Idea Ripper // ArchiveCards: 1555 [Live] | Updated: 2026-10-14
Card #c1003IR // #c1003Synthesis

Asked on camera whether the CIA operated on a higher moral level than the KGB, Dulles replied: “As far as I know, we don’t engage in assassinations or kidnappings or things of that kind. As far as I know, we never have.” The “as far as I know” is the whole technique: the deniable absolute, stated twice.

— In our words · Source: The Devil's Chessboard (David Talbot)

[Use when]

You must deny what you cannot deny. Qualify the knowledge, not the act.

[Why it matters]

The qualifier empties the denial while preserving its shape. On the record it reads as a denial; under scrutiny it was only a statement of current knowledge.

More from The Devil's Chessboard

#c986On April 10, 1953, Dulles warned a Princeton alumni conference of Soviet “brain warfare.” Three days later he signed the order creating…Someone is denouncing a practice with unusual volume and specificity. Check what they authorized last quarter. #c987Maheu and Associates: “a private detective firm staffed by former CIA and FBI employees that the intelligence agency used as a ‘cut-out’ to…An institution swears it cannot act somewhere, but its alumni keep showing up there on private letterhead. #c988Allen Dulles to the press, on the eve of his campaign: “Democracy works only if the so-called intelligent people make it work. You can’t…Someone praises democracy while arranging to bypass it. Listen for who counts as “the intelligent people.”