中央情报局如何破坏世界稳定
作者：JEFFREY D. SACHS，2024 年 2 月 12 日 共同的梦想
https://www.commondreams.org/opinion/cia-destablizes-the-world
要是中情局的流氓行动能够因为教会委员会揭露的罪行而成为历史，或者至少让中情局接受法治和公众问责就好了, 但事实并非如此。
中央情报局存在三个基本问题：目标、方法和不负责任。 其行动目标是中央情报局或美国总统在特定时间定义的符合美国利益的任何目标，无论国际法或美国法律如何。 其手段是秘密且两面性的。 它的不负责任意味着中央情报局和总统在没有任何公众监督的情况下制定外交政策。 国会是一个受气包，一个余兴节目。
正如新任中央情报局局长迈克·蓬佩奥在谈到他在中央情报局的时光时所说：“我是中央情报局局长。我们撒谎、我们欺骗、我们偷窃。我们接受了完整的培训课程。这让你想起了美国实验的荣耀。” ”
中央情报局 (CIA) 成立于 1947 年，前身是战略情报局 (OSS)。 战略情报局在第二次世界大战中扮演了两个不同的角色：情报和颠覆。 中央情报局接管了这两个角色。 一方面，中央情报局向美国政府提供情报。 另一方面，中央情报局要颠覆“敌人”，即总统或中央情报局定义为敌人的任何人，使用各种措施：暗杀、政变、策划骚乱、武装叛乱分子和其他手段。
事实证明，后一种角色对全球稳定和美国法治具有毁灭性影响。 这是中央情报局今天继续追求的角色。 实际上，中央情报局是美国的一支秘密军队，有能力在世界各地制造混乱而不承担任何责任。
当德怀特·艾森豪威尔总统认定非洲冉冉升起的政治新星、民主选举产生的扎伊尔（现刚果民主共和国）的帕特里斯·卢蒙巴为“敌人”时，中央情报局在 1961 年密谋暗杀了他，从而破坏了非洲的民主希望。 他不可能是最后一位被中央情报局打倒的非洲总统。
中央情报局行动失误造成的持续混乱程度令人震惊。
在其 77 年的历史中，中央情报局只在 1975 年接受过一次严肃的公众问责。那一年，爱达荷州参议员弗兰克·丘奇 (Frank Church) 领导了一项参议院调查，揭露了中央情报局令人震惊的暗杀、政变、破坏稳定、监视和破坏行为。 门格勒式的酷刑和医学“实验”。
调查记者詹姆斯·里森（James Risen）最近在一本精彩的书中记录了教会委员会对中央情报局令人震惊的渎职行为的揭露，《最后一个诚实的人：中央情报局、联邦调查局、黑手党和肯尼迪家族——以及一位参议员的拯救之战》 民主。
这一单一事件的监督是由于罕见的事件同时发生而发生的。
在教会委员会成立的前一年，水门事件丑闻推翻了理查德·尼克松并削弱了白宫。 作为尼克松的继任者，杰拉尔德·福特未当选，曾任国会议员，不愿反对国会的监督特权。 由参议院欧文委员会调查的水门事件也赋予了参议院权力，并证明了参议院监督行政部门滥用权力的价值。 至关重要的是，中央情报局由局长威廉·科尔比新领导，他希望清理中央情报局的行动。 此外，联邦调查局局长 J·埃德加·胡佛 (J. Edgar Hoover) 已于 1972 年去世，他也是教会委员会揭露的普遍违法行为的作者。
1974 年 12 月，调查记者西摩·赫什（Seymour Hersh）发表了一篇关于中情局针对美国反战运动的非法情报行动的报道，当时的西摩·赫什（Seymour Hersh）是一名出色的记者，拥有中央情报局内部的消息来源。 当时的参议院多数党领袖迈克·曼斯菲尔德（Mike Mansfield）是一位有性格的领袖，随后任命丘奇调查中央情报局。 丘奇本人是一位勇敢、诚实、聪明、思想独立、勇敢的参议员，这些特征在美国政坛长期缺乏。
要是中情局的流氓行动能够因为教会委员会揭露的罪行而成为历史，或者至少让中情局接受法治和公众问责就好了。 但事实并非如此。 中央情报局在美国外交政策（包括海外颠覆活动）中保持着卓越的地位，笑到了最后，或者更准确地说，让世界落泪。
自 1975 年以来，中央情报局一直在阿富汗开展支持伊斯兰圣战分子的秘密行动，这些行动彻底摧毁了阿富汗，同时催生了基地组织。 中央情报局可能在巴尔干地区针对塞尔维亚、在高加索地区针对俄罗斯以及在中亚针对中国开展秘密行动，所有这些行动都部署了中央情报局支持的圣战分子。 2010 年代，中央情报局再次与伊斯兰圣战分子一起开展致命行动，推翻叙利亚的巴希尔·阿萨德。 至少 20 年来，中央情报局一直深度参与
