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Did CIA Director William Casey really say, "We'll know our disinformation program is complete when everything the American public believes is false"?
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I am the source for this quote, which was indeed said by CIA Director William Casey at an early February 1981 meeting of the newly elected President Reagan with his new cabinet secretaries to report to him on what they had learned about their agencies in the first couple of weeks of the administration.
The meeting was in the Roosevelt Room in the West Wing of the White House, not far from the Cabinet Room. I was present at the meeting as Assistant to the chief domestic policy adviser to the President. Casey first told Reagan that he had been astonished to discover that over 80 percent of the 'intelligence' that the analysis side of the CIA produced was based on open public sources like newspapers and magazines.
As he did to all the other secretaries of their departments and agencies, Reagan asked what he saw as his goal as director for the CIA, to which
he replied with this quote, which I recorded in my notes of the meeting
as he said it. Shortly thereafter I told Senior White House correspondent Sarah McClendon, who was a close friend and colleague, who in turn made it public. Barbara Honegger bshonegg@gmail.com
The meeting was in the Roosevelt Room in the West Wing of the White House, not far from the Cabinet Room. I was present at the meeting as Assistant to the chief domestic policy adviser to the President. Casey first told Reagan that he had been astonished to discover that over 80 percent of the 'intelligence' that the analysis side of the CIA produced was based on open public sources like newspapers and magazines.
As he did to all the other secretaries of their departments and agencies, Reagan asked what he saw as his goal as director for the CIA, to which
he replied with this quote, which I recorded in my notes of the meeting
as he said it. Shortly thereafter I told Senior White House correspondent Sarah McClendon, who was a close friend and colleague, who in turn made it public. Barbara Honegger bshonegg@gmail.com
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Almost certainly not. Look at that quote. That doesn't even sound like something a human being would say. That sounds like something a person would say in someone else's paranoid fantasies. And what's the source? Do you think we have public records of CIA staff meetings? Or do you figure that one of his staff decided to go public with that? In which case, who? And where were they reported?
It's hard to say for certain that someone didn't say something, but there are so many made up "quotes" floating around that I'd be unlikely to believe something like that unless I knew where it came from.
UPDATE: With the addition of Barbara Honegger's answer, we now have a source for the quote. We also have critical context around it, which makes it much more plausible. He was evidently referring to a campaign to spread false information in the public sphere in hopes that it would reach Soviet Intelligence and present them with bad data. Certainly a troubling precedent, but not as sinister as it sounds out of context.
It's hard to say for certain that someone didn't say something, but there are so many made up "quotes" floating around that I'd be unlikely to believe something like that unless I knew where it came from.
UPDATE: With the addition of Barbara Honegger's answer, we now have a source for the quote. We also have critical context around it, which makes it much more plausible. He was evidently referring to a campaign to spread false information in the public sphere in hopes that it would reach Soviet Intelligence and present them with bad data. Certainly a troubling precedent, but not as sinister as it sounds out of context.
Ex-DCI Bill Casey's quote was attributed online as reported only by Mae Brussell, and so, I bounced it off Barbara Honegger because I knew she worked for Mae B back in the day, and here's what I got on the ACTUAL SOURCE (talk about luck! - I extracted actual email addresses):
---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Barbara Honegger
Date: Sun, Sep 21, 2014 at 11:19 PM
Subject: Re: Conference on THE WARREN REPORT AND THE
JFK ASSASSINATION : FIVE DECADES OF
SIGNIFICANT DISCLOSURES
To: Greg Smith
I told Mae about it when we worked together ...
On Sun, Sep 21, 2014 at 10:32 PM, Greg Smith wrote:
Thanks Barbara! That's priceless. The web attributes it to Mae B only, and therefore, it's discounted in chat and group conversations on social media. You might want to give it better street cred? Your call!
On Sep 21, 2014, at 8:59 PM, Barbara Honegger wrote:
> Seriously -- I personally was the Source
> for that William Casey quote. He said it
> at an early Feb. 1981 meeting in the
> Roosevelt Room in the West Wing of
> the White House which I attended, and
> I immediately told my close friend and
> political godmother Senior White House
> Correspondent Sarah McClendon, who
> then went public with it without naming
> the source ...
> On Sat, Sep 20, 2014 at 2:49 PM, Greg Smith wrote:
>
> Love to, but can't break away. I'll definitely get the DVD for future very intense scrutiny! On that note, in the words of the infamous William J. Casey, "We'll know our disinformation program is complete when everything the American public believes is false."
>
> On Sep 17, 2014, at 1:25 AM, Barbara Honegger wrote:
>> I'm going to try to go to the historic conference.
>> Please try to as well...
>> Barbara
>> On Tue, Sep 16, 2014 at 8:34 PM, Jerry Policoff wrote:
>> Re: Conference on THE WARREN REPORT AND THE
>> JFK ASSASSINATION : FIVE DECADES OF
>> SIGNIFICANT DISCLOSURES
---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Barbara Honegger
Date: Sun, Sep 21, 2014 at 11:19 PM
Subject: Re: Conference on THE WARREN REPORT AND THE
JFK ASSASSINATION : FIVE DECADES OF
SIGNIFICANT DISCLOSURES
To: Greg Smith
I told Mae about it when we worked together ...
On Sun, Sep 21, 2014 at 10:32 PM, Greg Smith wrote:
Thanks Barbara! That's priceless. The web attributes it to Mae B only, and therefore, it's discounted in chat and group conversations on social media. You might want to give it better street cred? Your call!
On Sep 21, 2014, at 8:59 PM, Barbara Honegger wrote:
> Seriously -- I personally was the Source
> for that William Casey quote. He said it
> at an early Feb. 1981 meeting in the
> Roosevelt Room in the West Wing of
> the White House which I attended, and
> I immediately told my close friend and
> political godmother Senior White House
> Correspondent Sarah McClendon, who
> then went public with it without naming
> the source ...
> On Sat, Sep 20, 2014 at 2:49 PM, Greg Smith wrote:
>
> Love to, but can't break away. I'll definitely get the DVD for future very intense scrutiny! On that note, in the words of the infamous William J. Casey, "We'll know our disinformation program is complete when everything the American public believes is false."
>
> On Sep 17, 2014, at 1:25 AM, Barbara Honegger wrote:
>> I'm going to try to go to the historic conference.
>> Please try to as well...
>> Barbara
>> On Tue, Sep 16, 2014 at 8:34 PM, Jerry Policoff wrote:
>> Re: Conference on THE WARREN REPORT AND THE
>> JFK ASSASSINATION : FIVE DECADES OF
>> SIGNIFICANT DISCLOSURES
Yes, and in my humble opinion, it’s one of the most important questions ever asked and answered on Quora. This is absolutely a cite-able Quora entry at any level. It was answered by Barbara Honegger's answer to Did CIA Director William Casey really say, "We'll know our disinformation program is complete when everything the American public believes is false"? Hers is the only answer which should be held as the formal answer to this question.
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