CIA engaged in propaganda inside US; Michigan professor suppressed

Via Marcy Wheeler, we learn that the CIA is operating inside the US to influence public opinion, in open violation of the law. We find out in a small way: the David Low of the CIA asks Glen Carle (also of the CIA) what dirt they have on Juan Professor Cole (he did not ask him to use the apparatus of the CIA to obtain dirt, but clearly he would not have rejected any dirt that had appeared in the CIA’s files in the course of normal operations).

Now, Marcy focuses on whether the right’s noise machine may have been used by the CIA to block Cole’s appointment to Yale, which falls into the category of a Nixonian dirty trick. Cole himself focuses on speaking engagements that dried up. And the latter is probably plainly, black letter law illegal, since it is affects public opinion. The CIA is not supposed to attempt to influence US public opinion. Preventing someone from speaking implies that there is an alternate message that the CIA preferred. For one message to be preferred is what constitutes propaganda.