Here’s something I’m sick of hearing. I’m sick of hearing former CIA officers complain that civilians ask them to ‘think outside of the box’ and ‘go right up to the edge’ but then ‘scurry for the bushes’ when the going gets tough and ‘sell out the officers’ that followed their orders.
We’ve been through three major traumas with the CIA. The first was in the mid-1970’s when Watergate, the Church Committee, and the House Select Committee on Assassinations revealed the Family Jewels of domestic espionage, foreign coups, mail opening, assassination attempts, etc. The result was a series of reforms including the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA).
As soon as those reforms were in place the reactionaries started to complain that the intelligence community was ‘risk averse’. But that assertion was proven wrong when Iran-Contra revealed a parallel government called The Enterprise had taken over much of the dirty work for the CIA. Iran-Contra combined with the end of the Cold War combined to make the CIA ‘risk averse’ all over again.
And that risk aversion explains why 9/11 happened. Apparently, we could have prevented 9/11 if only we hadn’t intimidated CIA officers during Watergate and Iran-Contra. So, post 9/11, the ‘gloves came off’. We were going to make sure the terrorists had flies walking across their eyeballs.
So we tortured people and we delivered them up to be tortured in foreign countries. And these former CIA guys are more concerned that they are being sold out than they are that they were given illegal orders.
The CIA engages in skulduggery. We all understand that. We don’t expect the CIA to behave in an admirable manner. But torturing people and setting up criminal enterprises is not part of the job description of a national intelligence officer.
There is such a thing as resigning in protest. It gives a person a little more credibility.
Of course, I’m even more tired of a different kind of CIA hack. The one that says torture really, really works but it’s kind of icky and maybe we shouldn’t do it. Those kind of CIA hacks aren’t really ex-hacks at all. If they were, they’d be prosecuted for divulging classified information.
I’m sick of ex-CIA hacks explaining away crimes while pretending to ‘help’.
And never use the words;
crime
felony
conspiracy
torture
they also have trouble with the word destruction without putting ” around the word. What does “destruction” mean anyway? Pretend destruction? They did not REALLY mean to destruct?
Hack, ya I like that word. Hack.
nalbar
And let’s not forget the topic of the upcoming film Charlie Wilson’s War, where the CIA, through a most undemocratic process, conducted a large scale war in Afghanistan, ridding the country of the Soviets but paving the way for the rise of the Taliban, sowing the seeds of our own destruction.
Let’s not forget that Iran had a progressive government until we conspired with the British to overthrow Mossadegh and reinstall the repressive, dictatorial Shah in his place, leading to a response from the fundamentalists who rode to power on a wave of anti-Americanism.
But I’m especially tired of ex-CIA hacks’s silence regarding the assassinations of the sixties, and their silence on the truly horrific mind control experiments conducted not as a way to extract information from terrorists but on innocent American citizens who had done no wrong at all.
I’m especially tired of the CIA in toto, the whole kit and kaboodle.
Pax
If the ex-CIA official really believed the torture produced actionable intelligence, then as a true patriot they would demand their jury trial so they could show why their actions were so essential. They would be willing to serve time in prison, because they believed so strongly in their position.
They don’t. They know what they did was wrong, both morally and tactically. Now, they want protection. Just like the scum who ordered them to commit the crimes in the first place. They were bullies and cowards and now they come crying to the public demanding that they be told they were good little children when they deserve to be spanked and spanked damned hard.
I’m especially tired of paying taxes so people can draw a salary for murdur.
I’m tired of the whole damn national security state. After 50 years, it’s getting a little old.
The CIA was created after WWII to function as a criminal mob-like enterprise to enforce corporate moves around the world. This included creating wars, coups and assassinations around the world, to include political assassinations here in the US. They have warped democracy, blackmailed our elected officials into servitude.
Imagine if you were Lucky Luciano and you were given a gang that had the power of the U.S. military behind it. You had a budget that was hidden from the public. You only had to whisper “government secret” to stop any investigation and you had the means to destroy whoever tried to investigate you. You had allies and employees who were publishers and reporters hidden throughout the media, ready to praise you and attack anyone who questioned you and your motives. You had your own radio stations broadcasting propaganda all around the world. You could rob banks (and S&Ls) without fear of arrest, smuggle drugs and weapons and hide the profits, kill people, control knowledge of your crimes, listen in on people’s phone calls and read their emails and open their letters without them knowing. You could secretly slip people LSD just to see how their eyeballs roll into the back of their heads. You could invent religious cults for your own nefarious needs. You could put satellites in the sky to take pictures of people on the ground. You could put your own people into political office. You could kidnap people off the street and take them to unknown places and torture them until they tell you what they want to hear. And when all else failed, you could put on the cloak of patriotism. Just imagine what kind of monster you’d become.
In one of John Kirakou’s interviews yesterday he explained that Abu Aubaydah was seriously wounded when captured, 3 gunshot wounds…so John at first just talked to him as he went in and out of a coma. He stated that it took 2 MONTHS for Zubaydah to heal. THEN he said that the decision came down from on high to waterboard him because time was of the essence. No need to point out to this crowd how many holes there are in that particular chain of events.
Secondly, on CNN they had the guy on who made the waterboarding tape to show the public what waterboarding entailed. He stated he had been waterboarded 2x, once in the service. This second time he was waterboarded for 24 MINUTES until his producer called a halt. He stated that the thing about waterboarding is that it engages an instinctual response that can’t be overridden by your brain…your brain tells you you’ll live, you’re instincts are screaming at you that you’re going to die. BUT, the thing is, John Krakou stated that Zubaydah was only waterboarded for 35 seconds and subsequently broke, while this other example goes on for 24 minutes.
All I’m saying is that John Kirakou’s appearance this last week doesn’t inspire me to follow his statements blindly down the garden path. Of course 99% of the mysteries of this damn admin could be solved if someone just got the combination to Cheney’s safe.
…”intelligence officer?”
Hint: the second word is “up.”
J