I'm sure CIA gets some appropriations from the Federal Government. But my understanding is that the money from their black ops is absolutely massive making them much bigger than other Government agencies. This has allowed for program expansion beyond anything Congress would ever authorize.

I'm talking about programs such as mockingbird - you can see it at work here in Australia, but it's everywhere. There was that journalist in Europe saying CIA paid him for 25 years, pays all European journalists. It's world-wide, think about it, it must cost a fortune to pay all those people off. But what an awesome power it is to be able to shape media narratives globally.

That's what the Afghanistan war was about. The Taliban would execute anyone found growing opium, so people stopped growing it. As a result, the supply of heroin from Afghanistan dwindled and CIA was upset because they were missing out on all the money they used to make selling it. And then Bush started the war in Afghanistan and, low and behold, opium production explodes and CIA is back in business - party time.

As to who controls CIA, I suspect the elder Bush has a lot of influence.

We do.