煽动乌克兰日益严重的灾难，包括 2014 年 2 月暴力推翻乌克兰总统维克多·亚努科维奇 (Viktor Yanukovych)，引发了目前席卷乌克兰的毁灭性战争。
我们对这些操作了解多少？ 只有举报人、少数勇敢的调查记者、少数勇敢的学者和一些外国政府愿意或能够告诉我们的部分，所有这些潜在的证人都知道他们可能会面临美国政府的严厉报复。 美国政府本身几乎没有承担任何责任，国会也没有施加有意义的监督或限制。 相反，政府变得越来越隐秘，对机密信息的披露采取积极的法律行动，即使是当或特别是当这些信息描述了政府本身的非法行为时。
偶尔，一位前美国官员会泄露秘密，例如兹比格涅夫·布热津斯基透露，他诱使吉米·卡特指派中央情报局训练伊斯兰圣战分子，以破坏阿富汗政府的稳定，目的是诱使苏联入侵 那个国家。
就叙利亚而言，我们从《纽约时报》2016年和2017年的一些报道中了解到，中央情报局按照巴拉克·奥巴马总统的命令，开展了破坏叙利亚稳定并推翻阿萨德的颠覆行动。 这是中央情报局一次严重误导的行动，公然违反了国际法，导致了十年的混乱、地区战争不断升级、数十万人死亡和数百万流离失所，但迄今为止，还没有 白宫或国会对这场由中央情报局领导的灾难的诚实承认。
就乌克兰而言，我们知道美国在推翻亚努科维奇并使乌克兰陷入十年流血的暴力政变中发挥了重要的秘密作用，但直到今天，我们还不知道细节。 俄罗斯拦截并公布了时任美国助理国务卿（现为副国务卿）维多利亚·纽兰（Victoria Nuland）与美国驻乌克兰大使杰弗里·皮亚特（现为助理国务卿）之间的通话，为世界提供了了解政变的一扇窗口。 他们策划了政变后的政府。 政变后，中央情报局秘密训练了美国帮助上台的政变后政权的特种作战部队。 美国政府对中央情报局在乌克兰的秘密行动一直保持沉默。
正如现任独立记者西摩·赫什所说，我们有充分的理由相信中央情报局特工摧毁了北溪管道。 与 1975 年不同的是，当时赫什在《纽约时报》工作，当时该报仍在试图追究政府的责任，而《纽约时报》甚至不屑于调查赫什的说法。
让中央情报局承担起公众责任当然是一场艰苦的斗争。 总统和国会甚至都不会尝试。 主流媒体不调查中央情报局，而是更愿意引用“不知名的高级官员”和官方的掩盖行为。 主流媒体是否懒惰、被收买、害怕来自军工联合体的广告收入、受到威胁、无知，还是以上所有？ 谁知道。
还有一丝希望。 早在 1975 年，中央情报局就由一位改革者领导。 如今，中央情报局由美国长期领先的外交官之一威廉·伯恩斯领导。 伯恩斯自2008年担任驻俄罗斯大使以来就了解乌克兰的真相，并就推动北约扩大乌克兰的严重错误向华盛顿发电报。 考虑到伯恩斯的地位和外交成就，也许他会支持迫切需要的问责制。
中央情报局行动失误造成的持续混乱程度令人震惊。 在阿富汗、海地、叙利亚、委内瑞拉、科索沃、乌克兰以及其他更远的地方，中央情报局颠覆活动造成的不必要的死亡、不稳定和破坏至今仍在继续。 主流媒体、学术机构和国会应尽其所能调查这些行动，并要求公布文件以实现民主问责。
明年是教会委员会听证会成立 50 周年。 五十年过去了，在教会委员会本身的先例、启发和指导下，现在是时候打开窗帘，揭露美国领导的混乱的真相，并开始一个美国外交政策变得透明、负责任的新时代了。 遵守国内和国际法治，并致力于全球和平而不是颠覆所谓的敌人。
How the CIA Destabilizes the World
If only the CIA’s rogue operations had been consigned to history as a result of the crimes exposed by the Church Committee, or at the least had brought the CIA under the rule of law and public accountability. But that was not to be.
