Skip to main content

Agency of Rogues - by Chalmers Johnson and Tom Engelhardt


Agency of Rogues - by Chalmers Johnson and Tom Engelhardt: "Typically, in the early 1950s, the Agency dropped millions of dollars worth of gold bars, arms, two-way radios, and agents into Poland to support what its top officials believed was a powerful Polish underground movement against the Soviets. In fact, Soviet agents had wiped out the movement years before, turned key people in it into double agents, and played the CIA for suckers. As Weiner comments, not only had five years of planning, various agents, and millions of dollars 'gone down the drain,' but the 'unkindest cut might have been [the Agency's] discovery that the Poles had sent a chunk of the CIA's money to the Communist Party of Italy.' [pp. 67-68] "
On the clandestine side, the human costs were much higher. The CIA's incessant, almost always misguided, attempts to determine how other people should govern themselves; its secret support for fascists (e.g., Greece under George Papadopoulos), militarists (e.g., Chile under Gen. Augusto Pinochet), and murderers (e.g., the Congo under Joseph Mobutu); its uncritical support of death squads (El Salvador) and religious fanatics (Muslim fundamentalists in Afghanistan) – all these and more activities combined to pepper the world with blowback movements against the United States.
Nothing has done more to undercut the reputation of the United States than the CIA's "clandestine" (only in terms of the American people) murders of the presidents of South Vietnam and the Congo, its ravishing of the governments of Iran, Indonesia (three times), South Korea (twice), all of the Indochinese states, virtually every government in Latin America, and Lebanon, Afghanistan, and Iraq. The deaths from these armed assaults run into the millions. After 9/11, President Bush asked "Why do they hate us?" From Iran (1953) to Iraq (2003), the better question would be, "Who does not?"
Perhaps the most comical of all CIA clandestine activities – unfortunately all too typical of its covert operations over the last 60 years – was the spying it did in 1994 on the newly appointed American ambassador to Guatemala, Marilyn McAfee, who sought to promote policies of human rights and justice in that country. Loyal to the murderous Guatemalan intelligence service, the CIA had bugged her bedroom and picked up sounds that led their agents to conclude that the ambassador was having a lesbian love affair with her secretary, Carol Murphy. The CIA station chief "recorded her cooing endearments to Murphy." The agency spread the word in Washington that the liberal ambassador was a lesbian without realizing that "Murphy" was also the name of her two-year-old black standard poodle. The bug in her bedroom had recorded her petting her dog. She was actually a married woman from a conservative family. [p. 459]

Legacy of Ashes: The History of the CIA (Hardcover)

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Bush Crime Family Crony Robert Gates a Shoo-In

Monday December 04th 2006, 8:16 pm “Robert Gates, the former CIA director and Texas A&M University president, is expected to easily win nomination as President Bush’s next defense secretary following a hearing today that is likely to focus on strategies in Iraq,” reports Express-News. Easy nomination, no matter the guy is a criminal, not to mention a blood-thirsty warmongering psychopath. Gates was at the core of the so-called Iran-Contra affair, but then it is business as usual in Washington, as the Bush administration is packed like a sardine tin with Iran-Contra criminals. Lawrence E. Walsh, the independent counsel in the Iran-Contra investigation, knew Gates was lying about his collaboration with fellow criminal, now respected Fox News talking head, Oliver North, the guy who wanted to suspend the Constitution and throw demonstrators in gulags under Rex-84. In 1984, as understudy and protégé of then CIA director-ghoul, William Casey, Gates wanted to bomb the dickens out of Nica

Legendary singer Tilahun Gessesse dies at age 68

Legendary singer Tilahun Gessesse dies at age 68 ADDIS ABABA - Ethiopia's legendary singer Tilahun Gessesse died at age 68 in his family home in the Ethiopian capital, family sources said. Perhaps the greatest modern musician whose star shone brightly during the golden years of Ethiopian music of the '60s, the 68-year-old iconic figure died Sunday on his way to hospital. A day earlier, Tilahun flew from New York City to Addis Ababa to spend Easter with his family. Reacting to the sudden death of Tilahun Gessesse, the Washington-based Radio Host Abebe Belew, also a close friend of Tilahun, said he was deeply shocked. "He was sporting a heatlhy look and was in good spirits when left for Ethiopia Saturday. On Sunday in Addis, we heard Tilahun was sick with "some burning" and was being rushed to a hospital when in the midst of all the chaos came in the news of his sudden death," Abebe said. "I wonder if there could be another Ethiopian who would live up to