Tilting at Windmills

[Ralph McGehee]

[hch]

How are you helping Colombia; or are you just talking?

hch

 

Ralph McGehee <rmcg...@igc.org> wrote in message news:37FDE981...@igc.org...

>

---

>                      Tilting At Windmills
>
>      With the current need by our government to fight International
> Terrorism, Weapons of Mass Destruction, Drugs, and other threats --
> outlined in various official pronouncements and in the upcoming speech
> by DCI Tenet "21 Century Intelligence Challenges," -- we should applaud
> all efforts to successfully meet those threats.
>  
>    Unfortunately the CIA is led by a Cold Warrior unable to see how
> to correct [his intelligence failures] the problems and who instead
> holds on to the past. "Who did we recruit and what difference will it
> make?" is how he opens each morning's staff meeting -- when the emphasis
> on recruitment's and the inevitable lying it generates, has dumbed down
> the Agency in the past and now will continue to do so into the 21 Century.
>
>    Numerous commentary, including some by CIA personnel and scholars,
> decry this phenomenon, yet the dumbed down Directorate of Operations (DO),
> and other elements carry the day. The CIA will never meet the challenges
> of the 21st Century until it accepts these realities and moves to alter
> its future. I have little faith that Tenet, or anyone else now in the CIA's
> leadership, understand the problems or can or will devise solutions. Tenet
> seems to be the lapdog of Congressional Neanderthals and writes intelligence
> to satisfy that learned constancy.
>
> Ralph McGehee   http://come.to/CIABASE
>
>           From CIABASE Web Site Front Page (Edited for Length)
>
>      CIA is not now nor has 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." - Ralph McGehee
>
>      "CIABASE remains a one-of-a-kind, extraordinary resource for
>      serious scholars, journalists, and researchers, regardless of
>      their political leanings and research interests."
>                    - John Macartney, American University
>
>      "Essentially the CIA stopped all accurate info on Vietnam
>      while conducting a propaganda campaign to keep us in this
>      war that was unwinnable. If we are to avoid further "Vietnams" we
>      need a good, reliable, trustworthy intelligence service."
>
>                           Neanderthal Intelligence
>
>      Mary McGrory in a Washington Post (10/7/99 A3) article noted the
>      buddy-binding over the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty between the
>      Know-Nothings of the Senate and the Know-Nothings of the CIA.
>
>      She notes that Majority Leader Trent Lott supposedly saw the
>      wisdom of ramming the bill [an anti-Comprehensive Test Ban
>      Treaty] through the Senate after he heard from the Cold War
>      mascot agency, the CIA, that certain low-yield atomic tests could
>      not be definitively monitored.
>
>      The CIA is revered by the Know-Nothings of the Senate. The agency
>      may have missed the demise of the Soviet Union and gotten the
>      address of the Chinese embassy in Belgrade wrong, but it thrills
>      the reactionaries to be led up to the Senate attic and told
>      secrets--like the one that low-yield explosions are hard to
>      judge--that give them cover to vote against things they were
>      going to vote against anyway.
>
>                  A Historical Whitewash (To a Large Degree)
>
>      Researchers and relatives of victims of human rights abuses in
>      Chile charged CIA is withholding information about its covert
>      operations in that country, contrary to a White House directive.
>
>      The National Archives is expected to make public hundreds of
>      documents from the State Department, Pentagon and CIA relating to
>      the military rule of Chilean Gen. Augusto Pinochet. But not any
>      information about the CIA's involvement in a 1973 coup against
>      Chilean President Salvador Allende or its support for Pinochet.
>
>      Peter Kornbluh, a researcher at the National Security Archive,
>      said CIA seems to have adopted a narrow interpretation of the
>      administration's declassification directive. "Not a single word
>      about CIA operations in support of the Pinochet regime" has been
>      released -- "This is a whitewash of history, pure and simple."
>
>      Moreover, the CIA succeeded in pulling back hundreds of documents
>      on Chile discovered in the files of the Nixon White House. "These
>      are the documents which detail the history of U.S. covert
>      operations to foment chaos and violence inn Chile. And there's
>      only one reason to withhold them--to continue to cover up this
>      history." - Washington Post 10/7/99 A28.
>
>      The "To a Large Degree," relates to a study produced by the
>      Select Committee to Study Governmental Operations with Respect to
>      Intelligence Activities, United States Senate dated 1975 --
