No, It's NOT Fucking Complicated!
CIA Stands for Cold-blooded Imperialist Assassins!
January 24, 2013 | Revolution Newspaper | revcom.us
Some people coming out of Zero Dark Thirty respond to protesters by saying, "It's complicated."
Say wha-a-a-a-t??!? It's about as complicated as Hitler.
1953: The CIA overthrew the elected government of Mohammad Mossadegh in Iran when he attempted to nationalize a British-owned oil company. The CIA installed Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlevi as an absolute monarch, and established the U.S. as the dominant power over Iran. For the next 25 years, the Shah ruled Iran with a bloody iron fist. His hated secret police, the Savak, imprisoned, tortured and murdered huge numbers of Iranians who dared to oppose his regime. "U.S. Relationship with Iran: A History of Imperialist Domination, Intrigue, and War" (Revolution #88, May 13, 2007).
1954: A nationalist government headed by Jacobo Arbenz in Guatemala attempted to take over unused land held by United Fruit and distribute that land to peasants. The CIA immediately engineered a coup to overthrow Arbenz and replaced him with Colonel Carlos Castillo Armas, who was trained at the U.S. Command and General Staff School in Fort Leavenworth. The coup began a wave of reactionary violence—thousands of people were arrested, many tortured. The tracts of land were given back to United Fruit and other big landowners. "Guatemala: Bones Tell Story of U.S.-Backed Massacres," (Revolutionary Worker #912, June 22, 1997, online at revcom.us).
1960: The CIA orchestrated the assassination of Patrice Lumumba, a popular nationalist leader and critic of colonialism in the Congo. After Lumumba became the Congo's first prime minister, CIA Director Allen Dulles ordered that Lumumba's "removal must be an urgent and prime objective." The CIA worked to destabilize the country and recruit pro-U.S. forces within the army and government, including Joseph Mobutu. After Lumumba's assassination, the U.S. installed Mobutu who ruled as brutal and corrupt enforcer for imperialist interests. "We Are Being Lied To About the REAL Cause of Africa's Oppression and Suffering," (Revolution #172, August 9, 2009).
1961: The CIA organized the Bay of Pigs invasion of Cuba in an attempt to overthrow the government of Fidel Castro—the invasion was defeated. The CIA tried several times to assassinate Castro. "U.S. Imperialism, the Cuban Revolution, and Fidel Castro," by Raymond Lotta (Revolution #56, August 13, 2006).
1965-1966: The CIA provided names and addresses of communists to the Indonesian government to aid the massacre of hundreds of thousands of communists and other activists. Time magazine wrote: "Travelers from those areas tell of small rivers and streams that have been literally clogged with bodies." On December 2, 1965 U.S. Ambassador Green wrote a memo to Assistant Secretary of State Bundy about providing 50 million rupiahs to a leader of the death squads and to assure the State Department that "The chances of detection or subsequent revelation of our support in this instance are as minimal as any black bag operation can be." "Indonesia: U.S. Role in 1965 Massacres: Confessions from the U.S. State Department," (Revolutionary Worker #1116, August 26, 2001, revcom.us).
1965-1975: The U.S. invasion and war against the people of Vietnam; the war resulted in the deaths of two million Vietnamese civilians. In mid-1968 the CIA launched its notorious Phoenix program—intended to crush the people's movement by executing the organized "infrastructure" of revolutionary leaders and activists. It was a countrywide death squad campaign. The Vietnamese estimated that these CIA teams killed 40,000 people. "Vietnam Legacy: Heroes and Criminals," (Revolutionary Worker #1047, March 19, 2000).
