Richard Helms was very bad at lying

[Richard Booth]

I'm surprised this guy is held in such high regard among spooks given that he can't carry out a deception without broadcasting to everyone that he's lying, through his language as much as through his body language and everything else. 

Note that when Mark Lane asked Helms about Clay Shaw, Helms said "can you refresh my memory as to who Clay Shaw was"

Helms used the past-tense, was, because Clay Shaw was dead and he knew it. Had Helms actually not known who Shaw was he would have said "refresh my memory as to who Clay Shaw is"

You would think that an intelligence professional would be better at lying

 

[James DiEugenio]

I showed this in Dallas way back right after it was on.  The whole audience cracked up.

[Ron Ecker]

Reminds me of Dan Rather years ago when some host on TV (I forget who) asked him what he thought about Juanita Broaddrick, who was in the news at the time. Instead of saying he believed her, didn't believe her, or wasn't sure, the great journalist Rather said, "Who's Juanita Broaddrick?"

 

[Guest]

Oh god, what a gem this is, he is awful. Imagine him on a witness stand. 

[John Butler]

11 hours ago, Richard Booth said:

You would think that an intelligence professional would be better at lying

Richard,

I have to agree.  All those CIA guys were XXXXX.  They never told the truth about much of anything.  

I have seen this before.  Helms liked jerking the chains of lots of people, including the interviewer.  You can see he is getting satisfaction from this.  Helms, like Bill Clinton, was a good 12 year old xxxx.  That's a xxxx who denies something, but offers no proof to support this denial except the worthiness of their character. 

Sorry about about all the XXXX's.  Next time I will find a better way to describe a deceptive person. 

Edited September 21, 2020 by John Butler