cult of Intelligence

What we have been exploring for the past 18 months is the systematic programming of American minds by the powers that be. What I intend to demonstrate through the Scientology history is an understandable microcosm of those mind control processes that continue to play out to this day in American society at large.

The first major revelations of the secret control mechanisms utilized by the shadow government (the deep state or cult of intelligence) was made by President John F. Kenney’s Chief of Operations for the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Air Force Colonel L. Fletcher Prouty. In his 1972 book The Secret Team (updated and re-released in 2011 by Skyhorse Publishing) Prouty detailed how teams of lifetime intelligence members manipulate Presidents, Congress, media, academia and industry in order to forward the aims’ of an aristocracy while leaving the American people powerless and in the dark.

Two years later a former CIA agent Victor Marchetti followed in Prouty’s footsteps, corroborating the latter while disclosing a tremendous amount of new material. His book, co-authored with former State Department official John Marks, The CIA And The Cult Of Intelligence (1974, Alfred K. Knopf) was a detailed expose of CIA methods used to carry out secret foreign policy as well as domestic operations to keep the American public in the dark as well as to eliminate dissent. It is noteworthy that Marchetti and Marks chose the word “cult” to describe what they investigated. This was near the inception of the “cult scare craze” of the seventies – which, perhaps not coincidentally, had the CIA’s fingerprints all over it. 

What follows are quotes taken from the first chapter of The CIA And The Cult of Intelligence. This chapter describes the cult that runs the United States government unseen by the public and largely unaffected by elected officials including members of Congress and Presidents. The book (in conjunction with Prouty’s) answers the age-old question, “how is it that a democratically elected government seems to continually operate 180 degrees contrary to the will of the electorate?” The first chapter neatly and accurately sums it up.

    “There exists in our nation today a powerful and dangerous secret cult – the cult of intelligence. Its holy men are the clandestine professionals of the Central Intelligence Agency. Its patrons and protectors are the highest officials of the federal government. Its membership, extending far beyond government circles, reaches into the power centers of industry, commerce, finance and labor. Its friends are many in the areas of important public influence – the academic world and the communications media. The cult of intelligence is a secret fraternity of the American political aristocracy…

…The cult is intent upon conducting the foreign affairs of the U.S. government without the awareness or participation of the people.  It recognizes no role for a questioning legislature or an investigative press. Its adherents believe that only they have the right and the obligation to decide what is necessary to satisfy the national needs…

…For adherents to this cult of intelligence, hypocrisy and deception, like secrecy, have become standard techniques for preventing public awareness of the CIA’s clandestine operations, and government accountability for them. And these men who ask that they be regarded as honorable men, true patriots, will, when caught in their own webs of deceit, even assert that the government has an inherent right to lie to its people…

…A good part of the CIA’s power position is dependent upon its careful mythologizing and glorification of the exploits of the clandestine profession. Sometimes this even entails fostering a sort of perverse public admiration for the covert practices of the opposition intelligence services – to frighten the public and thereby justify the actions of the CIA…

…As the opportunities for covert action abroad dwindle and are thwarted, those with careers based in clandestine methods are increasingly tempted to turn their talents inward against the citizens of the very nation they profess to serve. Nurtured by the adversary setting of the Cold War, shielded by secrecy, and spurred by patriotism that views dissent as a threat to the national security, the clandestine operatives of the CIA have the capability, the resources, the experience – and the inclination – to ply their skills increasingly on the domestic scene.”

If you take the time to read the work of Prouty, Marchetti and Marks (also author of The Search For The Manchurian Candidate – cited in several recent posts) you will be see receipts in plenty proving virtually every bold-faced word above. Notice how accurately this chapter describes our current state of affairs, fifty years later.  It may not be immediately noticeable as our minds have been conditioned by the very operation described. Prouty, Marchetti, Marks, Daniel Ellsberg (Pentagon Papers) were ruthlessly attacked and targeted for censorship by the cult of intelligence and its legal and media arms. They survived as did their work. Yet, their works have subsequently been largely forgotten because of the efforts of an aristocracy (cult) that has spent trillions to distract our attention from looking at the Secret Team behind the curtain pulling the levers. Like frogs sitting half-unconscious in a pot full of water that is gradually increasing in temperature, we have become numb to the steady erosion of our civil rights that has ensued. 

More recently, when the types of disclosures that were made in the seventies were made, the works never gained much currency and the authors (whistleblowers) were imprisoned and driven into silence or exile (Edward Snowden, Bradley Manning, Julian Assange).  And we apparently have been too distracted and conditioned to even care.

I believe we ought to be watching current affairs with eyes wide open. As much as the media is devoted to sowing division (see Matt Taibbi’s Hate, Inc.: Why Today’s Media Makes Us Despise One Another), I believe there is something folks from both sides of the aisle ought to be paying attention to. That is something that has not occurred for over 60 years in this country. I am referring to President Trump’s clear (if you watch closely) toe to toe confrontation with the deep state (aka cult of intelligence, secret team). Whether you agree with Trump’s policies or disagree there is little question that he is facing down the cult. Whether he caves, is taken down, or triumphs may determine whether civil liberties are restored or are extinguished – in their entirety – in a relative short period of time.* Incidentally, Trump has shown signs of caving in, being taken down, and of triumphing in this struggle. What cannot be denied is the fact of the struggle.

Recall this John F. Kennedy reminiscence by former US Supreme Court Justice William O. Douglas regarding the aftermath of the Bay of Bigs fiasco: “This episode seared him. He had experienced the extreme power that these groups had, these various insidious influences of the CIA and the Pentagon on civilian policy, and I think it raised in his own mind the specter: Can Jack Kennedy, President of the United States ever be strong enough to really rule these two powerful agencies? I think it had a profound effect…it shook him up!”

*Never in the history of the United States has there ever been a greater encroachment on Freedom of speech and expression than during the years 2020-2024.  If you doubt that, read this blog from 20 March, 2024 forward.