Page 4 - Gobierno ivisible

Date: 4/5/2011 Page: 4 of 237

The American people have not been in a position to assess these charges. They know virtually nothing about the
Invisible Government. Its employment rolls are classified. Its activities are top- secret. Its budget is concealed in
other appropriations. Congress provides money for the Invisible Government without knowing how much it has
appropriated or how it will be spent. A handful of congressmen are supposed to be kept informed by the Invisible
Government, but they know relatively little about how it works.

Overseas, in foreign capitals, American ambassadors are supposed to act as the supreme civilian representatives
of the President of the United States. They are told they have control over the agents of the Invisible
Government. But do they? The agents maintain communications and codes of their own. And the ambassador's
authority has been judged by a committee of the United States Senate to be a "polite fiction."

At home, the intelligence men are directed by law to leave matters to the FBI. But the CIA maintains more than a
score of offices in major cities throughout the United States; it is deeply involved in many domestic activities,
from broadcasting stations and a steamship company to the university campus.

The Invisible Government is also generally thought to be under the direct control of the National Security
Council. But, in fact, many of its major decisions are never discussed in the Council. These decisions are handled
by a small directorate, the name of which is only whispered. How many Americans have ever heard of the
"Special Group"? (Also known as the "54/12 Group.") The name of this group, even its existence, is unknown
outside the innermost circle of the Invisible Government.

The Vice-President is by law a member of the National Security Council, but he does not participate in the
discussions of the Special Group. As Vice-President, Lyndon B. Johnson was privy to more government secrets
than any of his predecessors. But he was not truly involved with the Invisible Government until he was sworn in
as the thirty-sixth President of the United States.

On November 23, 1963, during the first hour of his first full day in office, Johnson was taken by McGeorge
Bundy -- who had been President Kennedy's personal link with the Special Group -- to the Situation Room, a
restricted command post deep in the White House basement.

There, surrounded by top-secret maps, electronic equipment and communications outlets, the new President was
briefed by the head of the Invisible Government, John Alex McCone,* Director of Central Intelligence and
a member of the Special Group. Although Johnson knew the men who ran the Invisible Government and was
aware of much of its workings, it was not until that morning that he began to see the full scope of its organization
and secrets.

This book is an attempt, within the bounds of national security, to reveal the nature, size and power of the
Invisible Government. It is not intended to be an expose, although much of the material has never been printed
anywhere else before. It is an attempt to describe a hidden American institution which the American people, who
finance it, have a right to know about.

The premise of this book is that even in a time of Cold War, the United States Government must rest, in the words
of the Declaration of Independence, on "the consent of the governed." And there can be no meaningful consent
where those who are governed do not know to what they are consenting.

In the harsh conditions of the mid-twentieth century, the nation's leaders have increasingly come to feel that
certain decisions must be made by them alone without popular consent, and in secret, if the nation is to survive.
The area of this secret decision-making has grown rapidly, and the size of the Invisible Government has increased
proportionately.