Central Intelligence Agency

Central Intelligence Agency
Logo
Founded	(1947-09-18) September 18, 1947
Website
www.cia.gov

The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) is an imperialist terrorist organization serving as the secret police of the U.S. empire. It is one of the principal members of the United States Intelligence Community (IC). It has a long history of criminal behaviour, fabricating propaganda, funding and supporting anti-communist movements and "NGOs", and directly and indirectly participating in human rights abuses. 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 case officers, John Stockwell, the CIA was responsible for at least six million deaths in its first forty years of existence.

The CIA is an instrument of capitalist imperialism and covert interventionism which serves the interests of the ruling (Capitalist) class in the United States. It works to maintain global dominance and advance U.S. geopolitical interests: subjugating nations, exploiting their resources, and preventing the rise of Socialist or anti-imperialist movements.

Methods including coups, assassinations, and support for right-wing regimes are used to undermine sovereign nations and popular movements that challenge Capitalist hegemony. The CIA has also been documented "planting stories" in popular media outlets.

The CIA’s historical association with anti-Communist activities is a significant concern for us. During the Cold War, the CIA was involved in countering Socialist and Communist movements around the world, often collaborating with repressive regimes and engaging in propaganda campaigns against leftist ideologies. The CIA’s secretive nature and lack of transparency make it susceptible to abuses of power. The agency’s covert operations are a way for Capitalist interests to exert control without public scrutiny, undermining democratic principles.

We'll intervene whenever we decide it's in our national security interests to intervene, and if you don't like it, lump it. Get used to it, world -- we're not gonna put up with nonsense. And if our interests are threatened, we're gonna do it.

— Duane Clarridge. (2015). John Pilger interviews former CIA Latin America chief Duane Clarridge, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ER77vxxGVAY

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.

Between 1949 and 1952, the number of overseas CIA outposts grew from seven to 52, and its budget increased from $4.7 million to $82 million. The number of covert operations grew by 16 times from 1951 to 1953. In 1958, the CIA trained over 500,000 police officers in 25 countries. In November 1959, the CIA created a dedicated Africa division.

Allen Dulles, a nazi, 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 the 1989 book "Rollback!" authors Thomas Bodenheimer and Robert Gould explain how in the 1980s, proponents of the imperialist rollback policy, which sought to "roll back" communism worldwide and prevent revolutions in the Third World (now more commonly conceptualized as the Global South, with a somewhat different definition), sought to create increased plausible deniability for the CIA by creating an apparatus for bypassing presidential approval and congressional notification for the CIA's actions:

For decades the CIA has conducted covert operations that could be “plausibly denied” by the presidency. But legislation in 1974 and 1980 requiring formal presidential approval and congressional notification of covert operations made such deniability difficult. Thus under Reagan, an apparatus was established whose actions could be plausibly denied not only by the president but by the CIA as well. To staff this apparatus, right-wing ideologues inside government-led by CIA Director William Casey and National Security Council staff member Oliver North-came together with their rollback-oriented companions outside government, most prominently retired Gen. Richard Secord. This rightwing apparatus derived enormous power from its access through Oliver North to National Security Advisor Adm. John Poindexter. As one of the top foreign policy officials, Poindexter--especially with a president widely considered to be incompetent—had the power to place enormous resources of the United States government at the service of the global rollback network.

The Iran–Contra affair occurred during the second term of the Reagan administration. The president had declared Iran to be an enemy and terrorist state, but in secret he was selling Iran major shipments of weapons. Between 1981 and 1986, senior administration officials secretly facilitated the sale of arms to Iran, which was the subject of an arms embargo. The administration hoped to use the proceeds of the arms sale to fund the Contras, a right-wing rebel group, in Nicaragua. According to Bodenheimer and Gould, "The secret apparatus itself was nothing new [...] CIA covert operations involving private individuals and companies were part of the conservative elites' tradition. What stood out about Contragate was the loss of control by the conservative elite. [...] The Contragate exposé was the backlash of the conservative elite, who viewed the Right as overly reckless and assuming far too much power." The authors explain that Ronald Reagan and his rollback henchmen drew criticism from Congress and the entire nation, the scope of the investigation remained extremely limited, with the leadership of the House and Senate committees specifically avoiding delving into the history of the CIA-linked proprietaries and public-private networks, "Thus the CIA's capabilities for covert and illegal interventionist operations remained protected for the future, while the 'rogues' of the Right were conveniently and temporarily scapegoated."

