Ecuador says CIA controls part of its intelligence

[cal04]

Source: Reuters

Ecuador's leftist president on Saturday accused the CIA of controlling many of his country's spy agencies and said it had shared Ecuadorean intelligence with U.S. ally Colombia during last month's regional crisis.

"Many of our intelligence agencies have been taken over by the CIA," Rafael Correa said during his weekly radio show. "Through the CIA, information found here was passed to Colombia to improve their position" in the dispute.

Ecuador broke off diplomatic ties with Bogota after Colombian forces attacked a rebel camp inside Ecuadorean territory, killing a top guerrilla leader and more than 20 other people.

The bombing raid raised the specter of war after Ecuador and Venezuela briefly sent troops to their borders with Colombia. Nerves quickly calmed during a regional meeting.

Read more: http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20080405/wl_nm/ecuador_cia_dc

[annabanana]

1. Is there anything keeping them from REPLACING

the compromised agents?

[PSPS]

2. Good old Reuters: "leftist president"

Ecuador's leftist president...

It's the most abused adjective in "news" articles from Reuters, AP, and the domestic corporate media. You'll hardly ever see them use an adjective when naming the numerous right wing thugs that bush counts among his closest allies.

[Joanne98]

3. Fire them!

[Zorro]

4. Political posturing by Correa

If the CIA controls Ecuador's intelligence agencies as he asserts, then presumably there's also a strong influence in the Ecuadorean military. So I doubt if he'd take actions against supposed CIA supporters within Ecuador's agencies, because that could possibly provoke a response against him by the military.

This may very well be a preemptive attempt to divert attention from the anticipated release of the results of the Interpol investigation of the FARC laptop documents. The CIA is always a good boogieman to flog for internal political consumption.

[heliarc]

5. The Church Commission proves that the CIA is hardly a boogieman.

Monsters are real, and Operation Condor was a real infiltration of foreign Governments. To suggest that claims of CIA meddling are farfetched is preposterous to say the least. I wonder what proof the Ecuadorian leader has... because I hope he has proof, but I don't think it's too hard to imagine that the CIA is largely infiltrating any number of Latin American intelligence agencies. It's been proved before. Sounds like you think it's never happened before.

[Judi Lynn]

6. Well, you can only wonder where he'd get an idea like that if you were blissfully unaware

of CIA involvement in Latin America from its very first days!

Here's an excellent look at how busy the CIA was in Ecuador in the early 1960's:

25. ECUADOR 1960 to 1963: A Textbook of Dirty Tricks


If the Guinness Book of World Records included a category for "cynicism", one could suggest the CIA's creation of "leftist" organizations which condemned poverty, disease, illiteracy, capitalism, and the United States in order to attract committed militants and their money away from legitimate leftist organizations.
The tiny nation of Ecuador in the early 1960s was, as it remains today, a classic of banana-republic underdevelopment; virtually at the bottom of the economic heap in South America; a society in which one percent of the population received an income comparable to United States upper-class standards, while two-thirds of the people had an average family income of about ten dollars per month -- people simply outside the money economy, with little social integration or participation in the national life; a tale told many times in Latin America.
In September 1960, a new government headed by José María Velasco Ibarra came to power. Velasco had won a decisive electoral victory, running on a vaguely liberal, populist, something-for- everyone platform. He was no Fidel Castro, he was not even a socialist, but he earned the wrath of the US State Department and the CIA by his unyielding opposition to the two stated priorities of American policy in Ecuador: breaking relations with Cuba, and clamping down hard on activists of the Communist Party and those to their left.
Over the next three years, in pursuit of those goals, the CIA left as little as possible to chance. A veritable textbook on covert subversion techniques unfolded. In its pages could be found the following, based upon the experiences of Philip Agee, a CIA officer who spent this period in Ecuador.{1}
Almost all political organizations of significance, from the far left to the far right, were infiltrated, often at the highest levels. Amongst other reasons, the left was infiltrated to channel young radicals away from support to Cuba and from anti-Americanism; the right, to instigate and co-ordinate activities along the lines of CIA priorities. If, at a point in time, there was no organization that appeared well-suited to serve a particular need, then one would be created.
Or a new group of "concerned citizens" would appear, fronted with noted personalities, which might place a series of notices in leading newspapers denouncing the penetration of the government by the extreme left and demanding a break with Cuba. Or one of the noted personalities would deliver a speech prepared by the CIA, and then a newspaper editor, or a well-known columnist, would praise it, both gentlemen being on the CIA payroll.
Some of these fronts had an actual existence; for others, even their existence was phoney. On one occasion, the CIA Officer who had created the non-existent "Ecuadorean Anti-Communist Front" was surprised to read in his morning paper that a real organization with that name had been founded. He changed the name of his organization to "Ecuadorean Anti-Communist Action".
Wooing the working class came in for special emphasis. An alphabet-soup of labor organizations, sometimes hardly more than names on stationery, were created, altered, combined, liquidated, and new ones created again, in an almost frenzied attempt to find the right combination to compete with existing left-oriented unions and take national leadership away from them. Union leaders were invited to attend various classes conducted by the CIA in Ecuador or in the United States, all expenses paid, in order to impart to them the dangers of communism to the union movement and to select potential agents.
This effort was not without its irony either. CIA agents would sometimes jealously vie with each other for the best positions in these CIA-created labor organizations; and at times Ecuadorean organizations would meet in "international conferences" with CIA labor fronts from other countries, with almost all of the participants blissfully unaware of who was who or what was what.
In Ecuador, as throughout most of Latin America, the Agency planted phoney anti-communist news items in co-operating newspapers. These items would then be picked up by other CIA stations in Latin America and disseminated through a CIA-owned news agency, a CIA- owned radio station, or through countless journalists being paid on a piece-work basis, in addition to the item being picked up unwittingly by other media, including those in the United States. Anti-communist propaganda and news distortion (often of the most far-fetched variety) written in CIA offices would also appear in Latin American newspapers as unsigned editorials of the papers themselves.
In virtually every department of the Ecuadorean government could be found men occupying positions, high and low, who collaborated with the CIA for money and/or their own particular motivation. At one point, the Agency could count amongst this number the men who were second and third in power in the country.
These government agents would receive the benefits of information obtained by the CIA through electronic eavesdropping or other means, enabling them to gain prestige and promotion, or consolidate their current position in the rough-and-tumble of Ecuadorean politics. A high-ranking minister of leftist tendencies, on the other hand, would be the target of a steady stream of negative propaganda from any or all sources in the CIA arsenal; staged demonstrations against him would further increase the pressure on the president to replace him.

More:
http://members.aol.com/bblum6/ecuador.htm

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
I'm sure you recall William Blum. He's very "into" research for his books. I tend to trust this article, and I'll be happy to look for more, if the subject comes up here again.

I imagined you might find this interesting....

[Judi Lynn]

7. More OLD news on the CIA in Ecuador, from ex-CIA agent, Phillip Agee

This is a very small paragraph, but one would be able to find much more complete info. in Agee's books:

Former CIA agent Philip Agee stated that the agency began efforts in 1961 to bring down the regime of President Jose Velasco lbarra of Ecuador after he refused to sever diplomatic relations with Cuba. Iberra was overthrown in November, 1961. His successor, Carlos Julio Arosemena, soon fell out of favor with the United States and once again the CIA used "destabilizing tactics" to overthrow his government in July 1963. Agee noted that while on assignment in Ecuador, he and five other CIA agents managed to gain economic and political control over Ecuador's labor movement. His CIA team, said Agee, ultimately "owned almost everybody who was anybody."

http://www.globalsecurity.org/intell/ops/ecuador.htm

[Zorro]

11. I fail to see

where I suggest claims of CIA meddling are "farfetched". What I suggest is that Correa may have an ulterior motive in bringing up the CIA as part of a greater conspiracy, and that motive is to divert attention from other impending reports.

