The CIA: Beyond Redemption and Should Be Terminated

[babylonsister]

http://www.smirkingchimp.com/thread/20376


The CIA: Beyond Redemption and Should Be Terminated
by Sherwood Ross | February 20, 2009


The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) has confirmed the worst fears of its creator President Harry Truman that it might degenerate into "an American Gestapo." It has been just that for so long it is beyond redemption. It represents 60 years of failure and fascism utterly at odds with the spirit of a democracy and needs to be closed, permanently.

Over the years "the Agency" as it is known, has given U.S. presidents so much wrong information on so many critical issues, broken so many laws, subverted so many elections, overthrown so many governments, funded so many dictators, and killed and tortured so many innocent human beings that the pages of its official history could be written in blood, not ink. People the world over regard it as infamous, and that evaluation, sadly for the reputation of America, is largely accurate. Besides, since President Obama has half a dozen other major intelligence agencies to rely on for guidance, why does he need the CIA? In one swoop he could lop an estimated 27,000 employees off the Federal payroll, save taxpayers umpteen billions, and wipe the CIA stain from the American flag.

If you think this is a "radical" idea, think again. What is "radical" is to empower a mob of covert operatives to roam the planet, wreaking havoc as they go with not a care for morality or, for that matter, the tenets of mercy implicit in any of the great faiths. The idea of not prosecuting CIA interrogators (i.e., torturers), as President Obama has hinted, is chilling. These crimes have to be stopped somewhere, sometime, or they will occur again.

snip//

According to an Associated Press report, when confirmed by the Senate as the new CIA director, Leon Panetta said the Obama administration would not prosecute CIA officers that "participated in harsh interrogations even if they constituted torture as long as they did not go beyond their instructions." This will allow interrogators to evade prosecution for following the clearly criminal orders they would have been justified to disobey.

"Panetta also said that the Obama administration would continue to transfer foreign detainees to other countries for questioning but only if U.S. officials are confident that the prisoners will not be tortured," the AP story continued. If past is prologue, how confident can Panetta be the CIA's fellow goons in Egypt and Morocco will stop torturing prisoners? Why did the CIA kidnap men off the streets of Milan and New York and fly them to those countries in the first place if not for torture? They certainly weren't treating them to a Mediterranean vacation. By its long and nearly perfect record of reckless disregard for international law, the CIA has deprived itself of the right to exist.

It will be worse than unfortunate if President Obama continues the inhumane (and illegal) CIA renditions that President Bill Clinton began and President Bush vastly expanded. If the White House thinks its operatives can roam the world and arrest and torture any person it chooses without a court order, without due process, and without answering for their crimes, this signifies Americans believe themselves to be a Master Race better than others and above international law. That's not much different from the philosophy that motivated Adolph Hitler's Third Reich. It would be the supreme irony if the American electorate that repudiated racism last November has voted into its highest office a constitutional lawyer who reaffirms his predecessor's illegal views on this activity. Renditions must be stopped. The CIA must be abolished.

[EPIC1934]

1. One reason is We almost never hear the truth about the CIA

Could not agree more that the CIA needs to go. Unfortunately many are mislead by faux muckraking books like the worst book I have ever read in my life Legacy of Ashes By Tim Weiner. This basically CIA written book pretends to be a muckraker tell-all but it is pure psy-war . It tries to smooth over the McGenocides with predictable Keystone Cops "these fools couldn't tie their own shoes" type of line. Unfortunately this book was a best seller and for many it will be the only book on the Agency they ever read. That is why it got such massive exposure in the Corporate Media.

PLEASE BEWARE OF LEGACY OF ASHES. Believe me I never single out a book for harsh attack like this. Were it not for its massive media exposure -- at the direct expense of REAL books-- I would not need to.

[tomp]

2. the cia has never done anything...

...that was not in the service of u.s. imperialism. it's existence has never been justified.

[TBF]

3. Agreed, K&R n/t

[defendandprotect]

4. Who would argue with that....???

But who even knows how many other secret intelligence agencies there are --

every branch of the service has one -- and who has any idea of the overall costs

in dollars -- leave alone in harm to democracy and free nations all over the world!!