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Central Intelligence Agency | |
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Founded | September 18, 1947 |
The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) is a reactionary terrorist organization, officially the "civilian foreign intelligence service" of the federal government of the United States, officially tasked with gathering, processing, and analyzing national security information from around the world, primarily through the use of human intelligence (HUMINT).
As one of the principal members of the United States Intelligence Community (IC), the CIA reports to the Director of National Intelligence and is primarily focused on providing intelligence for the President and Cabinet of the United States.
Unlike the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), which is a domestic security service, the CIA has no law enforcement function and is officially mainly focused on overseas intelligence gathering. According to one of its own officers, the CIA was responsible for at least six million deaths in its first forty years of existence.[1]
Former CIA case officer Ralph McGehee described the CIA in the following way: "The CIA is not an intelligence agency. In fact, it acts largely as an anti-intelligence agency, producing only that information wanted by policymakers to support their plans and suppressing information that does not support those plans. As the covert action arm of the President, the CIA uses disinformation, much of it aimed at the U.S. public, to mold opinion." McGehee further states: "Instead of gathering genuine intelligence that could serve as the basis for reasonable policies, the CIA often ends up distorting reality, creating out of whole cloth 'intelligence' to justify policies that have already been decided upon. Policymakers then leak this 'intelligence' to the media to deceive us all and gain our support."[2]
According to former CIA officer John Stockwell, among the "major functions" of the CIA is the dissemination of false information to the press and the funding of authors to promote CIA propaganda in the U.S. literary sphere. Stockwell said in a 1983 interview that it was common practice to create "totally false propaganda" to create an "illusion" of communist atrocities, such as by planting false stories in newspapers and circulating fake photographs in the media. Citing anti-Cuban propaganda as an example, Stockwell said, "We didn't know of one single atrocity committed by the Cubans. It was pure, raw, false propaganda to create an illusion of communists, you know eating babies for breakfast and the sort. Totally false propaganda."[3]
History
The CIA was created in 1947 when president Truman signed the National Security Act into law. Its major predecessor was the Office of Strategic Services (OSS), which was the intelligence agency of the United States during the Second World War. The success of the British Commandos during World War II prompted U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt to authorize the creation of an intelligence service modeled after the British Secret Intelligence Service (MI6), which led led to the creation of the Office of Strategic Services (OSS). The OSS was dissolved in 1945 and its functions were split mainly among the U.S. Department of State and Department of War. After 1945, intelligence functions were carried out by the National Intelligence Authority (NIA), the Central Intelligence Group (CIG), Bureau of Intelligence and Research (INR), and others, until the CIA was eventually created in 1947.
In November 1959, the CIA created a dedicated Africa division.[4]
In modern times, the CIA has undertaken efforts to try to rebrand itself as being "liberal" and "woke" in a disingenuous effort to appeal to the liberal sensitivities of the American upper-middle class population.[5] Moderate Rebels has produced a parody CIA recruitment ad ridiculing this trend.
In honor of the 60th anniversary of the Korean war, the CIA released several formerly classified documents regarding the war in a collection titled "Baptism by Fire" in 2013. Among the released documents, author Jeffrey Kaye asserted that the "handprint of Unit 731" was "all over" various documents which made reference to the long-alleged biological warfare conducted by U.S. forces against north Koreans.[6][7]
Operations by region
Africa
As more and more African nations gained freedom from European colonial powers, the United States grew increasingly concerned with controlling African resources, including access to nuclear material such as uranium, and sought to control public opinion and governments in Africa. Although CIA officers had been present in Africa since the agency's inception, a dedicated Africa division was formed in 1959.[4]
The CIA participated in the overthrow of anti-imperialist leaders Kwame Nkrumah in Ghana and Patrice Lumumba in the Congo.[8]
Asia
The Phoenix Program was designed and coordinated by the CIA during the Vietnam War.
Europe
North America
South America
During Operation Condor, a terrorist campaign conducted in multiple South American countries throughout the 1970s and 1980s, "the CIA and top-ranking US officials supported, laid the groundwork for, and were even directly involved in Condor’s crimes."[9]
Oceania
Functions of the CIA
Disinformation
The CIA, through numerous agents and front organizations, plays a large role in disseminating disinformation and attempting to influence public opinion.
Secret wars
According to former CIA officer John Stockwell, one of the CIA's principal functions is to run secret wars.[3]
Drug trafficking
The CIA has regularly been accused of drug trafficking in connection with its other covert activities.
See also
External links
References
- ↑ John Stockwell (1987). The Secret Wars of the CIA. Information Clearing House.
- ↑ Ralph W. McGehee. Deadly Deceits: My 25 Years in the CIA. 1983. Open Road Integrated Media, New York.
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 "Former CIA Agent John Stockwell Talks about How the CIA Worked in Vietnam and Elsewhere." Witness to War. YouTube. Archive link.
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 Meyer, Lily. 2021. “CIA Role in Africa Expanded as U.S. Cold War Worries Grew, ‘White Malice’ Details.” NPR.org. August 12, 2021. Archived 2022-09-05.
- ↑ "The CIA and the New Dialect of Power". American Affairs Journal. Archived from the original.
- ↑ Xu Chi. “Interview: CIA Confidential Files Expose Use of Unit 731-Inspired U.S. Bioweapons in Korean War -- U.S. Author.” 2021-09-18. News.cn. Archived 2022-09-05.
- ↑ Jeffrey Kaye. "“A real flood of bacteria and germs” — Communications Intelligence and Charges of U.S. Germ Warfare during the Korean War." 2020-09-17. Medium.
- ↑ Djibo Sobukwe (2022-07-13). "NATO and Africa" Black Agenda Report. Retrieved 2022-07-15.
- ↑ “The CIA’s Secret Global War against the Left.” Jacobin.com.