1973: The CIA coordinated the overthrow of the elected government of Salvador Allende in Chile by the fascist general Pinochet. Mainstream sources document the death of some 3,000 people at the hands of Pinochet, and Chilean revolutionaries have said that 30,000 people were killed. Many more were tortured or forced into exile during Pinochet's 17-year rule. Yet another example of the handiwork of the "dedicated men and women" of the CIA. "From Iran to Indonesia, Chile, Afghanistan and Worldwide: CIA's Decades of Criminal 'Service,'" (Revolution #191, February 7, 2010)
1979: After the Sandinista-led uprising that overthrew Anastasio Somoza, a brutal U.S.-backed dictator, the U.S. funded and trained death squads—known as "Contras"—who left a trail of murder, rape, and pillage across the country. The Contras targeted civilians, killing 30,000 people—Sandinista officials as well as many peasants, indigenous people, workers, students, and others. "The Election in Nicaragua, and the Real Nature of U.S. Democracy," (Revolution #70, November 26, 2006).
1980s: The CIA armed and funded terrorist activity by the Nicaraguan Contras with profits from drug smuggling that flooded the inner cities of the U.S. with crack cocaine. Journalist Gary Webb exposed how forces working with the Contras set up a cocaine ring that targeted the Black communities of South Central Los Angeles and Compton. They supplied tons of cocaine to the Crips and the Bloods, which ended up as crack in the ghetto streets. On top of horrors of the crack epidemic, the powers-that-be then used crack as an excuse for the "war on drugs" which greatly escalated the mass incarceration of young Black and Latino men. "The CIA/Crack Connection: RW Interview with Gary Webb," (Revolutionary Worker #912, June 22, 1997, available at revcom.us).
1980-1988: The CIA provided weapons and intelligence to both sides in the Iran-Iraq war. Hundreds of thousands of soldiers and 100,000 civilians died. The New York Times (8/18/02) reported that U.S. officials "provided Iraq with critical battle planning assistance at a time when American intelligence agencies knew that Iraqi commanders would employ chemical weapons in waging the decisive battles of the Iran-Iraq war." Also according to the Times, (2/5/2005) a former National Security Council staffer stated that "CIA Director [William] Casey was adamant that cluster bombs were a perfect 'force multiplier,'" for Iraq, and "'the CIA authorized, approved and assisted' Cardoen" [the supplier] in the manufacture and sale of cluster bombs and other munitions to Iraq. "U.S. Hypocrisy on Chemical Weapons: How the U.S. Backed Saddam Hussein when the Iraqi Military Used Poison Gas," by Larry Everest (Revolutionary Worker, September 1, 2002, posted at revcom.us).
1980s: The U.S. government recruited armed groups in southern Africa—to attack the movements who had come to power in Angola and Mozambique, and to help preserve the racist apartheid government in South Africa. The CIA's backing of Jonas Savimbi's UNITA movement plunged Angola into over 25 years of civil war that ruined the country and made large parts of the population refugees.
During the U..S invasion of Afghanistan, there is evidence that more than 100 died at the direct hand of CIA torturers. One was Gul Rahman, who froze to death in the "Salt Pit," a secret CIA prison in Afghanistan, after being stripped, beaten, and shackled to a cement wall in freezing temperatures. According to U.S. General Barry McCaffrey: "We tortured people unmercifully. We probably murdered dozens of them during the course of that, both the armed forces and the CIA." "Complete Exoneration of CIA Torturers: This Is the Imperialist System... This Is What They Want You to Vote For," (Revolution #280, September 16, 2012).
2004, Khaled el-Masri, a German car salesman, was seized while crossing from Serbia into Macedonia by bus. A CIA rendition team stripped him naked, drugged him, shackled him, and flew him to Kabul, Afghanistan, where he spent four months in a dark cell being "interrogated." Five months later he was dumped by the CIA in Albania, and told his abduction, detention and abuse was a case of mistaken identity. "From Iran to Indonesia, Chile, Afghanistan and Worldwide: CIA's Decades of Criminal 'Service'" (Revolution #191, February 7, 2010),
Today/ongoing: More than 2,500 people have been murdered in drone attacks over the past decade. On February 4, 2012, the Bureau of Investigative Journalism reported that "CIA tactics in Pakistan include targeting rescuers and funerals." "Murder by Drone" by Larry Everest (Revolution #288, December 16, 2012).
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