In 1982, the Intelligence Identities Protection Act was signed into law by President Reagan, establishing criminal penalties for any person who discloses information which identifies a U.S. covert intelligence agent. Prior to the passage of the act, CovertAction Information Bulletin (now CovertAction Magazine) used to publish a "Naming Names" column which would identify names and locations of covert agents and their stations.

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. 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.

In 2019, former CIA director and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo stated to an audience from Texas A&M University that the CIA trains employees to lie, cheat and steal, saying: "When I was a cadet--what's the cadet motto at West Point? 'You will not lie, cheat, or steal, or tolerate those who do.' I was the CIA director. We lied, we cheated, we stole. We had entire training courses. It reminds you of the glory of the American experiment."

CIA leadership and personnel

CIA directors

The director of the Central Intelligence Agency (D/CIA), formerly the Director of Central Intelligence (DCI), serves as one of the chief intelligence advisers to the president of the United States. Following a change in the early 2000s, the director of national intelligence (DNI) oversees and directs the implementation of the National Intelligence Program budget and serves as the head of the Intelligence Community and is principal advisor to the President for intelligence matters.

This is a chronologically ordered list of CIA directors (both the old position called DCI and the new position called D/CIA), from the earliest to the most recent.

List of Directors of the Central Intelligence Agency and Directors of Central Intelligence

Name	Tenure	Administration(s)	Notes
Rear Adm. Sidney W. Souers, U.S. Naval Reserve	January 23, 1946–June 10, 1946	Harry S. Truman
Lieut. Gen. Hoyt S. Vandenberg, U.S. Army	June 10, 1946–May 1, 1947
Rear Adm. Roscoe H. Hillenkoetter, U.S. Navy	May 1, 1947–October 7, 1950
Gen. Walter Bedell Smith, U.S. Army	October 7, 1950–February 9, 1953	Dwight D. Eisenhower
Allen W. Dulles	February 9, 1953 – February 26, 1953		(Acting director)
Allen W. Dulles	February 26, 1953–November 29, 1961	John F. Kennedy
John A. McCone	November 29, 1961–April 28, 1965	Lyndon B. Johnson
Vice Adm. William F. Raborn, Jr., U.S. Navy	April 28, 1965–June 30, 1966
Richard M. Helms	June 30, 1966–February 2, 1973	Richard Nixon
James R. Schlesinger	February 2, 1973–July 2, 1973
William E. Colby	September 4, 1973–January 30, 1976	Gerald Ford
George H.W. Bush	January 30, 1976–January 20, 1977
Adm. Stansfield Turner, U.S. Navy	March 9, 1977–January 20, 1981	Jimmy Carter
William J. Casey	January 28, 1981–January 29, 1987	Ronald Reagan
Robert M. Gates	December 18, 1986 – May 26, 1987		(Acting director)
William H. Webster	May 26, 1987–August 31, 1991	George H.W. Bush
Robert M. Gates	November 6, 1991–January 20, 1993
R. James Woolsey	February 5, 1993–January 10, 1995	Bill Clinton
John M. Deutch	May 10, 1995–December 15, 1996
George J. Tenet	December 16, 1996 – July 11, 1997		(Acting director)
George J. Tenet	July 11, 1997 – July 11, 2004	George W. Bush
Porter J. Goss	September 24, 2004–May 26, 2006
Gen. Michael V. Hayden, U.S. Air Force	May 30, 2006–February 13, 2009
Leon E. Panetta	February 13, 2009–June 30, 2011	Barack Obama
Gen. David Petraeus, U.S. Army	September 6, 2011–November 9, 2012
John Brennan	March 8, 2013–January 20, 2017
Mike Pompeo	January 23, 2017–April 26, 2018	Donald Trump
Gina Haspel	May 21, 2018–January 19, 2021
William J. Burns	March 19, 2021–January 23, 2025	Joe Biden
John Ratcliffe	January 23, 2025–Present	Donald Trump	Incumbent

Notes:

Other CIA personnel and agents

CIA station chiefs are the top officers of a CIA station, which is a CIA office. Operations officers carry out the operations of a station. Case officers are the officers whose job it is to recruit and handle local sources in the country of operation. Recruited local sources are known as agents. Case officers engage in networking as they seek out potential sources and carry out station operations, with many working at US embassies. Former case officer John Stockwell has described CIA officers as "ranking privileged members of the police brotherhood of the world" who are not in danger, and who establish liaison with the police in every country where they can, saying "they're not fearful and they're not playing cover games. They're having lunch with the police chief."