There are three basic problems with the CIA: its objectives, methods, and unaccountability. Its operational objectives are whatever the CIA or the President of the United States defines to be in the U.S. interest at a given time, irrespective of international law or U.S. law. Its methods are secretive and duplicitous. Its unaccountability means that the CIA and president run foreign policy without any public scrutiny. Congress is a doormat, a sideshow.
As a recent CIA Director, Mike Pompeo, said of his time at the CIA: "I was the CIA director. We lied, we cheated, we stole. We had entire training courses. It reminds you of the glory of the American experiment."
The CIA was established in 1947 as the successor to the Office of Strategic Services (OSS). The OSS had performed two distinct roles in World War II, intelligence and subversion. The CIA took over both roles. On the one hand, the CIA was to provide intelligence to the US Government. On the other, the CIA was to subvert the “enemy,” that is, whomever the president or CIA defined as the enemy, using a wide range of measures: assassinations, coups, staged unrest, arming of insurgents, and other means.
It is the latter role that has proved devastating to global stability and the U.S. rule of law. It is a role that the CIA continues to pursue today. In effect, the CIA is a secret army of the U.S., capable of creating mayhem across the world with no accountability whatsoever.
When President Dwight Eisenhower decided that Africa’s rising political star, democratically elected Patrice Lumumba of Zaire (now the Democratic Republic of Congo), was the “enemy,” the CIA conspired in his 1961 assassination, thus undermining the democratic hopes for Africa. He would hardly be the last African president brought down by the CIA.
The extent of the continuing mayhem resulting from CIA operations gone awry is astounding.
In its 77-year history, the CIA has been held to serious public account just once, in 1975. In that year, Idaho Senator Frank Church led a Senate investigation that exposed the CIA’s shocking rampage of assassinations, coups, destabilization, surveillance, and Mengele-style torture and medical “experiments.”
The expose by the Church Committee of the CIA’s shocking malfeasance has recently been chronicled in a superb book by the investigative reporter James Risen, The Last Honest Man: The CIA, the FBI, the Mafia, and the Kennedys―and One Senator's Fight to Save Democracy.
That single episode of oversight occurred because of a rare confluence of events.
In the year before the Church Committee, the Watergate scandal had toppled Richard Nixon and weakened the White House. As successor to Nixon, Gerald Ford was unelected, a former Congressman, and reluctant to oppose the oversight prerogatives of the Congress. The Watergate scandal, investigated by the Senate Ervin Committee, had also empowered the Senate and demonstrated the value of Senate oversight of Executive Branch abuses of power. Crucially, the CIA was newly led by Director William Colby, who wanted to clean up the CIA operations. Also, FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover, author of pervasive illegalities also exposed by the Church committee, had died in 1972.
In December 1974, investigative reporter Seymour Hersh, then as now a great reporter with sources inside the CIA, published an account of illegal CIA intelligence operations against the U.S. antiwar movement. The Senate Majority Leader at the time, Mike Mansfield, a leader of character, then appointed Church to investigate the CIA. Church himself was a brave, honest, intelligent, independent-minded, and intrepid Senator, characteristics chronically in short supply in U.S. politics.
If only the CIA’s rogue operations had been consigned to history as a result of the crimes exposed by the Church Committee, or at the least had brought the CIA under the rule of law and public accountability. But that was not to be. The CIA has had the last laugh —or better said, has brought the world to tears—by maintaining its preeminent role in U.S. foreign policy, including overseas subversion.
