• MolotovHalfEmpty [he/him]@hexbear.net
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    10 months ago

    To some degree, sure, but the FBI was always the explicitly political arm of the deep state (the Mormon army, Hoover’s political racket, Italian and Irish mafia support over minority crime, COINTELPRO and anti-civil rights stuff etc etc)

    In some ways, while perhaps less ‘deep’ the FBI could definitely be considered more of the ‘state’.

    Whereas for most of its history the CIA was a kind of stateless, private intelligence operation that just managed to grift funding from the US state. Obviously there was often alignment with Washington, but it really did work almost entirely in its own (meaning a private club of ultra wealthy or specifically connected individuals) interests even when they ran against the state.

    Very deep, but not much state, at least not until the 80s/90s.