24 June 2007

CIA declassified documents

For anyone who is naive enough to put their total trust in their own government, this should be an enlightening article. OK, naive isn't actually in the dictionary (try looking it up!), but I digress.

As a red blooded American, my youthful notions that the USA was not just another country, but the beacon of freedom and justice throughout a corrupt and cruel world. This idea has been fostered by generations in this country, as I'm sure it has in many if not most nations across the globe. In America, it is an easy morsel to digest. Our country broke away from a tyrranical empire, passed a radical piece of humanitarian legislation in the form of the Bill of Rights, fueled freedom and independence movements across the globe for 2 centuries, and appears on the surface to hold itself to a higher standard.

In the aftermath of the great struggle against fascism and for freedom in World War II, things appear to have begun to change however. The military-industrial complex started to take over, pull the strings behind the curtain, and the ideals this country was built on began to erode: freedom, justice, equality, self determination. This was the beginning of the Cold War, a multi-generational struggle against what was stated to be a new form of tyrrany. But this was really the beginning of a covert war of control over the american populace.

The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) began betraying the trust of the American people by engaging in acts that ranged from improper to outright treasonous. Of course, these activities were covered up in the interest of "national security", a bullshit formality that ensures they and other conservative fascists will get away with their immoral acts and one which has expanded exponentially today.

None the less, after a pledge in 1990 for greater openness from the agency, 17 years later, they are FINALLY releasing some documents about their activities from the 1950's to the 1970's. According to a story on Yahoo! News, the report includes the CIA engaging in "illegal activities, such as tapping reporters' phones, engaging in surveillance on students, opening mail, plotting assassinations and human experimentation." as well as kidnappings [and] warrantless searches." It continued, "Until now, only a few dozen pages from the file have been declassified, but with heavy redactions."

Surprise, surprise, surprise. Wake up. This is nothing new to us in the US who have our eyes open. In fact, the only surprise from this is simply the timing, that these documents are being declassified during the most extremist right-wing government we have ever had in the history of this nation.

The well paid government spinmeisters are already at work. CIA Director Michael Hayden on Thursday called the documents being released next week unflattering, but he added that "it is CIA's history."

"The documents provide a glimpse of a very different time and a very different agency," Hayden told a conference of historians.


Bullshit. Things have only intensified. Do you think the CIA (or FBI, NSA, ATF, etc.) would suddenly have a change of heart and cease their invasive ways? Again, look up NAIVE. The digital age only makes people more vulnerable to their domestic spying.