Crossposted from Docudharma
U.S. Rep. Holt heads campaign to probe CIA practices
Over the years the CIA has overthrown legitimate governments, performed assassinations and used torture.
It has spied on US citizens which is explicitly illegal.
It has lied to Congress and has engaged in coverups.
And it has itself published a record of all of this here: The CIA's Family Jewels
And that is just what the CIA has ADMITTED. Those are just the facts about an organization that that is among the most secretive in the world.
Those are just what is on the surface of an organization whose stock in trade, whose raison d'etre is lying and deception and.....misinformation and disinformation.
They are (supposedly) the best SPY agency in the world. If you want rock solid triple sourced verifiable information about the CIA's clandestine program and activities....I have something for you below the fold...
And if you are SERIOUS about finding out what the CIA and other US intelligence services have done, I have something else for you...
U.S. Rep. Holt heads campaign to probe CIA practices
Need more history on the crimes and stupidity and lies of the CIA? Here ya go...
The Church Committee
Still not enough? Try this...
The Pike Committee Investigations and the CIA
Here is a Greatest Hits List
* Iran - In 1953, a CIA-backed coup ousted Iran's popular prime minister and restored power to the Shah of Iran. Many historians now consider this a mistake, as the Shah of Iran's repressive rule eventually led to a revolution in the 1970s. After the revolution, anti-American leaders came to power.
* Bay of Pigs - In 1961, a paramilitary force of Cuban exiles, backed by the CIA, attacked Cuba's Bay of Pigs. Cuban forces crushed the invasion, bringing it to a quick end.
* Watergate - In 1972, former CIA officers, part of a group working for President Nixon's re-election campaign, were implicated in the break-in at the Democratic National Committee headquarters.
* Family Jewels - After Watergate, CIA director James Schlesinger vowed to find out if there were any other dangerous secrets in the history of the CIA. The investigation bore plenty of fruit. However, by the time the report had been compiled, Schlesinger had moved on and become the Defense Secretary. The new head of the CIA, William Colby, inherited the 693-page document known as "the family jewels." The report said the agency had plotted to kill Fidel Castro and other foreign leaders; spied on Americans, tapping their phone lines and reading their tax returns; and conducted LSD experiments on unwitting human subjects. Colby eventually turned over the report -- an attempt, he said later, to save the agency.
* The Iran-Contra Affair - Several members of the Reagan administration violated an embargo by helping to sell arms to Iran. The proceeds were used to fund the Contras, a right-wing guerrilla group in Nicaragua. In 1986, President Reagan affirmed that defensive weapons were transferred to Iran. Later, information surfaced that CIA director William Casey was involved in the scandal.
* Aldrich Ames - This CIA officer spent nine years as a mole for the KGB. He turned over the names of many spies that the U.S. had working in the Soviet Union. The KGB paid Ames more than $2 million and kept another $2 million earmarked for him in a Moscow bank, making him the highest-paid spy in the world [ref]. Ames was arrested in 1994 and is serving a sentence of life in prison.
* Sept. 11, 2001 - Terrorists carried out the largest act of terrorism ever to take place on U.S. soil, and the CIA (along with the rest of the intelligence community) was criticized for failing to stop the attacks. Part of the problem, critics have said, is that the different intelligence agencies were not working together. Since then, the CIA has beefed up its spy program, training many new officers. There have also been structural changes within the overall intelligence community to ensure cooperation between agencies.
And that is just skimming the surface.
Even as we speak the CIA is under investigation for torture.
The CIA is about to be under investigation for lying to Congress, again.
The CIA's own Inspector General Report is currently being suppressed, reportedly because the horrors it outlines regarding the CIA's torture program under George Bush are too shocking.
The CIA is....among other nefarious things, also in the business of protecting itself. Who are the greatest enemies of the CIA you ask?
The United States Congress who are threatening to expose its illegal activities.
The Free Press who are threatening to expose its illegal activities.
And Whistle Blowers like ....Sibel Edmunds and many others
Is there a certain amount of speculation involved whenever we are talking about "the Intelligence Community?" Yes. There HAS to be.
There was a LOT of speculation about Sy Hersh's reporting on the current CIA scandal involving assassination squads....until it was proven true.
The embarrassment isn't that people are working hard to reveal the truth about the CIA. And that they don't have ironclad proof that a lying, clandestine agency whose stock in trade is distributing disinformation to protect itself, it is the CIA and its activities.
The embarrassment is what the CIA has done and is doing in your name. Including torture and assassination in the past and for all we know, given there VERY clear record in the present as well.
If you want to get to the bottom of this embarrassment, support Rush Holt's call for a new commission to do a thorough investigation into the activities of this "embarrassing" agency.