>      entitled "Covert Action In Chile 1963-1973." This report includes
>      some information on CIA operations to overthrow Allende. In 1976
>      I acquired a copy of the report that now may have disappeared
>      from the Committee's holdings.
>
>                           History Teaches Us?
>
>      Beginning shortly after World War Two, the United States
>      supported an imported regime in Vietnam that ultimately led to
>      the trauma of the Vietnam War. As a consequences of this war, the
>      narcotics traffic in Vietnam and surrounding countries -- the
>      Golden Triangle -- grew enormously -- accounting for majority of
>      percentages of heroin and opium entering the United States. The
>      war itself grew to such bitter proportions that it threatened the
>      existence of our own form of government.
>
>      Beginning in the early eighties we began supporting the
>      Afghanistan Mujehedin, to fight what was estimated to be a
>      massive Soviet push -- (our bad intelligence did not recognize
>      the soon death of the USSR). Along with this CIA-supported
>      Mujehedin, we created generations of new terrorists. Sadly our
>      do-goodism created the Golden Crescent -- a new melange of
>      countries exporting the majority percentages of heroin and opium
>      entering the United States.
>
>      Now we are told that we must fight the new drug threat by
>      supporting a narco-terrorist counterinsurgency in Colombia. From
>      that traffic, they tell us, 70 to 80 percent of the narcotics
>      entering the U.S., emanates. Can this new war generate massive
>      new percentages of drugs -- 170% to 180% -- flooding our shores?
>
>      I fear that the new war on drugs will create agonies for the
>      United States. What will be the impact of this narco-war on the
>      streets of Los Angeles? I predict that this new war on drugs will
>      enflame the entire region. Would it not be wise now, before the
>      new war gets out of hand, to reconsider our policies. What does
>      history teach us?
>
>                        Colombia & DCI Tenet
>
>      In Colombia, one major consideration is how an increase in
>      United States military involvement in Colombia reflects the
>      Vietnam War. The population numbers of the two countries are
>      similar, and the existence of revolutionary movements somewhat
>      similar. How heavily have these movements organized that
>      population? In Vietnam the Communists organized millions of South
>      Vietnamese who committed themselves totally to their victory --
>      while our intelligence blinded itself and counted only a
>      fraction. Are we doing this again in Colombia?
>
>      Another major issue is the Colombian military which is corrupt,
>      supports drug traffickers and sponsors death squads. Can such an
>      organization demand the loyalty of the people and the unquestioning
>      support of the United States? Does this not mirror Vietnam realities?
>
>      Lastly, David Ignatius in a Op-ed piece asks the question how
>      George Tenet is doing as DCI. He in writing the article
>      apparently had the assistance of the CIA's staff. Yet in his
>      piece there is no mention at all of analysis, analysts, etc.
>      Tenet focuses entirely on operations and recruitment's -- the road
>      to all the disasters of the past. Tenet opens each morning's staff
>      meeting with the question -- who did we recruit and what difference
>      will it make?
>
>      To me the lack of analysis -- 1% -- one percent -- of the
>      intelligence budget is allocated for all-source intelligence.
>      This figure reflects his approach and foresees many more and
>      possibly more disastrous intelligence failures under his reign.
>
>                       "Spinning The American Public."
>
>      A former senior Clinton Administration official charged that the
>      new multi-agency plan to control the dissemination of information
>      abroad is aimed at "spinning the American public."
>
>      Presidential Decision Directive 68, ordered the creation of the
>      International Public Information (IPI) system -- and said
>      "information aimed at the U.S. audience should be coordinated
>      integrated, deconflicted and synchronized with the IPI to achieve
>      a synergistic effect." PDD 68 does not distinguish between what
>      would be done overseas and what would be done at home... it talks
>      about a news war...The target is the American people." Washington
>      Times 7/29/99 A1.
>
>      PDD 68 orders top officials from the Defense, State, Justice,
>      Commerce, and Treasury and the CIA and FBI to meet and set up a
>      core group. Coordinating this massive agglomeration will
>      inevitable produce fact-blindness especially when you include the
>      misinformation operations of the CIA. If there is any plan to