Since 1975, the CIA has run secretive operations backing Islamic jihadists in Afghanistan that utterly wrecked Afghanistan while giving rise to al-Qaeda. The CIA has likely run secretive operations in the Balkans against Serbia, in the Caucuses against Russia, and in Central Asia targeting China, all deploying CIA-backed jihadists. In the 2010s, the CIA ran deadly operations to topple Syria’s Bashir al-Assad, again with Islamic jihadists. For at least 20 years, the CIA has been deeply involved in fomenting the growing catastrophe in Ukraine, including the violent overthrow of Ukraine’s President Viktor Yanukovych in February 2014 that triggered the devastating war now engulfing Ukraine.
What do we know of these operations? Only the parts that whistleblowers, a few intrepid investigative reporters, a handful of brave scholars, and some foreign governments have been willing or able to tell us, with all of these potential witnesses knowing that they might face severe retribution from the U.S. government. There has been little to no accountability by the U.S. government itself, or meaningful oversight or restraint imposed by Congress. On the contrary, the government has become ever-more obsessively secretive, pursuing aggressive legal actions against disclosures of classified information, even when, or especially when, that information describes the illegal actions by the government itself.
Once in a while, a former U.S. official spills the beans, such as when Zbigniew Brzezinski revealed that he had induced Jimmy Carter to assign the CIA to train Islamic jihadists to destabilize the government of Afghanistan, with the aim of inducing the Soviet Union to invade that country.
In the case of Syria, we learned from a few stories in the New York Times in 2016 and 2017 of the CIA’s subversive operations to destabilize Syria and overthrow Assad, as ordered by President Barack Obama. Here is the case of a dreadfully misguided CIA operation, blatantly in violation of international law, that has led to a decade of mayhem, an escalating regional war, hundreds of thousands of deaths, and millions of displaced people, and yet there has not been a single honest acknowledgment of this CIA-led disaster by the White House or Congress.
In the case of Ukraine, we know that the U.S. played a major covert role in the violent coup that brought down Yanukovych and that swept Ukraine into a decade of bloodshed but to this day, we don’t know the details. Russia offered the world a window into the coup by intercepting and then posting a call between Victoria Nuland, then U.S. Assistant Secretary of State (now Under-Secretary of State) and U.S. Ambassador to Ukraine Geoffrey Pyatt (now Assistant Secretary of State), in which they plot the post-coup government. Following the coup, the CIA covertly trained special operations forces of the post-coup regime the U.S. had helped bring to power. The U.S. government has been mum about the CIA’s covert operations in Ukraine.
We have good reason to believe that CIA operatives carried out the destruction of the Nord Stream pipeline, as per Seymour Hersh, who is now an independent reporter. Unlike in 1975, when Hersh was with the New York Times at a time when the paper still tried to hold the government to account, the Times does not even deign to look into Hersh’s account.
Holding the CIA to public account is of course a steep uphill struggle. Presidents and the Congress don’t even try. The mainstream media don’t investigate the CIA, preferring instead to quote “senior unnamed officials” and the official cover-up. Are the mainstream media outlets lazy, suborned, afraid of advertising revenues from the military-industrial complex, threatened,
ignorant, or all of the above? Who knows.
There is a tiny glimmer of hope. Back in 1975, the CIA was led by a reformer. Today, the CIA is led by William Burns, one of America’s long-standing leading diplomats. Burns knows the truth about Ukraine, since he served as Ambassador to Russia in 2008 and cabled Washington about the grave error of pushing NATO enlargement to Ukraine. Given Burns’ stature and diplomatic accomplishments, perhaps he would support the urgently needed accountability.
The extent of the continuing mayhem resulting from CIA operations gone awry is astounding. In Afghanistan, Haiti, Syria, Venezuela, Kosovo, Ukraine, and far beyond, the needless deaths, instability, and destruction unleashed by CIA subversion continues to this day. The mainstream media, academic institutions, and Congress should be investigating these operations to the best of their ability and demanding the release of documents to enable democratic accountability.
