The recent release of the FBI files on Russia collusion caught my attention yesterday. Along with many others, now-independent, Emmy-winning investigative journalist Catherine Herridge is reporting on the story:
Herridge has proven to be more than reliable during her career at ABC News, Fox News, and recently at CBS News. She was laid off from CBS supposedly due to budget cuts, but some say it was because her reporting was a serious bother to too many people.
This story got me thinking about Mike Benz, whose work came to my attention a year ago with an interview he did with Tucker Calson. Since then, he has been interviewed by well-known podcaster/journalist folks such as Joe Rogan, Caroline Glick, and Shawn Ryan. He also gave a presentation at Hillsdale College last September.
He has had that pinned to his feed on X for some time now, and I finally got around to listening to most of it yesterday while walking the dog. It seems important enough now that I am planning to watch so I can see his slides.
RealClearPolitics has posted the X-based video of the interview along with the timeline and transcript:
1:19: The Inauguration of Organized Political Warfare
11:20: NSC 10/2 and the Plausible Deniability Doctrine
15:08: Diplomacy Thru Duplicity
16:04: Smith-Mundt Act, The CIA Media Empire
19:40: The Department of Dirty Tricks
20:36: The CIA As Servant Of The State Department
23:02: 1789-1948 pre-history
29:54: 1948-1983
The whole piece really is worth watching. For anyone short on time, I gave the entire transcript to Grok from xAI with the request for a summary. Here is what it provided:
Mike Benz’s presentation at Hillsdale College outlines the concept of the “intelligence state,” where intelligence agencies, originally meant to serve the state, have overtaken it, operating with significant autonomy and influence. He traces its origins to 1948, a pivotal year marked by the establishment of the CIA and George Kennan’s memo, “The Inauguration of Organized Political Warfare.” This memo, declassified in 2005, followed the CIA’s first major operation—rigging Italy’s 1948 election to favor a U.S.-backed candidate over a Soviet-supported one. The operation involved $250 million in covert funding, propaganda through media like Voice of America, and alliances with churches, charities, and even the mafia, turning these entities into instruments of statecraft.
Benz highlights how Kennan’s vision, formalized in National Security Council Memo 10/2, authorized covert operations like propaganda, sabotage, and subversion, with “plausible deniability” as a core principle. This allowed the U.S. government to deny responsibility for illegal activities, fostering an “empire of lies” both abroad and domestically. The 1948 Smith-Mundt Act initially restricted propaganda within the U.S., but its 2013 amendment allowed government-made news to reach American audiences, weakening safeguards.
The CIA expanded its influence globally, orchestrating 85 regime changes post-Italy, with 50 during the Eisenhower era. By the 1960s, domestic operations like COINTELPRO and Operation Chaos targeted leftist movements, mirroring current efforts against populism. Scandals in the 1970s led to the Church Committee, exposing CIA abuses like assassination tools and media manipulation, prompting temporary reforms under Jimmy Carter. However, Ronald Reagan’s administration restored CIA powers, notably through the National Endowment for Democracy, embedding intelligence operations in NGOs, media, and cultural institutions.
Benz argues the intelligence state isn’t rogue but serves the State Department and Pentagon, executing their agendas while maintaining deniability. He compares it to a mafia structure, with the CIA as enforcers for diplomatic and defense elites. Today, this “blob” counters domestic populism, repurposing Cold War tactics to control narratives and suppress dissent, creating a tension between the American homeland and the global empire’s interests.
So, what are the chances the FBI Russia collusion probe was a symptom of the intelligence state as outlined by Mike Benz? When taken with other things that have happened and are happening, the chances seem to be increasingly high.