>      distinguish fact from fiction, IPI should know about CIA
>      deception operations -- but CIA will never reveal those details
>      to anyone.
>
>      One major role for the CIA is the creation of false evidence to
>      support its operations -- it refuses to share those details with
>      other agencies. Internally it even restricts details of such
>      operations using strict need-to-know and compartmentation
>      policies. So when it conducts many and massive deception
>      operations those deceits inevitably will end up in the domestic
>      media and will shape our foreign policies. With the creation of
>      the IPI these stories will be disseminated world-wide and
>      especially domestically.
>
>      What are some types of CIA False Evidence operations? The CIA
>      forges documents and places them where they will be discovered
>      and disseminated widely. (It effectively demonizes targets even
>      the most honorable while glorifying sponsored "demons"). It sets
>      off bombs, blaming them on targets. It plants "Communist" or now
>      probably "terrorist" weapons shipments and arranges for them to
>      be found as it broadcasts details of such widely.
>
>      It buys foreign media and employees and book publishers,
>      establishes policy-making think tanks and their publications, it
>      employs foreign radio and television stations -- all used to
>      disseminate its deceits.
>
>      As one example -- It kept the media riveted for months as it told
>      of Cuban troops in Angola raping Ovimbundu girls. The villagers
>      were outraged, captured the Cubans, and over a period of months
>      held a trial, proclaimed them guilty and then executed the Cubans
>      with their own weapons -- the only thing wrong with the story was
>      that it was all made up.
>
>      Doctored photographs, false atrocity stories, falsely attributed
>      scholarly books written criticizing or blaming this or that
>      movement or target (over 1000 titles published in one period)
>      make up more of its arsenal of lies. Its operations in academia
>      sponsor or subvert thousands of domestic academicians and untold
>      numbers of foreign academics. It also sponsors numerous
>      politicians and their groups and media operations. (One sample of
>      the massive nature of the deceptions it employs can be found
>      here, those it used in Chile and they led to the empowerment of
>      Pinochet.)
>
>      I have had a number of experiences with the disinformation/
>      deception operations. Perhaps the most pervasive and destructive
>      were CIA lies re Vietnam from 1950 through 1998. But I found that
>      it also lied most effectively in its intelligence and -- in the
>      facts that it suppressed.
>
>      So this is what the American people can expect under the new IPI.
>      To appreciate its terrible power I recommend reading George
>      Orwell's classic "1984."
>
>      Details of a group similar to IPI in the Reagan Administration
>      that was declared illegal.
>
>                     DCI Tenet Claims Responsibility
>
>      DCI Tenet told Congress yesterday that he takes "ultimate
>      responsibility" for the accidental bombing of the Chinese Embassy
>      in Belgrade and promised to change the Agency's procedures to
>      ensure that such a mistake cannot happen again. Tenet attributed
>      the error to poor targeting procedures, inadequate review and
>      faulty databases. "It was a major error," Tenet told the House
>      Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence. "I cannot minimize
>      the significance of this." The Yugoslav Directorate of Supply and
>      Procurement was the first target "unilaterally proposed and
>      wholly assembled" by CIA. Tenet also gave new details about a
>      mid-level intelligence analyst who challenged the targeting data
>      before the airstrike. Washington Post 7/23/99 A16.
>
>      A recent Admiral Jeremiah report followed up and concluded the
>      CIA needed to be scrubbed from the top to bottom. A departing
>      (conservative) case officer recorded the devastating
>      intellectual inability's of the leadership of the CIA's
>      Directorate of Operations.
>
>      A number of high-level analysts left the CIA and wrote of its
>      terrible intelligence. For example see: Lost Promise: How CIA
>      Analysis Misserves the Nation by John A. Gentry. A former top Soviet
>      affairs analyst, Melvin Goodwin, decries the CIA's analytical inability's.
>
>      Yet from his first days, Tenet ignored the CIA's analytical needs
>      and pushed ahead with his own non-intellectual tack. He called
>      for increased operations and dismayingly overtly discussed his
>      plans for increased covert actions against China.
>
>      Contributing to the CIA's intelligence failures are the inability's
