Mr. Tristam: I've re and re-read The Trial with much enjoyment. Thanks for sparing me the agony of reading The Trial II, the IG report on CIA interrogations. Franz Kafka, where are you when we need you?

Mispost

Good summary but he missed the biggest failure of all: The fall of the Soviet Union. China predicted it in 1974.

But he's right, they should have gone away years ago. Don't count on Obama. He seems to like creating new bureaucracies to do the work of failed ones without getting rid of anything. (health care czar, new interrogation division etc)

No mention of the ongoing efforts in South and Central America by this fine agency? It isn't a parody of the motto, it turns it on its head.

It's not the CIA failures I worry about. It's their successes. Isn't the list long enough in the CIA's efforts to support U.S. economic interests alone, suppressing the peoples of the world merely fighting to feed their families? Where has that gotten us? There is legal precedent that our corporations are not allowed, by law, to care about the welfare of the citizens of the United States. So, if the CIA is working for the corporate interests of our country, they are not working solely for the U.S. citizens interest.
"The CIA remains. It's time to ask if it should?" Nonsense! The facts are in, Pierre Tristam. Whether the CIA should remain has already been asked, and answered. There are dozens of books out there answering just this question. Start with Chalmers Johnson's trilogy. Blowback, The Sorrows of Empire, and Nemesis. Then check out Amazon. This question has been answered. The only serious question remaining regarding the CIA, is how to get rid of this counter-democratic institution that has crafted so much of the world order with no participation by those who pay their salaries. No accountability to the people, whatsoever. No thinking human being appreciates spending their money that way, especially when it is used in the way it has, sullying our name with each dollar spent. This isn't a commentary on the employees of the CIA, though they have nurtured some real winners, haven't they? I am merely saying that a secret organization, such as the CIA, cannot exist in a free society. It just doesn't work. The question has been answered. But, to get to those answers we have to pick up a frigging book, instead of only relying on provocative articles and the MSM. This is not new information. Now, again, what do we do about it? Worse, the CIA won't tell us what high-tech toys they've bought to suppress any unrest. They have all the secret intelligence, all of the surveillance apparatus, more of our money than we have, most of the guns. And, if you don't think they have a whole bunch of very scary shit in store for us, you haven't been doing your homework.

Tristam's list of so-called failures by the CIA is of course correct (and one could even add to it), but the thing that has to be seen is that these are only failures if one assumes that the CIA is an intelligence gathering agency. The CIA's function, however, is not primarily one of intelligence collection. The CIA is the president's private army: its first order of business is to manipulate other countries' internal affairs, and that includes regime change (the military being called in when the CIA fails in its efforts). This is underscored by Chalmers Johnson in his book "The Sorrows of Empire":

"...I slowly realized that, at the CIA, the tail wagged the dog, that America's real business was covert activities, not intelligence collecting and analysis. During World War II, William J. Donovan founded the Office of Strategic Services, the CIA's predecessor. Only later did I learn that 'an internal CIA history of Donovan's imprint on the Agency says he saw intelligence analysis as a convenient cover for subversive operations abroad. This subterfuge proved useful down the years'." (p. 10)

genicon
For a list of assassinations and interventions by the CIA around the world, read William Blum's book, Killing Hope.
For a list of who's responsible for assassinations in America
use your imagination.

Sioux

Back in 1999 I did research for a book on the planet Pluto (that was later published by The American Federation of Astrologers). This cosmic ambassador is also known as Hades and "rules" the underworld. Pluto is associated with crime, massive forms of violence, nuclear power, and mysterious, covert forces.

In l947 Saturn, the planet representative of government and authority figures, met with Pluto (in the sign of Leo). This pair unites approximately once every 35 years. I found it fascinating (in terms of cosmic congruence) that Saturn and Pluto merged just when the CIA was founded. I also learned later on that literature and the arts were heavily funded by the CIA at that time. Harper's did a story that provided proof that those writers and film makers willing to publish anti-communist themes would receive either covert or overt grants for their contribution to "democracy building."

Traditional astrological textbooks define the merging of Saturn and Pluto as a phase amenable to the use of the dark arts, that is, black magic. Although much of the astro-logical lexicon evolved long ago, it's quite probable that this planetary configuration favors such items as "skull and bones" fraternity, added to similar Nazi brotherhoods as revealed in the book, "The Speark of Destiny." These dark brotherhoods play with forces we can only begin to imagine.