Next year is the 50th anniversary of the Church Committee hearings. Fifty years on, with the precedent, inspiration, and guidance of the Church Committee itself, it’s urgently time to open the blinds, expose the truth about the U.S.-led mayhem, and begin a new era in which U.S. foreign policy becomes transparent, accountable, subject to the rule of law both domestic and international, and directed towards global peace rather than subversion of supposed enemies.
The CIA; a covert army of mayhem across the world
https://english.almayadeen.net/news/politics/the-cia--a-covert-army-of-mayhem-across-the-world?
By Al Mayadeen English 13 Feb 2024
Jeffrey Sachs describes how the CIA has had a destructive impact on global stability and the rule of law in the US through its various chaotic and illegal methods.
At the center of the US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) lies 3 major problems that disregard foreign policy and international law, an opinion piece in Common Dreams by Jeffrey Sachs revealed.
According to Sachs, the CIA's aims and tactics, along with its covert methods and deceptive strategies, ensure a lack of accountability.
He calls Congress a "doormat" and notes that the agency's objectives are whatever the CIA and president determine at the time, irrespective of international and domestic law.
Sachs recalls Mike Pompeo's comments when he admitted, as CIA director, that the agency "lied, cheated, and stole."
The CIA, founded in 1947, has two main missions. One is to provide intelligence to the US government, while the other is to undermine whoever is considered an "enemy" by the current president, by a variety of techniques, including assassinations, coups, manufactured disturbances, arming of rebels, and other methods.
CIA creates mayhem, no accountability
Sachs notes that the second objective has had a destructive impact on global stability and the rule of law in the US. He calls the CIA a covert army of the US "capable of creating mayhem across the world with no accountability whatsoever."
He recalls how former President Dwight Eisenhower orchestrated the 1961 assassination of African president Patrice Lumumba of Zaire.
Sachs also details how in its 77-year history, the CIA has only been called to meaningful public account only once: in 1975. That year, Idaho Senator Frank Church led a Senate investigation into the CIA's stunning campaign of killings, coups, instability, monitoring, and Mengele-style torture and medical "experiments".
In December 1974, investigative writer Seymour Hersh revealed an exposé of unlawful CIA spy activities against the US antiwar movement, prompting Mike Mansfield, the Senate Majority Leader at the time, to select Church to examine the CIA.
Sachs details the many operations of the CIA in Afghanistan, Serbia, Russia, China, and Syria and how for the last 20 years, it has been "deeply involved in fomenting the growing catastrophe in Ukraine," which is not limited to the overthrowing of Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych in February 2014 that triggered a "decade of bloodshed" leading up to the war with Russia.
The author notes that the little or no accountability and no restraint imposed by Congress has not slowed down the agency, rather it has become "ever-more obsessively secretive, pursuing aggressive legal actions against disclosures of classified information, even when, or especially when, that information describes the illegal actions by the government itself."
In Syria, Sachs discusses New York Times stories that revealed the CIA's operations to destabilize the country and overthrow President Bashar al-Assad, which were ordered by then-President Barack Obama.
This blatant violation of international laws, he argues, led to the escalation that resulted in a "regional war, hundreds of thousands of deaths, and millions of displaced people, and yet there has not been a single honest acknowledgment of this CIA-led disaster by the White House or Congress."
In February 2023, Seymour Hersh wrote that there was good reason to believe US Navy divers planted explosives to destroy the Nord Stream pipelines in 2022.
"Last June, the Navy divers, operating under the cover of a widely publicized mid-summer NATO exercise known as BALTOPS 22, planted the remotely triggered explosives that, three months later, destroyed three of the four Nord Stream pipelines, according to a source with direct knowledge of the operational planning," Hersh wrote in his Substack newsletter.
Naturally, the White House responded and dismissed the claims as "false and complete fiction."
No attempts to hold CIA accountable
Sachs expresses that the "continuing mayhem" from CIA operations has resulted in "needless deaths, instability, and destruction" that continue to this day.
He criticizes mainstream media for not questioning or investigating such operations and demanding the release of data that allows the CIA to be held accountable.
The author calls for the urgent need to expose the truth about the "US-led mayhem" and attempt to start a new epoch in which US foreign policy is more "transparent, accountable, subject to the rule of law both domestic and international, and directed towards global peace rather than subversion of supposed enemies."
