Intelligence Agencies Hate Being Made to Look Foolish

Hmmm, Tucker Carlson makes the NSA out to be liars and political stooges for the White House, and while on vacation in Montana he is verbally assaulted by a man who is allegedly a CIA operative:

Tucker Carlson was recently accosted in a fly fishing shop in Livingston, Montana by someone who people have referred to as ‘Montana man.’ The video has captured widespread attention, but new information has arisen about the man who called Tucker the “worst human being.”

The belligerent man berating Carlson in front of his daughter uploaded the video of the incident onto Instagram under the account Dan Bailey.

“Following his work with the Asia Foundation Dan began guiding on the Delgermörön, where the perilous situation that confronted taimen in Mongolia was experienced first-hand,” the description continues. “As a result he started working on a project that was intended to inform foreign anglers about taimen conservation and protection.  This project was the foundation for a master’s degree from the University of Montana, which Dan completed in 2013.”

The Asia Foundation itself has a colorful past, which includes a prior known association with the Central Intelligence Agency. Although the Asia Foundation formally separated from the CIA years ago, it still receives sizable government funding, including from the U.S. State Department.

Based on declassified CIA documents and NY Times reporting, the Asia Foundation has a history of misleading the public about its ties to the CIA. It also has a history as a propaganda front for U.S. intelligence activities.

“The Asia Foundation is, on the surface, a private non-profit that contributes to the development of Asia, including donating millions of books,” a 2017 MuckRock article notes. “In reality, since it was created by Central Intelligence Agency in 1951, TAF has engaged in a decades long campaign to misrepresent its origins, purpose, and funding.”

“Originally conceived by CIA as a propaganda machine and a front for covert activities including psychological warfare, TAF has controlled its narrative by becoming the primary source of information on its organization,” the article goes on. “The narrative presented by TAF effectively erases the first years of its history and misleads the public about its sources of funding over the years. TAF’s deceptions aren’t limited to the public, either. Declassified documents reveal that TAF provided information to the State Department that was incorrect and misleading; this information was subsequently given to Congress. These misrepresentations were then cited in the findings of Congress’ ‘Asia Foundation Act’, which provides funding for the Foundation, and have become commonly referenced.”

Despite the Asia Foundation’s evolving revisionist history about its origins, a November 2017 article at Muck Rock follows the money and exposes that the Asia Foundation (TAF) is still a tool of U.S. foreign policy.

“TAF portrays itself as having been created ‘with the approval of the National Security Council’ and later being funded by, but remaining functionally independent from, the CIA,” the article notes. “In reality, it was a weapon crafted by CIA explicitly for political warfare. Armed with CIA propaganda products, guided by CIA priorities, staffed with CIA contract employees and former CIA staffers, TAF spent the first 16 years of its existence under the direct control of the Agency. For more than a year after that, it relied on funds that the Agency had covertly provided. TAF did not lose touch with the Agency in the following decades, nor did it lose its support.”

Go here to read the rest.  My guess is that the guy is simply a mega jerk who decided to get his 15 minutes of fame by tearing into a complete stranger.  However, at best this shows that CIA operatives can be completely unstable individuals, just the type of person you want serving on the board of a spy agency front.  Our country is in the very best of hands.