1974: CHAOS exposed
- Pulitzer Prize winning journalist Seymour Hersh publishes a story about
Operation CHAOS, the domestic surveillance and infiltration of anti-war and
civil rights groups in the U.S. The story sparks national outrage.
Angleton
fired - Congress holds hearings
on the illegal domestic spying efforts of James Jesus Angleton, the CIA's chief
of counterintelligence. His efforts included mail-opening campaigns and secret
surveillance of war protesters. The hearings result in his dismissal from the
CIA.
House clears CIA in Watergate - The House of Representatives
clears the CIA of any complicity in Nixon's Watergate break-in.
The Hughes Ryan Act - Congress passes an amendment requiring the
president to report non-intelligence CIA operations to the relevant
congressional committees in a timely fashion.
1975:
Australia - The CIA helps topple the democratically elected,
left-leaning government of Prime Minister Edward Whitlam. The CIA does this by
giving an ultimatum to its Governor-General, John Kerr. Kerr, a longtime CIA
collaborator, exercises his constitutional right to dissolve the Whitlam
government. The Governor-General is a largely ceremonial position appointed by
the Queen; the Prime Minister is democratically elected. The use of this archaic
and never-used law stuns the nation.
Angola - Eager to demonstrate American military resolve after its
defeat in Vietnam, Henry Kissinger launches a CIA-backed war in Angola. Contrary
to Kissinger's assertions, Angola is a country of little strategic importance
and not seriously threatened by communism. The CIA backs the brutal leader of
UNITAS, Jonas Savimbi. This polarizes Angolan politics and drives his opponents
into the arms of Cuba and the Soviet Union for survival. Congress will cut off
funds in 1976, but the CIA is able to run the war off the books until 1984, when
funding is legalized again. This entirely pointless war kills over 300,000
Angolans.
"The CIA and the Cult of Intelligence" - Victor Marchetti and John
Marks publish this whistle-blowing history of CIA crimes and abuses. Marchetti
has spent 14 years in the CIA, eventually becoming an executive assistant to the
Deputy Director of Intelligence. Marks has spent five years as an intelligence
official in the State Department. "Inside the Company" - Philip Agee
publishes a diary of his life inside the CIA. Agee has worked in covert
operations in Latin America during the 60s, and details the crimes in which he
took part.
Congress investigates CIA wrongdoing - Public outrage compels
Congress to hold hearings on CIA crimes. Senator Frank Church heads the Senate
investigation ("The Church Committee"), and Representative Otis Pike
heads the House investigation. (Despite a 98 percent incumbency reelection rate,
both Church and Pike are defeated in the next elections.) The investigations
lead to a number of reforms intended to increase the CIA's accountability to
Congress, including the creation of a standing Senate committee on intelligence.
However, the reforms prove ineffective, as the Iran/Contra scandal will show. It
turns out the CIA can control, deal with or sidestep Congress with ease.
The Rockefeller Commission - In an attempt to reduce the damage
done by the Church Committee, President Ford creates the "Rockefeller
Commission" to whitewash CIA history and propose toothless reforms. The
commission's namesake, Vice President Nelson Rockefeller, is himself a major CIA
figure. Five of the commission's eight members are also members of the Council
on Foreign Relations, a CIA-dominated organization.
1979: Iran
- The CIA fails to predict the fall of the Shah of Iran, a longtime CIA puppet,
and the rise of Muslim fundamentalists who are furious at the CIA's backing of
SAVAK, the Shah's bloodthirsty secret police. In revenge, the Muslims take 52
Americans hostage in the U.S. embassy in Tehran.
Afghanistan - The Soviets enters in Afghanistan. The CIA
immediately begins supplying arms to any faction willing to fight the Soviets.
Such indiscriminate arming means that when the Soviets leave Afghanistan, civil
war will erupt. Also, fanatical Muslim extremists now possess state-of-the-art
weaponry. One of these is Sheik Abdel Rahman, who will become involved in the
World Trade Center bombing in New York.
El Salvador
- An idealistic group of young military officers, repulsed by the massacre of
the poor, overthrows the right-wing government. However, the U.S. compels the
inexperienced officers to include many of the old guard in key positions in
their new government. Soon, things are back to "normal" - the military
government is repressing and killing poor civilian protesters. Many of the young
military and civilian reformers, finding themselves powerless, resign in
disgust.
