When in the 60s of the last century books about the omnipotence of the FBI began to appear in the United States, their authors asked themselves the question: how could an organization created with the good purpose of fighting organized crime degenerate into a monster seeking to control everyone?
And when similar books about the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) began to be published a decade later, their authors, if they managed to finish their works (or even live to see them published), did not ask such a question - they had already survived all the dirt of Vietnam and watched to live honestly.
It turned out that American government structures headed by the CIA are capable of torturing, killing, overthrowing foreign governments and even influencing politics in the United States itself. What else can you expect from the CIA if one of its founders explicitly stated: subversion should become a priority of the Agency's work.
The knights of the cloak and dagger had a chance to moderate their ardor only in the 1970s, during the period of detente. Then their services were needed in increasing volumes: the aggravation of the international situation, the collapse of the USSR, by the way, the Arab terrorists arrived in time ... After 2001, the CIA received almost complete carte blanche for its actions around the world. Moreover, the terrorists continue their activities, but the legitimate governments, having turned out to be objectionable to the United States, are overthrown with enviable regularity.
Here is a small selection of facts about the activities of the Central intelligence US government:
1. The CIA Act, passed in 1949, spelled out the possibility of quickly granting US citizenship to people who provided substantial assistance to the CIA. Considering the presence of hundreds of thousands of former Soviet citizens in the West in those years, it is clear that the law was adopted as a carrot for them.
2. The statement of the future (1953 - 1961) of the CIA Director Allen Dulles, abundantly quoted on the Internet, about how the USA will fool the Soviet people by substituting false values for true values, actually belongs to the pen of the Soviet writer Anatoly Ivanov. However, whoever owns this statement, it is absolutely true.
Allen Dulles
3. But Dulles's statement that in the work of the CIA 90% should be occupied by subversive activities, and only the rest should be devoted to intelligence - the absolute truth.
4. Six months after Dulles took office, Iranian Prime Minister Mossadegh was overthrown, thinking that Iranian oil should be controlled by Iran. The next concert turned into a mass meeting with processions around the city (does it remind you of anything?), Troops entered the city, Mossadegh was glad to just stay alive. The operation budget was $ 19 million.
Iranian Maidan 1954
5. On account of the Dulles team two more successful coups: in Guatemala and Congo. Guatemalan Prime Minister Arbenz was lucky to get away with his legs, but the head of the Congolese government, Patrice Lumumba, was killed.
6. In 1954, the CIA bought the rights to film adaptation of J. Orwell's story "Animal Farm". The script, written for the management, grossly distorted the idea of the book. In the resulting cartoon, communism was seen as much more evil than capitalism, although Orwell did not think so.
7. In the 1970s, the Church's Senate Commission investigated the CIA. Its head, following the investigation, said that the department “worked” on the internal affairs of 48 countries.
8. An example of the CIA's powerlessness in the event that there is no inner layer of traitors in the country is Cuba. Fidel Castro was tried hundreds of times, and not a single attempt even reached the stage of the illusory possibility of killing the Cuban leader.
Fidel Castro
9. A rare example of the CIA's success in performing its direct duties is the recruitment of Oleg Penkovsky, and even then a high-ranking officer approached the Department's employees himself. During his work for the CIA, Penkovsky gave the Americans a huge array of strategic information, for which he was shot.
Oleg Penkovsky
10. Supporting democratic change in foreign countries has officially been the mission of the CIA since 2005. Thus, interference in the internal affairs of other countries is the direct and immediate responsibility of the Office.
11. The CIA director does not personally report anything to the president (unless, of course, this is not an emergency). There is also the Director of National Intelligence above him. The CIA director can only see the president at a meeting of the National Security Council (SNB).
12. If you are a writer or work in Hollywood, and in your creative plans there is a work with the participation or mention of CIA employees, the department will officially provide you with consulting, personnel or even financial support.
13. The CIA Director from 2006 to 2009, General Michael Hayden, at a congressional hearing, quite officially stated that in his organization, pushing an interrogated person's head into water to simulate drowning is not torture, but one of the harsh interrogation methods. There are 18 of them in the CIA.
14. Anyone can join the huge array of information collected by the CIA by visiting the Fact Book section on the organization's official website. Until 2008, a paper version was published, now the publication exists only online. It contains a lot of information about all countries of the world, and the information is more accurate than that disseminated by governments.
15. The creation of the CIA was opposed in every possible way by the then omnipotent director of the FBI Edgar Hoover. Foreign intelligence was the prerogative of his department, and with the creation of the CIA, the FBI's activities were confined to the borders of the United States.
16. The first terrible failure of the CIA happened less than two years after the agency was founded. In a report dated September 20, 1949, it was predicted that the Soviet Union would not be able to obtain nuclear weapons earlier than in 5-6 years. The Soviet atomic bomb was detonated three weeks before the report was written.
The CIA pierced her
17. The story of the Berlin tunnel through which the CIA officers connected to the secret Soviet lines of communication is well known. Soviet intelligence, which learned about the tunnel even before they started digging it, fed the CIA and MI6 with disinformation for a year. According to unconfirmed reports, the operation was curtailed simply because the Soviet intelligence officers themselves feared entangling themselves in a huge web of false information. It was hard with computers back then ...
18. Saddam Hussein for a long time did not agree to let foreign experts on Iraqi facilities - he suspected experts of working for the CIA. His suspicions were loudly rejected, and after the death of Hussein it turned out that some really collaborated with the special service.
19. In the summer of 1990, CIA analysts believed that Iraq would not go to war with Kuwait under any circumstances. Two days after the report was handed over to the leadership, Iraqi troops crossed the border.
20. The version of the CIA's involvement in the assassination of President Kennedy is often considered a conspiracy theory. However, it is reliably known that the leadership of the Office was furious when Kennedy refused the promised air support to the landing operation in Cuba. The defeated landing was a loud failure for the CIA.
21. Until the beginning of the 21st century, the work of the CIA in Afghanistan was considered expensive (over $ 600 million a year), but effective. The rebels-mujahideen rather effectively pinned down the Soviet troops, and in general the Afghan war is considered one of the reasons for the collapse of the USSR. It was only after the departure of the Soviet military in Afghanistan that such a hell began that the United States was forced to intervene with its own army. And not for 600 million a year.
American soldiers in Afghanistan
22. From the very inception of the CIA to the 1970s, the agency consistently implemented a number of projects to study the effects of drugs, psychotropic drugs, hypnosis and other means of influencing the psyche of people. Subjects were generally not told either the test substance or the research objectives.
23. In the 1980s, the CIA supported rebels against the left-wing government of Nicaragua. Nothing special if not for the funding. According to an extremely clever scheme (Congress forbade President Reagan to arm the rebels, the Contras), weapons were sold through Israel and Iran. The guilt of the CIA officers and other civil servants was proven, all were pardoned.
24. CIA Schnick Ryan Fogle, who worked undercover as the secretary of the department of the United States Embassy in Moscow, recruited an FSB officer in 2013. After discussing not only the details of the meeting, but also the principles of future cooperation via an open, unsecured telephone, Fogle came to the recruiting site in a bright wig, and took three more with him. Of course, Fogl also had three pairs of sunglasses.
Fogl's detention
25. The CIA is not unfoundedly implied in the murder of members of the "Temple of the Nations" commune in Guyana. More than 900 Americans, who fled from their home government to Guyana and intended to move to the USSR in 1978, were poisoned or shot. They were declared religious suicidal fanatics, and for the sake of drama they did not spare their own Congressman Ryan, killing him too.