Frank Wisner is one of the founding operations officers of the CIA. Wisner is known for his metaphor of the "Mighty Wurlitzer" to describe the CIA, likening it to the world-famous theater organ on which he could direct the network of organizations to play any propaganda "tune".

Whistleblowers

When engaging with supposed whistleblowers of intelligence organizations as a source of information, it is important to engage critically, noting phenomena such as the limited hangout, which is a calculated partial disclosure of classified information in order to create the appearance of transparency. Furthermore, many so-called "former" CIA personnel remain in service of or in contact with the CIA, or otherwise remain in agreement with the aims of the CIA. The CIA is also capable of conducting blackmail, lawfare, smear campaigns, and assassinations against its enemies, which may discourage comprehensive or completely truthful disclosures by (former) personnel. Therefore, although its possible a given individual CIA whistleblower may have accurate information to provide, and may potentially have genuine truth-telling intent, one must remain critical of their supposed whistleblower status and keep in mind possible omissions, motivations, or undisclosed affiliations of that individual.

Some well-known (supposed or presumed) whistleblowers of the CIA include: Philip Agee, regarded as the CIA's first whistleblower, who went on to write Inside the Company and co-founder of CovertAction Information Bulletin (now CovertAction Magazine). Another well-known whistleblower is John Stockwell, author of In Search of Enemies and who made frequent appearances on the program Alternative Views.

Operations by region

Africa

Although CIA officers had been present in Africa since the agency's inception, a dedicated Africa division was formed in 1959. As more and more African nations gained formal independence from European colonial powers following the Second World War, the United States and other Western powers grew concerned with how to maintain control over Africa's resources, as African resources and markets continued to be vital to Western economies. Western powers thus sought to influence the establishment of neo-colonial governments and institutions which would not pose a threat to their traditional colonial interests. Such interests included access to minerals (including nuclear material such as uranium), as well as the labor and infrastructure to mine them, and access to petroleum and natural gas resources. They also sought to ensure access to markets for food and manufactured products, opportunities for capital investments, and important sea routes through the Suez Canal and around the Cape, and to otherwise ensure optimal operating conditions for Western corporations.

As observed by former CIA case officer Philip Agee, in the 1960s, operations by the US government and US companies expanded both in support of and in competition with the former colonial powers. As a competitor, the US was interested in undermining European colonial influence to the extent that it could open up Europe's (former) colonies to US influence and commercial penetration. However, though the US competed with its European allies for natural resources and markets, "the U.S. had set up military bases in Africa and joined the Europeans in opposing the nationalist and anti-colonial movements that were supported by socialist countries or whose nationalism and radicalism made them seem threatening, while supporting those which were moderate and pro-capitalist." During this period, the CIA participated in the overthrow of anti-imperialist leaders Kwame Nkrumah in Ghana and Patrice Lumumba in the Congo.

Angola

In November 1975, the CIA and apartheid South Africa invaded Angola when it became independent from Portugal. Fidel Castro deployed 350,000 Cubans in Angola who fought until 1989 and defeated the white supremacist forces.

Former CIA case officer John Stockwell was chief of the CIA's Angola task force. In his various books and interviews, Stockwell has described the CIA as engaging in manipulation of the media to influence opinion against the People's Movement for the Liberation of Angola (MPLA), as engaging in secretive funding of National Union for the Total Independence of Angola (UNITA) and National Liberation Front of Angola (FNLA) via European bank accounts, sending secret agents to conferences of the Non-Aligned Nations and Organization of African Unity, helping disseminate CIA-written documents at the United Nations and to US ambassadors in Africa, and planting fake news and fake photos and atrocity propaganda about the Cubans in Angola.

Democratic Republic of the Congo

Patrice Lumumba was chosen prime minister of the independent Democratic Republic of the Congo (then Republic of the Congo) by the newly-elected parliament following independence from Belgium in June 1960. Ideologically an African nationalist and pan-Africanist, he led the Congolese National Movement (MNC) party from 1958 until his assassination.