Nicaragua - Anastasios Samoza II, the CIA-backed dictator, falls.
The Marxist Sandinistas take over government, and they are initially popular
because of their commitment to land and anti-poverty reform. Samoza had a
murderous and hated personal army called the National Guard. Remnants of the
Guard will become the Contras, who fight a CIA-backed guerilla war against the
Sandinista government throughout the 1980s.
1980: El
Salvador - The Archbishop of San Salvador, Oscar Romero, pleads with
President Carter "Christian to Christian" to stop aiding the military
government slaughtering his people. Carter refuses. Shortly afterwards,
right-wing leader Roberto D'Aubuisson has Romero shot through the heart while
saying Mass. The country soon dissolves into civil war, with the peasants in the
hills fighting against the military government. The CIA and U.S. Armed Forces
supply the government with overwhelming military and intelligence superiority.
CIA-trained death squads roam the countryside, committing atrocities like that
of El Mazote in 1982, where they massacre between 700 and 1000 men, women and
children. By 1992, some 63,000 Salvadorans will be killed.
1981:
Iran/Contra Begins - The CIA begins selling arms to Iran at high prices,
using the profits to arm the Contras fighting the Sandinista government in
Nicaragua. President Reagan vows that the Sandinistas will be "pressured"
until "they say 'uncle.'" The CIA's Freedom Fighter's Manual disbursed to
the Contras includes instruction on economic sabotage, propaganda, extortion,
bribery, blackmail, interrogation, torture, murder and political assassination.
1983:
Honduras - The CIA gives Honduran military officers the Human Resource
Exploitation Training Manual - 1983, which teaches how to torture people.
Honduras' notorious "Battalion 316" then uses these techniques, with the CIA's
full knowledge, on thousands of leftist dissidents. At least 184 are murdered.
1984: The
Boland Amendment - The last of a series of Boland Amendments is passed.
These amendments have reduced CIA aid to the Contras; the last one cuts it off
completely. However, CIA Director William Casey is already prepared to "hand
off" the operation to Colonel Oliver North, who illegally continues
supplying the Contras through the CIA's informal, secret, and self-financing
network. This includes "humanitarian aid" donated by Adolph Coors and
William Simon, and military aid funded by Iranian arms sales.
1986:
Eugene Hasenfus - Nicaragua shoots down a C-123 transport plane carrying
military supplies to the Contras. The lone survivor, Eugene Hasenfus, turns out
to be a CIA employee, as are the two dead pilots. The airplane belongs to
Southern Air Transport, a CIA front. The incident makes a mockery of President
Reagan's claims that the CIA is not illegally arming the Contras.
Iran/Contra Scandal - Although the details have long been known,
the Iran/Contra scandal finally captures the media's attention in 1986. Congress
holds hearings, and several key figures (like Oliver North) lie under oath to
protect the intelligence community. CIA Director William Casey dies of brain
cancer before Congress can question him. All reforms enacted by Congress after
the scandal are purely cosmetic.
Haiti - Rising popular revolt in Haiti means that "Baby Doc"
Duvalier will remain "President for Life" only if he has a short one. The
U.S., which hates instability in a puppet country, flies the despotic Duvalier
to the South of France for a comfortable retirement. The CIA then rigs the
upcoming elections in favor of another right-wing military strongman. However,
violence keeps the country in political turmoil for another four years. The CIA
tries to strengthen the military by creating the National Intelligence Service
(SIN), which suppresses popular revolt through torture and assassination.
1989:
Panama - The U.S. invades Panama to overthrow a dictator of its own
making, General Manuel Noriega. Noriega has been on the CIA's payroll since
1966, and has been transporting drugs with the CIA's knowledge since 1972. By
the late 80s, Noriega's growing independence and intransigence have angered
Washington. So out he goes.
1990:
Haiti - Competing against 10 comparatively wealthy candidates, leftist
priest Jean-Bertrand Aristide captures 68 percent of the vote. After only eight
months in power, however, the CIA-backed military deposes him. More military
dictators brutalize the country, as thousands of Haitian refugees escape the
turmoil in barely seaworthy boats. As popular opinion calls for Aristide's
return, the CIA begins a disinformation campaign painting the courageous priest
as mentally unstable.
