There’s supposedly a new wingnut meme doing the rounds of rightwing blogs, that the Church Committee, the 1975 senate comittee set up after Watergate revealed some of the dirty tricks the CIA had engaged in both at home and abroad. The idea being that this oversight committee destroyed the CIA and left it helpless to stop 9/11 yada yada. Over at Edge of the West, guest poster Kathy Solmsted quickly demolishes these lies, setting the fact straights. There’s only problem with this.
The facts are irrelevant.
These memes are not fact based, but do rely for some considerable extent on gaining wider circulation by being taken seriously enough by liberals or leftists to offer refutations. Instead of something to be ridiculed, the idea that the CIA was destroyed by teh lieberuls becomes a serious proposition worthy of debate — gaining a false legitimacy. And once an idea is treated seriously, there are always non-partisan bystanders who’ll fall the lies or, because that’s what they’ve been taught all their lives, think that the truth lies somewhere in the middle.
Another disadvantage of attempting to refute lies is that it’s so much more difficult than telling the lie was. It takes time and energy away from stating your own case, puts you on the defense and as we’re again taught by the newsmedia — not to mention countless courtroom dramas — makes you look bad.
Countering these crackpot ideas is difficult therefore, as you have to take them seriously to refute them and if you take them seriously you allow the crackpots to frame the debate. Which is why I prefer the Alicublog method of treating these memes with the seriousness they deserve, by pointing and laughing.
Apart from that, there may also be something of a difference between liberals and leftists playing a role in this particular case. Liberals historically have never had any real problems with the existence of the CIA, just with the abuses of its power revealed by the Curch committee and similar investigations. It was under Truman, a Democratic president that the CIA was founded and under the ur-liberal president Kennedy that it played some of its dirtiest tricks, the difference being that these tricks were directed at foreign socalled enemies and not Americans as much and so perfectly fine. For those liberals therefore who still think the CIA is a valid institution, defending the Church committee in particular and the idea of congressional oversight over it in general is much harder than it is for leftists like me who’d rather see it disappear sooner than later. Once you admit the CIA is a necesary evil by its very nature it becomes harder to argue for strict oversight.
Personally therefore I’d argue that the Church committee didn’t go far enough, was pivotal into bringing to light certain clasess of abuses, largely those against US citizens, but largely ignoring the raison d’etre of the organisation, which is to make the world safe for American business, the first line of defence against any unwelcome development that would harm their interests.