Lumumba was very popular, but too nationalist and seemingly left-leaning for the imperialists. Both Belgium and the US were affected by the Cold War in their attitude to Lumumba, as they feared he was increasingly subject to communist influence. CIA Director Allen Dulles authorized a fund of up to $100,000 to replace Lumumba's government with a pro-Western regime. With CIA help, Lumumba was deposed, first by President Joseph Kasavubu, and later by Army strongman (cultivated by the CIA) Mobutu Sese Seko. The CIA made a plan to assassinate Lumumba with poison carried from the United States by CIA operative Sid Gottlieb. The poisoning plan was aborted, but Lumumba was caught and murdered. After Lumumba's murder, Mobutu Sese Seko ruled until 1996 as a CIA puppet.

Ghana

See also: Republic of Ghana#1966 coup d'etat

On 24 February 1966, Kwame Nkrumah, the first president of Ghana, was overthrown in a CIA-supported coup. A 1966 U.S. government internal memorandum describes Nkrumah as "strongly pro-Communist" and says that "Nkrumah was doing more to undermine our interests than any other black African." The memo was written by Robert W. Komer, who later became the head of the Phoenix Program in Vietnam. Prior to the coup, Western imperialist financial institutions such as the IMF had been denying assistance to Nkrumah's government. Only weeks after the reactionary coup regime took power and began selling off state-owned enterprises that had been developed under a socialist model, the IMF invited the leaders of the coup regime to meetings about receiving aid.

1965 U.S. security council memorandums from several months before the coup, also written by Robert Komer, and not released until years later, show U.S officials discussing among themselves that pro-Western coup plotters in Ghana were keeping U.S. officials "briefed", and a U.S. security council staffer states that "we and other Western countries (including France) have been helping to set up the situation by ignoring Nkrumah's pleas for economic aid" hoping that this would "spark" the coup. Weeks after the coup, March 12 1966 U.S. internal documents discuss that the new, "almost pathetically pro-Western" regime should be given gifts of surplus grain to "whet their appetite" for further U.S. support.

In his book about the coup, Dark Days in Ghana, Nkrumah describes the above tactic as "standard practice" in the then-recent wave of coups in Asia, Latin America and Africa. He states that wherever progressive governments have been replaced by counter-revolutionary forces, imperialist financial organizations have rushed to bolster them up with loans and various forms of so-called "aid". He explains that this practice "is a necessary corollary to the 'big lie' usually employed to justify the overthrow of 'undesirable governments'—the lie of 'economic chaos' and a 'starving' population. But more important, it serves to tighten the stranglehold of foreign economic control over the captive people by creating more indebtedness and a deeper penetration by foreign business interests."

Former CIA case officer John Stockwell wrote that the CIA station in Ghana played a "major role" in the overthrow of Nkrumah's government, and that "The Accra station was [...] encouraged by headquarters to maintain contact with dissidents of the Ghanian army for the purpose of gathering intelligence on their activities. It was given a generous budget, and maintained intimate contact with the plotters as a coup was hatched."

Libya

In 2011, Barack Obama sent hundreds of CIA operatives to Libya to organize airstrikes against Muammar Gaddafi's socialist government.

Niger

In 2018, a facility in Dirkou, Niger was converted into a CIA drone base.

Asia

Following the surrender of Japan in the Second World War, the U.S. sought to dominate East Asia and the Pacific. A conflict over a policy of aggressive total rollback of communism vs. containment of communism was taking place among the U.S. ruling class, but regardless of tactics preferred by either end of the spectrum, the need to establish U.S. influence in Asia was a priority, whether it was with the long-term rollback goal encapsulated by containment policy (isolate communist countries so they eventually collapse on their own), or the aggressive immediate rollback policy that would entail surrounding China and the Soviet Union to invade and attack them.

The Pivot to Asia announced under the Obama administration indicates Asia as the priority of U.S. foreign policy and geopolitical interest, with China's rise being considered unacceptable to U.S. hegemony. Carrying on with largely the same objectives of containment and rollback of communism from the original Cold War, this state of affairs is increasingly regarded as the New Cold War.

East Asia

One of the first major conflicts in which the CIA was involved was the occupation of the Korean peninsula by U.S. forces, the establishment of a puppet government in the south, and the subsequent Korean War. Relatedly, the CIA has had extensive involvement of shaping the course of Japanese politics ever since the end of World War II, with the CIA spending millions to support right-wing parties in Japan and to infiltrate the Japan Socialist Party, and placing agents in youth groups, student groups and labor groups.

