Fw: Re: [Peace-discuss] a reprehensible column re CIA protest on campus

[C. G. Estabrook]

The myth of CIA power is like the myth of the Israeli lobby in this way -- it
presents a malign group of conspirators who seduce the (naturally good) US
government away from the swift completion of its appointed rounds...

Ralph McGehee's comment is a necessary corrective for this bit of wishful
thinking. The other great exposer of CIA activities, the late Philip Agee, often
made the same point.

The notion is also dispelled by Tim Weiner's careful account of the real history
of the CIA, LEGACY OF ASHES (2007).  --CGE


Jenifer Cartwright wrote:
> AWARE Folks, See highlighted, below, for a pretty accurate description, I
> fear, of the CIA and its power even today. Is it naive to think that anything
> can be different under Obama?? The CIA has sooooooo much power, secret and 
> otherwise (and of course they're screaming about the release of the 4 
> memos).. Obama has to recognize and work w/ that unfortunate reality when it
> comes to the idea of consequences for past eight years of torture.
> Complicated... and scary. Thanks for sending this, Neil. --Jenifer
> 
> 
> 
> On Fri, Apr 17, 2009 at 8:31 PM, Neil Parthun <lennybrucefan at gmail.com 
> <http://us.mc449.mail.yahoo.com/mc/compose?to=lennybrucefan@gmail.com>> 
> wrote:
> 
> I wrote up a little diddy and sent it on in.
> 
> Remy Soni's column was reprehensible.
> 
> A look at history shows that direct action is the impetus for social change
> -- such as the Flint sit down strike and the labor movement of the 1930s, the
> civil rights protests that challenged legal segregation, the struggle against
> the Vietnam War and even the recent campaign of workers at Republic Windows
> and Doors to get their duly owed wages and benefits.
> 
> When one is dealing with an organization that has admitted to war crimes
> (waterboarding is a crime that we executed Japanese soldiers for committing
> during World War II -- among the many other crimes admitted in the recently
> released Office of Legal Counsel memos), sponsored assassinations,
> destabilized governments, created a counterintelligence program to spy 
> on/assassinate/destabilize dissident groups domestic and abroad, installed
> dictators like Augusto Pinochet, supported the assassination of nuns, Jesuit
> priests and Archbishop Oscar Romero via US trained/armed/funded death squads,
> massacring civilians in El Mazote among other places -- showing a film or 
> writing a column is woefully inappropriate to deal with the specter of
> torture and militarism on campus.
> 
> As CIA agent Ralph McGehee (served 1952-1977) said: "The CIA is not now nor
> has it ever been a central intelligence agency. It is the covert action arm
> of the President's foreign policy advisers. In that capacity it overthrows or
> supports foreign governments while reporting "intelligence" justifying those 
> activities. It shapes its intelligence, even in such critical areas as Soviet
> nuclear weapon capability, to support presidential policy. Disinformation is
> a large part of its covert action responsibility, and the American people are
> the primary target audience of its lies."
> 
> People who want to join will have their opportunities.  But a visual
> representation of what these people are signing up for is appropriate.  It is
> the CIA's chickens coming home to roost.
> 
> Solidarity, -N.
> 
> Neil Parthun Sports journalist, Public i  ||  http://publici.ucimc.org 
> <http://publici.ucimc.org/>
> 
> "There are many victories worse than a defeat." - George Eliot