Wasn't sure what comm to put this in.
Douglas Valentine's The CIA as Organized Crime is one of the best books I've ever read. His thesis on the Phoenix Program is extremely persuasive. It's got me thinking that everyone is missing the forest for the trees when they talk about Gladio and especially "domestic Gladio." The point of the Strategy of Tension wasn't to do Joker crazy bad guy stuff, it was to do Joker crazy bad guy stuff in order to acquire Phoenix Program-style powers.
When Valentine lays out the history of the agency and this single through-line, it really feels revelatory. Phoenix is the blueprint for all occupation and counter-insurgency. Assassination of MLK (and Fred Hampton, Malcolm X, etc), the war on and dismantling of the Black Panthers, Israel's war on Palestine, Operation Condor, the occupation of Afghanistan, the militarization of the police, everything done in response to Black Lives Matter and the earlier movement in Ferguson (remember the mysteriously disappearing and dying activists), every level of government absolutely littered with "former" spies. Just about every tool we see the ruling class use was pioneered or refined in the Phoenix Program.
I'm excited to read The Phoenix Program (after I finish Family of Secrets) to really get into the weeds.
Sorry if this is incoherent, I got three hours of sleep.