Who Runs Our Government -- Elected Representatives or Security Operatives?

One of the first examples of security reps running things I learned from an excellent high school teacher when I was a junior. An example at the time was the undermining of Iranian early stages of democracy to keep control of its oil by the Brits and our C.I.A.

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Mohammad Mosaddegh (Persian: محمد مصدّق, IPA: [mohæmˈmæd(-e) mosædˈdeɣ] ( listen)* also Mossadegh, Mosaddeq, Mossadeq, Mosadeck, or Musaddiq) (19 May 1882 – 5 March 1967) was the democratically elected[1][2][3][4] Prime Minister of Iran from 1951 to 1953 when he was overthrown in a coup d'état backed by the United States Central Intelligence Agency.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mohammad_Mosaddegh

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Mosaedegh was replaced by a brutal Shah who was selected because he was for us and against the Soviet Union and because Mosaedegh was demanding Iran's share of its oil profits. His eventual overthrow in turn left us with Iran on the 'other' side.

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"The Iran hostage crisis was a diplomatic clash between Iran and the United States. 52 US citizens were held hostage for 444 days from November 4, 1979 to January 20, 1981, after a group of Islamist students and militants took over the Embassy of the United States in support of the Iranian Revolution.[1]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iran_hostage_crisis

Americans remember the latter event -- which brought Reagan into office. Iranians are focused on the earlier CIA intervention.

The upshot is that whistle blowers among our half million or so with high security clearance are subject to arrest and imprisonment, if not mysterious deaths.

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WikiLeaks has announced an important release on their Twitter account, claiming it’ll be 7 times bigger than the Iraq war logs, which are widely considered to be the biggest military leak in history.

“Next release is 7x the size of the Iraq War Logs. intense pressure over it for months. Keep us strong” was the message posted to the Wikileaks Twitter account earlier today.

The message was followed by an even bolder statement two hours later: “The coming months will see a new world, where global history is redefined.”

http://mashable.com/2010/11/22/wikileaks-release/

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Unhappily the American public rarely hears of security maneuvers until long after they have affected our policies. It is no small wonder that we are held suspect in many parts of the world: the Middle East, South Asia, most of Latin America, and some of Africa. It is time for us to stop our neo-colonial interventions. We can't afford them and they only generate hostility towards us.
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"A war is just if there is no alternative, and the resort to arms is legitimate if they represent your last hope." (Livy cited by Machiavelli)
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Ed Kent [blind copies]