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Central Intelligence Agency

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Revision as of 04:55, 16 September 2022 by Amicchan (talk | contribs)
Central Intelligence Agency
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FoundedSeptember 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]

Here are some human rights violations by the CIA.

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 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]

Allen Dulles was the first civilian CIA Director and the longest-serving CIA Director, serving from 1953 to 1961. As head of the CIA during the early Cold War, he oversaw the 1953 Iranian coup d'état, the 1954 Guatemalan coup d'état, the Lockheed U-2 aircraft program, the Project MKUltra mind control program and the Bay of Pigs Invasion. His older brother, John Foster Dulles, was the Secretary of State during the Eisenhower Administration.

George H.W. Bush, who served as the 11th Director of Central Intelligence from 1976 to 1977, would later go on to become Vice President under Ronald Reagan from 1981 to 1989, and 41st President of the United States from 1989 to 1993.

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

Influencing public opinion

The CIA, through numerous agents and front organizations, plays a large role in disseminating disinformation and attempting to influence public opinion.

In addition to disseminating false stories and fake photos to the press, the CIA has also been involved in the printing of an untold number of books that contain CIA talking points regarding topics such as history and Marxism. According to Stockwell, a thousand of such books were printed during the Vietnam War, and many of the authors who produced these books under the auspices of the CIA went on to become respected figures in academia.[3]

The CIA and its front organizations have also taken an interest in funding and being involved with particular ideological currents and philosophical schools, such as can be seen with the CIA's interest in the Non-Communist Left and the Congress for Cultural Freedom as well as promotion of the Frankfurt School and influencing the development of critical theory.[10]

The National Endowment for Democracy (NED) is a notable CIA-related organization used for influencing and supporting anti-communist projects.

Media organizations such as Voice of America, Radio Free Asia, and Radio Liberty also promote CIA propaganda.

The CIA has also experimented with mind control techniques, such as with Project MKUltra.

Running secret wars

According to 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

Template:External links

References