This type of rhetoric is not uncommon, and is actually quite similar to Joseph McCarthy's jingoistic accusations of traitors within the State Department and Army.

[EFerrari]

15. It's similar except CIA does screw with governments in Latin America

and McCarthy was a liar. Other than that, it's similar.

The whole laptop issue was probably a CIA project, in the first place, just like all those al Qaeda laptops.

[Zorro]

26. My apologies

I was unaware that "all those al Qaeda laptops" were a CIA project.

I didn't know you were so well-connected to state that conclusion so authoritatively.

[EFerrari]

32. I'm sorry, Zorro. I've known too many Spaniards.

:)

[AlphaCentauri]

22. the paternalistic view of latin america suggest that the CIA is involved

just look at the CIA jobs fairs.

[Judi Lynn]

8. Does any of this sound familiar?

A Timeline of CIA Atrocities

By Steve Kangas

The following timeline describes just a few of the hundreds of atrocities and crimes committed by the CIA. (1)

CIA operations follow the same recurring script. First, American business interests abroad are threatened by a popular or democratically elected leader. The people support their leader because he intends to conduct land reform, strengthen unions, redistribute wealth, nationalize foreign-owned industry, and regulate business to protect workers, consumers and the environment. So, on behalf of American business, and often with their help, the CIA mobilizes the opposition. First it identifies right-wing groups within the country (usually the military), and offers them a deal: "We'll put you in power if you maintain a favorable business climate for us." The Agency then hires, trains and works with them to overthrow the existing government (usually a democracy). It uses every trick in the book: propaganda, stuffed ballot boxes, purchased elections, extortion, blackmail, sexual intrigue, false stories about opponents in the local media, infiltration and disruption of opposing political parties, kidnapping, beating, torture, intimidation, economic sabotage, death squads and even assassination. These efforts culminate in a military coup, which installs a right-wing dictator. The CIA trains the dictator’s security apparatus to crack down on the traditional enemies of big business, using interrogation, torture and murder. The victims are said to be "communists," but almost always they are just peasants, liberals, moderates, labor union leaders, political opponents and advocates of free speech and democracy. Widespread human rights abuses follow.

This scenario has been repeated so many times that the CIA actually teaches it in a special school, the notorious "School of the Americas." (It opened in Panama but later moved to Fort Benning, Georgia.) Critics have nicknamed it the "School of the Dictators" and "School of the Assassins." Here, the CIA trains Latin American military officers how to conduct coups, including the use of interrogation, torture and murder.

The Association for Responsible Dissent estimates that by 1987, 6 million people had died as a result of CIA covert operations. (2) Former State Department official William Blum correctly calls this an "American Holocaust."

The CIA justifies these actions as part of its war against communism. But most coups do not involve a communist threat. Unlucky nations are targeted for a wide variety of reasons: not only threats to American business interests abroad, but also liberal or even moderate social reforms, political instability, the unwillingness of a leader to carry out Washington’s dictates, and declarations of neutrality in the Cold War. Indeed, nothing has infuriated CIA Directors quite like a nation’s desire to stay out of the Cold War.

The ironic thing about all this intervention is that it frequently fails to achieve American objectives. Often the newly installed dictator grows comfortable with the security apparatus the CIA has built for him. He becomes an expert at running a police state. And because the dictator knows he cannot be overthrown, he becomes independent and defiant of Washington's will. The CIA then finds it cannot overthrow him, because the police and military are under the dictator's control, afraid to cooperate with American spies for fear of torture and execution. The only two options for the U.S at this point are impotence or war. Examples of this "boomerang effect" include the Shah of Iran, General Noriega and Saddam Hussein. The boomerang effect also explains why the CIA has proven highly successful at overthrowing democracies, but a wretched failure at overthrowing dictatorships.
(snip)

http://www.huppi.com/kangaroo/CIAtimeline.html

[muryan]

9. I think they fail to realize

that this is what active intelligence services attempt to do in other countries. If they have agents as part of another government (almost every agency does) then they are working for some agenda. CIA gets more press because they are better funded, and accomplish their aims more often as a result. But this mock surprise is a little weak

[EFerrari]

10. The thing is that since BushCo has been obsessed with the ME,

Latin America got a relative break from American interference. It looks like that break is over and that is more like the back story here -- not that CIA is present but that they are either back or have put in more assets than they've had for a while.