Saturn favors conservative judgment calls, while Pluto, as ruler of Scorpio, signifies the path of forgiveness/transcendence or retaliation/vengeance. It's easy to see which one the CIA has embodied into a force that has led to so much senseless loss of lives and lands across the globe.

A government uses torture for the primary purpose of keeping its own people fearful, anxiety driven and in submission to authority. Actually its the best tool of slavery ever designed by man.

But there is also a medical industry so corrupt as to deny healthcare to 50 million, to deficiently ration treatment to all but the rich, and to keep worried, apprehensive, insecure and in submission to authority all but the ruling class, which just happens to be rich.

Now even before I served in the Vietnam War our corporate owned media has been quite openly telling all about how our government is not a bit shy when it comes to torture. So do we have a peaceful government of the people, or a war loving government that keeps in fearful submission its people?

Of course, it is unnecessary and creates more problems than it solves. Here's a list of some other pointless agencies to consider abolishing: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_United_States_federal_agencies

The many millions of americans who were taught as children of the" beauty and integrity of the USA, its wonderful 'freedom loving' people. Its exemplary form of 'democratic processes' its 'legal system that shines as an example to the world'. The wonderful history of the USA" . So with all of these 'fairy tales' that so many americans have been 'spoon fed' since they were infants; is it any wonder that so many are surprised that so much misery has been inflicted in the name of the USA and to keep 'Americans' "safe".

The progressive thinkers of America (both of them) have a wonderful opportunity now to see that the 'absolute outlandish nonsense' they were and are still being taught about their country is revealed, and then eliminated from the future's 'school curriculum' and 'evening news'. That the US Government has proved itself ,at least under the control of the people it has been lately, to be exceptionally corrupt, deadly, untrustworthy, and dangerous is a direct result of the mental conditioning the 'participants' had received. Even though the president and vice president proved themselves to be such criminal cowards; they still did not perform the criminal acts themselves. They had 'volunteers', from Generals to Pvts, CIA Directors to 'field agents', snitches, liars, and other sundry cowards and low life examples of human beings.

If the USA survives, (and this is extremely doubtful) it would be imperative for the american people to demand the trials of everyone who participated, from top of the chain of command down to the lowest, miscreant who participated in it.
Without major changes initiated immediately, and along with these changes, public international trials for the offenders, the USA cannot possibly hope to survive the worlds inevitable reactions.The world will need to make retaliations as well as the measures they must take to assure their own survival. The USA has shown the world beyond any doubt, that they are a dangerous rogue nation that cannot be trusted; except to do the exact opposite of what they claim they are.

They were not called to answer for what they did to 'my' people (yet). They were not called to answer for all of the other atrocities they have committed, in so many other nations against so many other innocent people. But their arrogance and belligerence have now reached the levels that scares the world and the human beings that populate the rest of it. History will prove that what 'humanity fears most' it eliminates at all costs.

America the world fears and loathes you for good reason;
you have worked hard to earn that fear and loathing.

"If the USA were another nation, the USA would invade the USA to keep the world safe: and they would be justified"

Good Luck America, you really need it.

We know so much about what is being done --- we seem so helpless to change anything about it.

The CIA through its arm Air America was in the drug business in Southeast Asia when I was there in 1970. They were in the drug business in Central America in the 80's. I have no doubt they are in in today in Afghanistan and elsewhere.

I have no doubt that the agency was deeply involved in the planning and execution of the attacks at WTC.

I, too, find it a bit odd that Pierre Tristam's list of abysmal CIA misdeeds during the Cold War years through the dark sider era of Bush/Cheney makes no reference at all to two of the US intelligence communitiy's most glaring fiascos: the Bay of Pigs and the myriad of clandestine derring-do activities in southeast Asia that morphed eventually into the Vietnam War.

Congress could (and should) remedy the evils catalogued by Tristam, Chalmers Johnson, William Blum, and other notable historians who have studied the sordid history of the CIA, DIA, NSA, and our other alphabet soup of spook agencies now umbrellaed (more or less) within the Department of Homeland Security/National Security Council bureauratic structure.

The National Security Act of 1947 should be overhauled. Congress should specifically repeal the single slender, ambiguous sentence in that statute which authorizes the black ops boys to roam the globe. The act should expressly limit our spies strictly to intelligence gathering and analysis functions, plus engaging in genuine counterespionage (defensively countering the skullduggery of foreign agents).

All else serves only to invite blowback, provide cover for black budget crime on a global scale, and undermine the whole concept of democratic government operating under the rule of law.

Bill from Saginaw