After the liberation of China by the Communist Party of China, the CIA made many attempts to infiltrate and undermine the country. In April of 1951, a "raiding force" composed of American CIA operatives and anti-communist Kuomintang exiles was driven back by the People's Liberation Army after sustaining heavy casualties, including the deaths of several CIA operatives. Between 1951 and 1954, the Chinese had killed 106 CIA and KMT agents while capturing 124 others. However, the CIA remained undeterred by its repeated failures, and continued to seek new ways to harass the Chinese.

Southeast Asia

The Phoenix Program was designed and coordinated by the CIA during the Vietnam War. Regarding CIA and US imperialist activity in Southeast Asia, Bodenheimer and Gould state, "Because of the interrelatedness of the 1958-70 events in Southeast Asia, and the resolve of the United States to keep control of all governments in that region, the rollback activities in Southeast Asia can be considered as one complex, prolonged, major covert operation working in conjunction with the overt Vietnam War."

Europe

See: Operation Gladio, Operation Paperclip

North America

The CIA's activities in North America have been heavily concentrated in Central America and the Caribbean, although some victims of MKUltra and related projects which aimed to develop procedures and identify psychoactive drugs that could be used in interrogations to weaken individuals and force confessions through brainwashing and psychological torture were inflicted on U.S. and Canadian citizens.

Guatemala

In Guatemala in February 1953, the government of Jacobo Arbenz expropriated almost 400,000 acres of unused United Fruit Company land as part of a moderate land reform program. Compensation was offered, which United Fruit rejected. United Fruit approached the CIA to take action. The CIA trained a small army, and arranged for the CIA-run airline Civil Air Transport to conduct bombing raids. The main thrust of the operation was psychological warfare. A CIA radio station was set up to create rumors making the government and population think that a major rebellion was taking place. As a result, the small CIA army and a few bombing raids created a panic. General Ydigoras Fuentes took power in 1958. In 1960, the CIA crushed progressive elements of the Guatemalan military, and a guerrilla movement began in the countryside, led by former military officers who had attempted the uprising of 1960. Fuentes lost U.S. support when he allowed former progressive leader Juan José Arévalo to return to the country, and he planned to step down in 1964 and allow an election. In March 1963 the United States organized another coup, and Colonel Enrique Peralta overthrew Fuentes. However, the U.S. was not entirely satisfied with the policies of Peralta, either, and backed Julio Cesar Mendez Montenegro in the election held in March 1966.

Jamaica

In 1972, democratic socialist Michael Manley was elected prime minister of Jamaica. Henry Kissinger initiated measures to destabilize the government, including a withdrawal of U.S. aid and the sending of CIA-trained Cuban exiles to Jamaica to instigate violent incidents which had a devastating effect on the tourist business, critical to the Jamaican economy. CIA-trained labor leaders also engaged in anti-government strikes. In addition to the CIA activities, U.S. aluminum companies reduced their Jamaican production, further damaging the economy. The United States closed Jamaica out of the international public and private lending market. Economic austerity measures initiated by the U.S.-dominated International Monetary Fund led to price increases and wage freezes. This pattern of economic destabilization coupled with electoral rollback by any means possible is a typical one seen with U.S imperialism.

South America

The CIA has been involved in numerous coups, color revolutions, destabilization efforts, and right-wing death squads and regimes in South America, and throughout Latin America in general. 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."

The United States provided support to many military juntas that came to power in Latin America (both in Central and South America), training them on harsh counterinsurgency techniques at the United States Army School of the Americas (Spanish: Escuela de las Américas) located in Fort Benning in Columbus, Georgia, USA. The school was renamed the Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation (WHINSEC) in the early 2000s.

Argentina

See: Argentine Republic#Operation Condor

Chile

On September 4, 1970, socialist candidate Salvador Allende received the plurality of votes in the Chilean election. A congressional runoff election was required to decide between the top two candidates, and Allende's victory in Congress was assured because he had the support of the third-place candidate. On September 8, Henry Kissinger ordered a "cold blooded assessment" of "the pros and cons and problems and prospects involved should a Chilean military coup be organized now with U.S. assistance...." On September 15, President Nixon told CIA Director Richard Helms and Henry Kissinger that they must do everything possible to prevent Allende from assuming power.