[InkAddict]

12. Yup, this one enjoys more than finding lost passports and extending American good(?)will

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x2762794

Contra-temps
Robert Callahan is an odd choice for US ambassador to Nicaragua - considering that he helped inflict on that country the bloodiest war in its history
Stephen Kinzer

January 24, 2008 7:30 PM

In Nicaragua, where I'm now visiting, many people have all but forgotten the civil war that tore their country apart in the 1980s. Sandinistas and former contras have long since reconciled. President Daniel Ortega, the symbol of Sandinista power, has a vice-president who was a contra.

The same has not happened in Washington. From senior political figures like vice president Cheney to policymaking bureaucrats like Eliot Abrams, former supporters of the contras hold important positions in the Bush administration. They are still fighting the contra war. At every opportunity, they try to make the point that they were on the right side.

That is now happening again. The US state department has informed Nicaragua that the new American ambassador here will be Robert Callahan, who was the press attaché at the US embassy in Honduras when that embassy was a nerve centre for the contra war.

[EFerrari]

14. Amy Goodman interviewed an NGO worker who had been instructed

to spy by the American Embassy. I can't remember if it was on Cubans in Venezuela or on Venezuelans somewhere else. That was about a month ago. They're back!

[Mika]

16. It was to spy on Cubans in Ven. n/t

[EFerrari]

17. Thanks, Mika. n/t

[ronnie624]

37. That was an informative article. Thanks for the link.

Stephen Kinzer is nothing if not credible, in my opinion. I highly recommend his book, Overthrow, which has lots of good info about US interventions in Latin America.

[ronnie624]

18. Yes, because the little brown people of Latin America,

being naive and childlike, need the big white Bwana to explain the ways of the world to them.

:sarcasm:

I think you can rest assured that no one in Ecuador with a pulse is surprised by CIA activities in their country, nor does the article indicate that anyone is surprised. It seems that the government is merely making a public statement of fact.

And no other government in the world wages all out covert war against the US political system. It isn't hard to imagine what the response would be.

[muryan]

24. you assume there aren't those who try nt

[Mudoria]

13. I bet the CIA wishes they were as competent as all the loonies

think they are.

[heliarc]

20. Loony?

You might take some time to read the reports of the Church Committee.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Church_Committee

The CIA makes a whole lot of mistakes, but they are pretty scary ones, and when they have a mission or two that really gives them leeway to act they destroy whole nations. Afghanistan is probably the most recent successful venture of the CIA (even if the Defense department dragged their feet that effort), and the result of that was the ousting of the Taliban which is no small feat.

Overthrowing Allende, propping up Noriega, Aid for the Anti Soviets in Afghanistan, the list of very very meddlesome deeds across the globe is long and has real human and political costs for democracy around the world. "Successes" of the CIA are numerous, and for millions of people around the world, they have lasting consequences.

[EFerrari]

21. All those mothers of La Plaza de Mayo must just be imagining

they lost their children. :sarcasm:

[Rage for Order]

19. Sounds like a good old-fashioned "purge" is coming n/t

[Judi Lynn]

23. Why should any Ecuadorean government personel work for the United States

rather than for his own country? Is that a question anyone should have to ask?

A "good old-fashioned "purge"" would most surely happen in any other country under the same circumstances.

[Rage for Order]

40. Well, that's assuming that what Correa said is accurate

While the US may have some double agents in Ecuador, to state that "Many of our (Ecuador's) intelligence agencies have been taken over by the CIA" seems a bit of a stretch. First, how many spy agencies does Ecuador have? Correa says "many" have been taken over, which means some were not, so how many are there? Two dozen? Three dozen? Entire agencies have been taken over, not just a mole or two here and there? Using broad, sweeping terms like "entire agencies taken over" leads me to believe that this will be more than a standard counter-intelligence operation a la Aldrich Ames or Robert Hanssen, where a spy agency tracks down one or two spies in its midst. This sounds more like the type of rhetoric that leads to mass accusations followed by summary judgments and executions en masse. Followed, of course, by appointing "trusted political allies" to the now vacant posts.

