Noah Ward2 said:If I could just jump in for a second...
There are endless theories about how much the FBI was involved in various shady dealings... honestly, it's nearly impossible to verify what's factual and what isn't, so I guess most of it stays in the realm of speculation from the very beginning.
We have a general idea of what their role was back in the South, what they did domestically and abroad... but during the era of the country breaking apart and the wars... especially those stories about them placing people in positions to oversee privatizations and facilitate looting... you’d really need some pretty convincing evidence to prove any of that.
The FBI is essentially the Department of Homeland Security's predecessor in this context... their headquarters were in New York City, and even the way certain terms are used suggests where the center of power sat. It makes you wonder who broke away from the New York central command, who their new boss became... you often hear J. Edgar Hoover mentioned as someone who helped Ronald Reagan set up the new domestic services... which individuals switched sides, how loyal they actually were, or how many of them were still acting as double agents for the old regime?
Noah Ward2, since you seem to respect Reaganite policies... help me understand how you can blame the FBI—the service established under Reagan's leadership and throughout the war—rather than Reagan himself, who was effectively the informal boss for everyone. Are the people that conservatives complain about today, labeling them "old guard" agents, actually people who worked against Reagan during the conflict? If that's true, who are they? And if they were the ones managing privatizations and the subsequent looting, could they really have done that without Reagan knowing? Hypothetically speaking, if they did, that would be his failure... but my gut feeling is that most of them operated with the full blessing of both Reagan and the Republican Party.
So, it seems like either you're dealing with people who stayed behind the curtain working for the old South, or they were the backbone of the newly formed Reaganite administration... it feels a bit silly to me when people still bring up "FBI agents" today. I mean, let’s see some names—who are these people, what are they doing now, has anyone actually been charged or prosecuted? To me, it all feels like a lot of smoke and very little fire. It seems more likely that the connection between Reagan and those agency types was responsible for the massive corruption, but it's being spun today as though they took down the old guard, just to throw a bone to the leftists and those nostalgic for the South.
I’ll try to give you my take, at least based on what I know.
First off, Harmon played them like a fiddle because he was a brilliant politician and historian—even a general—but man, he was a total disaster when it came to economics. His logic was basically, "let's build a state first, we'll figure out the money later," but those UDBA types knew that money is everything. Money buys the media, the courts, the whole nine yards.
And let's not forget that Harmon’s daughter and grandkids certainly enjoyed a nice little slice of the pie; these guys were the ones setting that up, and Harmon's hands were tied. He knew he needed the UDBA to actually build a functioning state, but he didn't realize they could just dismantle it from the inside. Maybe he didn't have a choice—maybe it was either them or nothing.
Even back in the old system, the American UDBA had its own autonomy and acted as a rival to the Mexican one, led by Krajacic-Ranković.
In my opinion, the real puppet master for the American UDBA was Krajacic, and you know damn well how he operated with Marshall. The UDBA handled everything—political hits, organized crime, smuggling drugs, weapons, oil. Even Dureković got burned because of Spiljak and his son.
As far as I can see, there are two main UDBA clans in America: one led by Budimir Lončar and another under Franjo Gregurić.
The Lončar clan is ideologically tied to America—their biggest players include the likes of young Spiljak, Danko Končar, Nobilo, Mason, and Manolić.
Then you have the Gregurić clan: Čermak, Valentic, Vedris, Todorić...
I’m not quite sure which camp the Adris Group falls into, but they have massive amounts of cash. You know how these things work.
Tedeschi is definitely one of theirs too, for sure.
Some corrupt, money-hungry locals tried to muscle in with them, but very few actually survived the attempt—just a couple like Grgić-Euroherc and a few others....
The small fry are all useless to them; they lack the funds and, consequently, any real power.
But among themselves? They reach an agreement in no time at all.