by Kenneth J. Theisen, 5/9/06
Recently President George W. Bush nominated Air Force General Michael
Hayden as the next CIA director. Due to his link to the President’s
illegal surveillance operations some object to the nomination as
totally inappropriate. Hayden defended circumventing the Foreign
Intelligence Surveillance Act by stating that compliance involved too
much ‘looping paperwork.’ But the fact that he appears to have no
problem with the fourth amendment and his ability to break the law and
then to defend these actions before the press and congress make him the
perfect candidate. The CIA has institutionalized law breaking since its
creation in 1947 and it needs a director who can continue this record.
A brief look at CIA history is illustrative.
The CIA has been
repeatedly involved in regime change or coups. In 1953 it overthrew the
democratically elected leader of Iran, Mohammed Mossadegh. The CIA then
installed the Shah of Iran who led a bloody dictatorship for the next
quarter of a century.
The next year, the CIA ousted the
elected Guatemalan president. A series of brutal military dictatorships
followed which committed genocide against the indigenous population.
Many of the leaders of these dictatorships were trained at the School
of Americas (more widely known as the School of Assassins) run by the
U.S. government. Of course all the leaders were supported by the U.S.
In 1963 and then again in 1968 the CIA sponsored coups that brought the
Baath Party and Saddam Hussein to power in Iraq. And until the first
Gulf War, the U.S. supported this bloody dictatorship as well.
In 1965 the CIA brought General Suharto and the Indonesian military to
power in Indonesia. Immediately after this coup over 500,000
Indonesians were massacred.
And then there was September 11.
No not that one, but September 11, 1973. On that date, the CIA assisted
General Pinochet in overthrowing the elected government of Chile.
Thousands were also murdered after this coup. Of course these coups
were only a small fraction of the regime changes fostered illegally by
the CIA.
The CIA has also regularly participated in
assassinations. In Operation Phoenix according to a 1971 congressional
report, the CIA assisted the South Vietnam government to murder about
20,000 Vietnamese opponents of the South Vietnamese regime. In the
Congo, the nationalist leader Patrice Lumumba was murdered because he
did not fall in line with U.S. goals in the mineral-rich nation. In
both the Iraqi coups and the coup in Indonesia, the CIA furnished lists
of ‘leftists’ to the death squads which enthusiastically utilized them.
And of course there were the botched, almost comical, attempts to kill
Castro with the participation of the U.S. mafia.
The CIA has
also been involved in covert wars in Southeast Asia, Afghanistan,
Central and South America, Africa, etc. which have resulted in the
deaths of millions. And who can forget the Bay of Pigs invasion?
Let us not forget about the CIA’s domestic activities. In Operation
CHAOS the CIA infiltrated the anti-war and civil rights movements. It
regularly opened domestic and foreign mail and conducted domestic
spying. The recent spy scandal involving Hayden has plenty of precedent
within the CIA history.
The CIA has not only violated the
fourth amendment, but also the first amendment guarantee of a free
press. In Operation Mockingbird the CIA recruited news organizations
and journalists to become spies and to disseminate propaganda. Some 25
U.S. news organizations and 400 journalists became CIA assets as a
result.
The above are just a tiny fraction of the CIA’s
criminal past but they show why General Hayden is the right man for the
job. He will not be bothered by any ‘looping paperwork’ such as the
constitution. Is it any wonder that the Bush regime selected him for
the top position as the CIA director? He will continue the grand
tradition of nearly 60 years of crimes committed by the CIA.
He will enthusiastically carry out the Bush regime’s war against the
world under the guise of the ‘war on terror.’ But if some of you that
read this are not convinced that this is in the interest of the world’s
people I would suggest that you visit worldcantwait.org to see what you
can do to drive the Bush regime from power.