Timeline of CIA Atrocities
By Steve Kangas
INTRODUCTION
The following timeline describes just a few of the hundreds of atrocities and crimes committed by the CIA since 1943.1
The CIA is a favorite target for stories and accusations like this -because they are not allowed to tell their side of the story or correct any misinformation. BY LAW. No one who actually knows the full details of covert operations is ever going to step forward and announce this guy is exaggerating or even making up stuff.
Which means it is really easy for this author to decide to accuse the CIA of "atrocities" since 1943 -because most people don't even realize it wasn't created until late 1947. So the author felt quite free to accuse the CIA of "heinous" activities for 4 years before it even existed.
And that means for anyone with even a normal level of intelligence -it is this author who clearly has an AGENDA for which truth plays a highly questionable role who cannot be trusted. And his agenda is the usual one -the US and the agencies charged with protecting the nation's interests are the world's favorite bogey man. History has proven that the freer a nation and more transparent it is -the more likely it is to be accused by others of THE worst deeds. Not those with closed systems intent on hiding as much from the world as possible -and are therefore MUCH less trustworthy and actually far more likely to have done far worse than anything the free nation, where hiding all details are much more difficult -has been accused. We live in a country where leaking classified intelligence not only happens all too often -but usually results in no punishment because our laws require that it be done for the specific purpose of harming the nation and it usually is not done for that purpose. In most other countries in the world, leaking classifed intelligence will result in prison and often an execution that the rest of the world will never hear about because it happens behind closed doors.
Seriously, since all nations have covert agencies charged with protecting their country from those seeking to undermine and harm it, what nation do you think has a "kinder, gentler" covert agency charged with protecting that nation's best interests? And HOW WOULD YOU KNOW when that isn't public knowledge with FAR less information even available about what they are up to than what the CIA is doing? If the covert agencies of some other nation are not being accused of wrongdoing because it isn't even leaked a teeny bit and those who try end up being executed -, that equals "preferable" in your mind? The CIA is just a cheap and easy target and most people realize that.
The CIA is charged with protecting this nation's best interests against those intent on undermining and harming it. Who the hell am I going to trust to do that job better when it is lousy politicians who cannot be trusted in the dark and constantly play politics with our national security in the hopes it will further their career and will do so at the expense of our national security even -who are the same people trying to make it as difficult as possible for the CIA to do that job?
If a terrorist is believed to know the location and time a nuke was set to go off in some city -I guarantee you there isn't a country in the WORLD that would not resort to the use of ANY means to extract that information in order to save the lives of those innocent millions. Not one. The claim by some that the COMFORT of a terrorist is far more important than the lives of tens of thousands which waterboarding saved -is moral bankruptcy. THREE terrorists were waterboarded, only those known to have critically important information and none of them held out any longer than 10 minutes before agreeing to talk about what they knew about ongoing plots. It was NOT done for kicks or as a matter of routine treatment for captured terrorists by any means. And that information was proven to be TRUE -giving lie to the phony claim that "torture" doesn't result in reliable information. Torture can result in phony confessions but aside from the fact that inflicting intense discomfort is NOT torture as defined by the Geneva Conventions (torture is defined under the Conventions as doing something that puts the person at real risk of dying or being permanently maimed -not the infliction of pain and discomfort that carries no such risk) -a confession is NOT what was being asked of these three men. They were waterboarded to tell what they knew and that information panned out and it saved REAL LIVES -lots of them. TENS OF THOUSANDS of lives were saved because it is a fact that at least six (publicly acknowledged) attacks planned to follow 9/11 that were well underway and previously unknown were thwarted as the direct result of waterboarding THREE terrorists for a few minutes.
And interestingly, those trained in carrying out waterboarding all had to endure it themselves first -and more than once. Why is it considered torture when done to a knowledge-withholding murdering terrorist intent on slaughtering innocents - but is NOT considered to also be torture when done to an American and is REQUIRED to be done to that American as part of his training? Even a reporter decided to be waterboarded on TV to show the audience what was involved. While he said it was definitely unpleasant and overwhelmed the senses, at no time was his life in any danger.
I'm sure if the victims of any of those six attacks had been YOUR family and loved ones, you would be outraged that ANYONE or ANY nation -ever put a few minutes of temporary DISCOMFORT of a murdering terrorist with detailed knowledge of that attack - before the very lives of your family. Those who would do just that -are totally morally bankrupt even while they parade themselves around in a phony cloak of moral superiority. They are anything but.