As a result of the Nixon order, CIA operatives were sent into Chile to pass money and weapons to right-wing Chilean military officers to assassinate Allende. A quarter of a million dollars was authorized to bribe members of the Chilean Congress to vote against Allende. The CIA and U.S. Army attaché Col. Paul Wimert contacted two groups of right-wing Chilean officers, headed by Gens. Roberto Viaux and Camilo Valenzuela, to arrange a coup or assassination. On October 22, Gen. René Schneider was murdered by Viaux's people in the hopes that the resultant upheavals in the military would precipitate action against Allende; Schneider was a moderate and opposed any military action against Allende. However the Schneider killing angered Chilean moderates, thus ensuring Allende's election in the October 24 congressional vote.

Following this failure, the United States began a policy of economic destabilization, using organizations such as The World Bank to shut Chile out of international credit markets. While U.S. economic aid disappeared, aid to the military and U.S. training of military personnel increased. CIA covert tactics continued at the cost of several million dollars per year. The CIA financed long strikes, particularly in the trucking industry, disrupting distribution of consumer goods and creating shortages of necessities. The CIA trained members of the extreme rightist organization Patria y Libertad in bombing and guerrilla warfare. The CIA recruited agents within the Chilean military. The CIA sponsored the spreading of false rumors about the government. Right-wing newspaper El Mercurio received considerable CIA funds. The CIA collected names of pro-Allende individuals to be targeted for arrest after a coup and supplied plans for which installations should be occupied during a coup. During the September 1973 coup, U.S. military attachés were in the field with the Chilean army, a Navy commando team landed in Chile, U.S. ships were in Chilean waters, and U.S. fighter planes were at an Argentine base just across the Chilean border. Following the coup which installed Gen. Augusto Pinochet's military dictatorship, Richard Helms, CIA Director during the Chilean operation, denied in sworn testimony that the CIA had tried to overthrow Allende. Helms was later indicted for perjury and pleaded no contest.

Oceania

Australia

The CIA also orchestrated the dismissal of Australian Prime Minister Gough Whitlam for threatening to shut down the CIA spy base at Pine Gap.

Palau

Journalist Ed Rampell has speculated on CIA or Bush family involvement in the 1985 assassination of Palau's first president, Haruo Remeliik and the outbreak of a "mysterious reign of terror" which erupted at a time when the US was refusing to grant Palau independence unless it changed its constitution. Rampell has also speculated upon the IPSECO power plant debt scandal in Palau, which he describes as "apparently a covert action in the guise of a costly, far-too-big power plant and fuel farm that threatened to bankrupt the diminutive developing island nation and force it into an even weaker negotiating position with the U.S." In his analysis, Rampell notes the precedent of the CIA bugging Micronesian political status negotiations in the 1970s.

At the time surrounding Remeliik's assassination, Palau was a colony of the US under the UN Trust Territory system, and was making preparations for self-rule. A majority of Palauans had supported a constitution which would ban nuclear material from their territory, a major concern for many Pacific island nations which had suffered the severe health and environmental consequences of US and other nations' nuclear testing in their islands and waters and on their citizens. This nuclear-free constitution went into effect in 1981. However, the US refused to grant Palau independence unless it removed the nuclear-free provision from its constitution. A period ensued in which Palauans were compelled to keep voting numerous times on their constitution, with the US desiring the nuclear-free provision to be removed. Rampell notes that at this time, "Palau was gripped by a mysterious reign of terror" and that following the assassination of Remeliik and further legal battles regarding the nuclear-free constitution, in 1987, "terrorists firebombed and shot Pacific pacifists, and besieged Palau’s congress." In 1988, Palau's second elected president, Lazarus Salii, was deemed to have committed suicide via gunshot. In Rampell's view, "the elimination of Salii [...] untied the Gordian knot that led to the elimination of Palau’s anti-nuclear clauses."

Functions of the CIA

Philip Agee has described the range which covert activities may include, writing that these "may range from a simple poison-pen letter (which may be true or falsified), to supporting or splitting political parties, to establishing and manipulating trade unions, to fielding armies on a battlefield. They also include undermining public support for governments, overthrowing governments, and political assassinations" and that targets include "governments, political parties, military and security services, trade unions, youth and student organizations, cultural and professional societies, and the public-information media."

According to 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."

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."

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.

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.

The National Endowment for Democracy (NED) is a notable CIA-related organization used for influencing and supporting anti-communist projects. The NED exists to fund these projects openly where previously they would have been funded covertly by the CIA.