>      of its Directorate of Operations. We have official testimony re
>      Cuba's DGI running the Agency's entire stable of Cuban double
>      agents, East Germany's STASI than ran hundreds if not thousands
>      of CIA double agents; and, the KGB's known double agents loyal to
>      the USSR who duped the CIA into reporting falsely on the Soviet
>      Union's "super" weapons of mass destruction. Echoing these
>      unbelievable (in the full meaning of that term) failures, is the
>      CIA's dissemination of "intelligence" from a known Chinese double
>      agent that documented the Cox report's conclusions and the
>      negative impact of those on our national security.
>
>      At this web site I include a number of recommendations on how to
>      improve the CIA's performance -- using many examples taken from
>      my own experience.
>
>                               Know-Nothing's
>
>      It is obvious that the CIA is in the midst of a major officer
>      recruiting campaign that will determine the future of that
>      institution for the next few decades.
>
>      In a number of articles I have quoted from case officers, to a
>      director, to an Inspector General, all on the general state of
>      disaster in the CIA -- its morale, procedures, operations and the
>      deficiencies of its personnel -- most at the top of the
>      Directorate of Operations (DO).
>
>      These did not happen out of the mists -- the CIA in the past (and
>      probably also now) has used psychological testing criteria to
>      recruit the naive, the innocent, the team-player and the not too
>      academically outstanding, to man its outposts. (In my case I and
>      a large number of recruits came directly out of the manpower pool
>      of rejected NFL hopefuls). It does not want the person who can
>      see the implications of its actions. It wants the "know-nothing"
>      who believes, or as the chant says, "I don't know and I don't
>      care." It wants the "operator" not the intellect.
>
>      Since leaving the CIA I have written a book, and began compiling
>      a data base on relevant information about the CIA. As I processed
>      information into the data base I was stunned to see the universal
>      failure of its intelligence over the past fifty plus years.
>
>      In short I discovered that the CIA used its intelligence as a
>      means of bolstering its operations, while avoiding any data that
>      challenged such goals.
>
>      The CIA universally supported and supports militarized regimes
>      around the world, and in so doing implicates itself in the work
>      of death squads, drug smugglers, terrorists and other less than
>      desirable elements. In so doing, it has destroyed many future
>      "George Washington's."
>
>      But now the situation is somewhat different. We are faced with
>      international terrorism, there is a real need for real
>      information, but you have against that need, the know-nothings of
>      the DO and the know-nothings of other segments of the CIA.
>
>      Do we want an operational or an intelligence agency?
>
>      I should note the personal harassment that increases with my
>      efforts to inform -- this in spite of the fact that CIA has
>      written me numerous letters I may use any information in the
>      public domain. -  Letter from CIA's Publications Review Board
>
>                              Table of Contents
>
>  Introduction                         Intelligence & Operational Analysis
>  Covert action in Chile 1963-73       A model operation
>  CIA's Paramilitary Operations        Apocalypse now revisited
>  CIA trained assassins                The ends justify the means?
>  How to counter terrorism             An Updated Suggestion
>  CIA Support For Terrorism            Support for Guatemalan Ops
>  Disembling, Deception & Lies         Domestic propaganda operations
>  The CIA's Illegal Domestic Ops       Subverting Academia & the Media
>  Intelligence Failure in Vietnam      CIA disinformation kept us in the war
>  The Vietnam War                      More about the war
>  CIA personnel requirements           A bizarre recruiting poster
>  "Deadly Deceits"                     Excerpts from Ralph's book
>  Past, Present & Future               Economic intelligence & espionage
>  Past, Present & Future Part II       "We divide the world in two..."
>  Congress against the CIA             "Limited analytical capabilities"
>  The Bay of Pigs Fiasco               "Ignorant, Arrogant and Incompetent"
>  Indian nuclear test                  The CIA was caught unawares
>  Chase Manhattan memo on Chiapas      Eliminate the Zapitistas!
>  The CIA & the Price of Dissent       Ralph's struggle with the CIA
>  The CIA is in "Deep rot"             "Needs to be scrubbed" from the top down
>  CIA sex discrimination               CIA use & abuse of women
>  Paramilitary Operation in China      Next stop - Beijing
>