John Pilger interviews former CIA Latin America chief Duane Clarridge (John Pilger and Duane Clarridge)

John Pilger interviews former CIA Latin America chief Duane Clarridge
Author	John Pilger and Duane Clarridge
Spoken on	2015
Type	Video
Source	https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ER77vxxGVAY

Foreword by ProleWiki

The following is a transcript of a video clip of documentary filmmaker John Pilger interviewing former head of the CIA's Latin American division in the 1980s, Duane Clarridge.

Transcript

John Pilger: Duane Clarridge was head of the CIA's Latin American division in the early 1980s.

Duane Clarridge: Chile—the only reason it exists is because of Pinochet—

Pilger: At a huge human price.

Clarridge: What human price? Give me a break!

Pilger: The thousands who were disappeared and murdered.

Clarridge: Thousands? You count 'em. What thousands?

Pilger: Well, I've seen—

Clarridge: And don't talk to me about truth commissions.

Pilger: I've seen their names in the cemetery in Santiago.

Clarridge: Yeah, I have too—

Pilger: You're saying they're fakes?

Clarridge: There aren't thousands. There aren't thousands.

Pilger: Well—

Clarridge: There aren't thousands, sir.

[cut]

Pilger: It was a period which almost everybody in the present situation regards as a dark time, in which the CIA played a major role.

Clarridge: That's right. They've played a major role in overthrowing uh, whatshisname.

Pilger: Uh, "whatshisname" was Salvador Allende.

Clarridge: Yeah, fine.

Pilger: He was democratically elected.

Clarridge: Right. Okay.

Pilger: Is that okay, to overthrow a democratically elected government? Is it okay?

Clarridge: It depends on what your national security interests are.

Pilger: Are you denying that Pinochet caused huge suffering in that country?

Clarridge: I don't—I... I... "Huge"? I don't buy. That he committed crimes, I agree.

Pilger: But it's worth it?

Clarridge: Huh?

Pilger: Is that what you're saying? Those crimes are worth it?

Clarridge: Yeah. Yeah, sometimes, unfortunately, uh, things have to be changed in a rather, uh, ugly way.

Pilger: According to the Truth Commission and the whole swathe of human—

Clarridge: Oh, please! Oh, come on, John!

Pilger: Let me—

Clarridge: If this is where we're going, you're wasting my time. That's all bullshit. Those people all had agendas.

Pilger: So, it was bullshit that the Salvadoran military were murdering tens of thousands of people?

Clarridge: No, I bet you can't count more than 200 in the whole 10 or 12 years.

[cut]

Clarridge: You're taking the stuff from these propaganda mills, and I'm not interested.

Pilger: What are the propaganda mills?

Clarridge: All these things, this truth thing and all that. They're nothing but propaganda mills.

Pilger: Do you really think—

Clarridge: I know so. You—

Pilger: Are they all—are they all conning us, lying to us? Amnesty International?

Clarridge: Amnesty International's right in the middle of it.

[cut]

Pilger: What right have you—and I mean "you," the CIA, the United States government, or any foreign power—what right do you have to do what you do in other countries?

Clarridge: National security interests.

Pilger: But that's a divine right, isn't it? Because the people that you do it to have no say.

Clarridge: Yeah, well, that's just tough. We are gonna protect ourselves, and we're gonna go on protecting ourselves, 'cause we end up protecting all of you. And let's not forget that.

Pilger: Right, right. No, I won't.

Clarridge: We'll intervene whenever we decide it's in our national security interest 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.