Courtesy of Wikipedia
“The CIA is every bit as secretive as the Federal Reserve.” – Ron Paul
Is the Central Intelligence Agency necessary? And does it really protect citizens from existential threats? I ask these questions in all seriousness. Since its inception sixty-three years ago, one of the most secretive – if not the most secretive – government agency has been responsible for more anti-democratic insanity than the many foreign governments the United States government criticizes under the same charge. Even worse, the CIA is hardly accountable, that is, until the Congress subpoenas its officials to explain the Agency’s illegal activities. Let’s take a look at just a few of the CIA’s most known work.
Iran 1953 – The CIA, with the help of the United Kingdom, overthrow the democratically elected Prime Minister of Iran Mohammad Mossadegh after his attempts to nationalize the petroleum industry.
Guatemala 1954 – The CIA overthrows the democratically elected President Jacobo Arbenz after fears he would seize the lands of the United Fruit Company.
The Congo 1960 – Democratically elected, anti-colonialist PM Patrice Lumumba is overthrown by a joint CIA and Belgian government coup. Lumumba is subsequently murdered in prison.
Cuba 1961 – The CIA most infamously arms Cuban exiles in an attempt to remove Fidel Castro from power, almost causing an all-out war with the Soviet Union and Cuba.
Iraq 1963 – After fears of Communist influence in Iraq, Abd al-Karim Qasim is deposed.
Brazil 1964 – Democratically elected João Goulart is deposed by a CIA-backed coup.
Iraq 1968 – The CIA backs a coup by Hassan al-Bakr of the Ba’ath Party which brings the eventual rise of Saddam Hussein to leadership.
Chile 1973 – Augusto Pinochet, with the help of the CIA, overthrow democratically elected President Salvador Allende.
Afghanistan – 1980’s – The CIA pours billions of dollars into funding the Mujahideen effort to expel Soviet occupation of Afghanistan. The material support went to various Islamist groups, some of who would become involved with the Taliban and al-Qaida.
United States 1962 – The CIA plots to commit terrorist acts against American civilians in Florida in what becomes known as “Operation Northwoods.” The plot is to use car bombs, mass shootings, hijackings and other acts of terror and implicate the Cuban government in order to gain support for an invasion of Cuba. The plan is signed by the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Lyman Lemnitzer and sent to the Secretary of Defense where it is soon scrapped.
United States 1950’s – 1960’s – For almost two decades the CIA conducts a series of illegal mental experiments on American and Canadian citizens. The experiments include the manipulation of test subjects’ mental states, altering brain functions, administering psychoactive drugs unbeknownst to the patients, hypnosis, deprivation, isolation and verbal and sexual abuse. The Congress unearths the project during the Church Committee but only after most of the files are destroyed in 1973 via an order by then Director Richard Helms.
I hope some of these examples frighten you because they sure as hell frighten me. The idea of a clandestine government agency that marauds around other countries, takes out their leaders and, in the past, has planned terrorist attacks against its own people makes me more than a little uneasy. Worse yet, the CIA’s actions have led to an outpouring of foreign animosity towards the United States; an animosity that makes the country less secure by inciting political violence by individuals and groups from the far-right to the far-left. The United States government claims to be a beacon of freedom and democracy to the world yet its most insidious apparatus shows the world otherwise. If the United States is to gain more respect as a true democracy, not only from the rest of the world but also from its own people, then the government should take meaningful steps to end clandestine, amoral and unaccountable factions within it. It’s time to end the CIA.
Interesting Sites
http://www.historycommons.org/project.jsp?project=us_interventions_project – History of U.S. Interventions
http://www2.truman.edu/~marc/resources/interventions.html - U.S. Interventions in Latin America
http://abcnews.go.com/US/story?id=92662&page=1 - ABC News story on Operation Northwoods
http://www.wanttoknow.info/050626mkultra - An overview of MKULTRA