1991: The
Fall of the Soviet Union - The CIA fails to predict this most important
event of the Cold War. This suggests that it has been so busy undermining
governments that it hasn't been doing its primary job: gathering and analyzing
information. The fall of the Soviet Union also robs the CIA of its reason for
existence: fighting communism. This leads some to accuse the CIA of
intentionally failing to predict the downfall of the Soviet Union. Curiously,
the intelligence community's budget is not significantly reduced after the
demise of communism.
1992:
Economic Espionage - In the years following the end of the Cold War, the
CIA is increasingly used for economic espionage. This involves stealing the
technological secrets of competing foreign companies and giving them to American
ones. Given the CIA's clear preference for dirty tricks over mere information
gathering, the possibility of serious criminal behavior is very great indeed.
1993:
Haiti - The chaos in Haiti grows so bad that President Clinton has no
choice but to remove the Haitian military dictator, Raoul Cedras, on threat of
U.S. invasion. The U.S. occupiers do not arrest Haiti's military leaders for
crimes against humanity, but instead ensure their safety and rich retirements.
Aristide is returned to power only after being forced to accept an agenda
favorable to the country's ruling class.
EPILOGUE
In a speech
before the CIA celebrating its 50th anniversary, President Clinton said: "By
necessity, the American people will never know the full story of your courage."
Clinton's is a common defense of the CIA: namely, the American people should
stop criticizing the CIA because they don't know what it really does. This, of
course, is the heart of the problem in the first place. An agency that is above
criticism is also above moral behavior and reform. Its secrecy and lack of
accountability allows its corruption to grow unchecked. Furthermore, Clinton's
statement is simply untrue. The history of the agency is growing painfully
clear, especially with the declassification of historical CIA documents. We may
not know the details of specific operations, but we do know, quite well, the
general behavior of the CIA. These facts began emerging nearly two decades ago
at an ever-quickening pace. Today we have a remarkably accurate and consistent
picture, repeated in country after country, and verified from countless
different directions.
The CIA's response to this growing knowledge and criticism follows a typical
historical pattern. (Indeed, there are remarkable parallels to the Medieval
Church's fight against the Scientific Revolution.) The first journalists and
writers to reveal the CIA's criminal behavior were harassed and censored if they
were American writers, and tortured and murdered if they were foreigners. (See
Philip Agee's On the Run for an example of early harassment.)
However, over the last two decades the tide of evidence has become overwhelming,
and the CIA has found that it does not have enough fingers to plug every hole in
the dike. This is especially true in the age of the Internet, where information
flows freely among millions of people. Since censorship is impossible, the
Agency must now defend itself with apologetics. Clinton's "Americans will
never know" defense is a prime example.
Another common apologetic is that "the world is filled with unsavory
characters, and we must deal with them if we are to protect American interests
at all." There are two things wrong with this. First, it ignores the fact
that the CIA has regularly spurned alliances with defenders of democracy, free
speech and human rights, preferring the company of military dictators and
tyrants. The CIA had moral options available to them, but did not take them.
Second, this argument begs several questions. The first is: "Which American
interests?" The CIA has courted right-wing dictators because they allow
wealthy Americans to exploit the country's cheap labor and resources. But poor
and middle-class Americans pay the price whenever they fight the wars that stem
from CIA actions, from Vietnam to the Gulf War to Panama. The second begged
question is: "Why should American interests come at the expense of other
peoples' human rights?"
The CIA should be abolished, its leadership dismissed and its relevant members
tried for crimes against humanity. Our intelligence community should be rebuilt
from the ground up, with the goal of collecting and analyzing information. As
for covert action, there are two moral options. The first one is to eliminate
covert action completely. But this gives jitters to people worried about the
Adolph Hitler's of the world. So a second option is that we can place covert
action under extensive and true democratic oversight. For example, a bipartisan
Congressional Committee of 40 members could review and veto all aspects of CIA
operations upon a majority or super-majority vote. Which of these two options is
best may be the subject of debate, but one thing is clear: like dictatorship,
like monarchy, unaccountable covert operations should die like the dinosaurs
they are.