Media organizations such as Voice of America, Radio Free Asia, and Radio Liberty also promote CIA propaganda. In particular, Radio Liberty was funded by the CIA until 1971.

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

Writing in 1977, the journalist Carl Bernstein listed Columbia Broadcasting System, Time Inc., the New York Times, Louisville Courier‑Journal, the Copley News Service, the American Broadcasting Company, the National Broadcasting Company, the Associated Press, United Press International, Reuters, Hearst Newspapers, Scripps‑Howard, Newsweek magazine, the Mutual Broadcasting System, the Miami Herald, the Saturday Evening Post and the New York Herald‑Tribune as media outlets that cooperated with the CIA.

Running secret wars

According to Stockwell, one of the CIA's principal functions is to run secret wars. As the CIA is an arm of the U.S. imperialist bourgeoisie, the primary objective in these wars is to keep countries open for U.S. capitalist interests. The CIA engages in the covert aspect of this goal.

The countries targeted for these wars are countries who seek full independence from the economic, political, or military interests of the United States. They may be socialist, revolutionary nationalist, or simply uncooperative with U.S. business interests. They may be targeted with other forms of interference, for instance with economic sanctions, in addition to a covertly CIA-led or CIA-instigated war.

Drug trafficking and arms dealing

The CIA has been involved in drug trafficking and arms dealing in connection with its other covert activities. Arms dealing and drug trafficking serve the dual purpose of funding covert activities and organizations while also sewing chaos in targeted regions.

Soon after its creation, the CIA collaborated with the Corsican Mafia in France to undermine the influence of the French Communist Party. This enabled the Corsican Mafia to take control of several ports in Marseille, which they used to export heroin to the United States. In the 1950s, the CIA also collaborated with anti-communist Kuomintang (KMT) remnants who fled to Burma after the victory of the Communist Party of China, hoping that they could be used as a proxy against China. Instead, the corrupt KMT forces repressed the local inhabitants, looted their property, and took over the opium trade in the Golden Triangle.

In 1996, journalist Gary Webb revealed CIA involvement with Colombian cartels and Los Angeles gangs to fund the Contras rebels in Nicaragua with drug profits. The CIA's major role in the trade resulted in the sudden proliferation of cocaine in Los Angeles, significantly contributing to crime and homelessness in the city.

Blowback

The issue of blowback, which refers to the unwanted side-effects of a covert operation, is a common result of covert activities. To the civilians suffering the blowback of covert operations, the effect typically manifests itself as "random" acts of political violence without a discernible, direct cause; because the public—in whose name the intelligence agency acted—are unaware of the effected secret attacks that provoked revenge (counter-attack) against them.

“Blowback” is a CIA term first used in March 1954 in a now declassified report on the 1953 operation to overthrow the government of Mohammed Mossadegh in Iran. It is a metaphor for the unintended consequences of the US government’s international activities that have been kept secret from the U.S. public.

One example of blowback is the CIA's financing and support for the Mujahideen to fight an anti-Communist proxy guerrilla war against the USSR in Afghanistan. The Mujahideen would later become Al Qaeda which would commit the September 11, 2001 attacks.

Due to the CIA's function as an anti-communist organization, it typically relies on right-wing groups to achieve its policy goals, either by latching on to and supporting pre-existing anti-communist groups and leaders or helping to create them. This leads to the spread of fascism, terrorism, and increased instability in regions where the CIA has used their influence, even after the CIA has ceased actively using them to achieve specific goals.

See also

• List of atrocities committed by the United States of America
• United States imperialism
• Imperialist secret police
• National Endowment for Democracy
• United States Department of State
• United States Intelligence Community
• Radio Liberty
• Radio Free Asia
• Voice of America
• Project MKUltra
• CIA Tibetan program
• Colour revolution
• Operation Gladio
• Operation Mockingbird
• Operation Paperclip
• Contras
• Operation Aerodynamic
• Vault 7
• Prague Spring
• Timber Sycamore
• Operation Cyclone

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Books and articles

• Killing Hope: U.S. Military and C.I.A. Interventions since World War II
• Washington Bullets
• The CIA & the Frankfurt School's Anti-Communism
• The CIA's Shining Path: Political Warfare

Interviews

• Interview with former CIA agent John Stockwell
• CIA Officer Frank Snepp Discusses Planting Stories in Vietnam
• John Pilger interviews former CIA Latin America chief Duane Clarridge

External links

• Who's Who in the CIA (1968 book)