[Guy Whitey Corngood]

41. That's a pretty big assumption about a president you know nothing about. n/t

[New Dawn]

34. Spies that work for foreign governments are traitors you know.

Funny how that doesn't seem to "count" when it involves spying for Washington.

Yes, Correa needs to clean the house down there.

[bobthedrummer]

25. Let's not forget the domestic crimes and treason that led to the BFEE coup of 2000

"The Pike Committee"
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x2990965

[Pavulon]

27. Sounds like he wants his people in those spots..

great excuse. We buy leftists and rightwingers all over the world. So we would be paying different people, new clowns, same circus.

[Guy Whitey Corngood]

28. I know what a dumbass. He should want OUR people in there.

Just like we should have Cubans and Iranians running our intelligence services. I mean it only makes sense right?

[fascisthunter]

31. Good One!

I don't really understand how a person could suggest something bad for another, when they themselves would never want such a thing suggested for themselves by anyone else. You nailed it!

[EFerrari]

33. LOL.

:hi:

[ronnie624]

39. Sometimes they can't help but reveal their foolishness. n/t

[ohio2007]

29. What on that hard drive that Equadors president is so vocal about?(FARC exposed)

snip
Colombia's violation of Ecuadorian sovereignty triggered a serious diplomatic crisis with Ecuador and Venezuela, but as the dust begins to settle, details are emerging of the information held on a laptop computer and several hard drives seized from the camp. These are providing a rich insight into the problems besetting the FARC and the extent of its relations with the governments of Venezuela and Ecuador.

While Reyes' death ( FARCS untouchable 2nd in command )has dealt an important psychological blow to the FARC, the retrieval of computer equipment from the Ecuadorian jungle camp is far more important in terms of useful intelligence

snip

http://www.janes.com/news/security/jtsm/jtsm080404_1_n.shtml

imo, Equador prefers to deal with the devil they know more then the devil they don't really want to deal with on the other side of Columbia ;)

[fascisthunter]

30. America's Interests Are Better Suited for America Alone

and not an excuse to be used for imperialism or we will find our selves in the same situation Great Britain was in, only on the wrong side of history.

[condejodido]

35. President Correa's accusation of CIA control

The recently published Our Man in Mexico - Winston Scott and the Hidden History of the CIA documents how during the 1950s and 60s, the CIA directed and controlled most Latin American governments from our Embassy in Mexico City and that 3 Mexican Presidents during the period were on the CIA's payroll.

[Judi Lynn]

36. This sounds too worthwhile to pass up, condejodido. Thanks.

It's available online, too:



Welcome to D.U.! :hi: :hi: :hi: :hi:

[conspirator]

38. When will people learn that if you give the US government an hand, they rip off you arm n/t

[Judi Lynn]

42. Ecuador fights US infiltration

Ecuador fights US infiltration

Duroyan Fertl
19 April 2008

Ecuador’s President Rafael Correa shook up the establishment in early April after forcing the resignation of defence minister Wellington Sandoval, the military Chiefs of Staff, and the countries police chief amid accusations that the military and intelligence organisations were infiltrated by, and under the control of, the CIA.

Among those accused was the army intelligence chief, Colonel Mario Pazmino, who has been linked with White Legion, a far-right group that has issued death threats against journalists, human rights activists and social movement leaders.

The scandal broke out only 6 weeks after the Colombian military illegally bombed and raided Ecuadorian territory on March 1, attacking a camp of the left-wing guerrillas of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC).

In the aftermath of Colombia’s attack, news began to surface about US involvement in the attack, and the prior knowledge of some sectors of the Ecuadorian military.

http://www.greenleft.org.au/2008/747/38627