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The Lies of William Colby | |
|---|---|
| Author | Michael Parenti |
| First published | 1976-03-31 The Ithaca Journal |
| Type | Newspaper article |
| https://www.newspapers.com/image/255591145/ | |
The Lies of William Colby was an article by Michael Parenti, published in The Ithaca Journal on 31 March 1976.
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"I don't lie! And I suffer when they accuse me of lying. Sometimes I refuse to give information; sometimes I keep a secret; but never lie. My Congress won't let me, my press either."
William Colby,
interviewed by Oriana Fallaci
Ithaca Journal, 20 March 1976
William Colby lied shamelessly when he appeared at Cornell not long ago. He lied when he portrayed the CIA as a defender of democracy in the world. In truth, in Latin America alone, the CIA has helped bring fascist dictatorships to at least 10 previously democratically-elected governments including Brazil, Guatemala, Uruguay (previously known as "the Switzerland of South America"), and Chile. The CIA also played a part in installing dictatorial regimes in such places as the Philippines, Indonesia, and Iran.
When pressed about Chile, Colby responded with a lie, asserting that the CIA had nothing to do with Chile after 1970. In light of recent revelations about the CIA's active role in economic sabotage, funding the truck-owners' strike, supporting fascist newspapers like El Mercurio, and training assassination squads in Chile — all after 1970 during the Allende years, Colby's lies about Chile topped all others in audacity.
Colby claimed that the CIA backed democratic forces in such places as Italy and France. What he didn't tell us is that his agency has given financial support and more pernicious forms of assistance to fascist elements in Italy who are bent on overthrowing the government, including a high-ranking military man now under indictment in Rome for planning a coup. Colby also made no mention of the CIA assistance afforded fascist elements in Greece, Portugal, and Spain.
Colby lied when he tried to portray the CIA as a champion of Angolan independence. He failed to tell his audience that the U.S. government gave more than $4 billion in military aid to the Portuguese fascist government over a 16-year period to suppress the struggle for Angolan independence. The CIA, of course, did not act against that policy. In general, CIA policies have seldom been anything more than those of Lyndon Johnson, Richard Nixon, and Gerald Ford.
One could cite many more instances of how Colby and his cohorts have lied to cover up the long list of CIA crimes. More important is to understand that these CIA crimes are not "abuses," "excesses," or instances of "bad judgement." They are the necessary functions of an agency whose purpose is not to preserve democracy but to make the world safe for the multinational corporations that own most of the wealth, labour, land, and resources of what some people mistakenly call the "Free World."
If this means overthrowing democratic governments because they try to institute reforms which threaten the interests of U.S. multinational corporations, then the CIA is there to lend a hand with death squads, bomb squads, assassinations, torture, mass arrests, mercenaries, and even armed invasion.
If, to defend capitalism, it is necessary to build fascism, the CIA will do it. If making the world safe for Exxon, United Fruit, ITT, Chase Manhattan, and Gulf means making it unsafe for those who want to end poverty in their lands and get American imperialism off their backs, then the CIA is there.
But the ruling corporate-political elites never stand naked. They destroy the forces of progressive democratic change yet try to appear as defenders of democracy. They wrap themselves in the flag and appeal to our patriotism and our concern for national security. Having convinced some Americans, including those who applauded Colby at Bailey Hall, that the interests of the giant corporations are the same as the interests of our people, the elites can turn reality on its head and pursue their special interests abroad in the name of defending American security against the Red Menace.
But the Kissingers, Rockefellers, Fords, and Colbys face an American public that is growing increasingly sceptical about corporate-military globalistic ventures, a public that refuses to follow blindly into another Vietnam (be it Angola or wherever), that no longer believes we are saving democracy every time the CIA plays with fascism.