Monday, February 13, 2012

The CIA - Control vs. Truth. Secrecy vs. Freedom.

I want to use the story Waging War in Secret vs. American Democracy at The Atlantic to make a broader statement about the perniciousness of state secrecy than is made in this story.   The growing audacity of the state over the last handful of decades makes it difficult to turn our eyes from state-sponsored secrets and their many implications.  

Secrecy is the most repugnant of all activities by the state.   Secrecy is what enables Control Fraud, as we have discussed.    For the first time, secrecy is being used to divert prosecution of crimes by U.S. politicians as we highlighted in the documentary titled Secrecy.   Any call for investigations into alleged political wrongdoing are now met with responses that information sought to determine wrongdoing is classified as secret by the state.   Secrecy is behind the lack of investigation into wrongdoing on Wall Street.  Secrecy is behind the president’s recently brokered deal with state’s attorney generals in the ludicrous mortgage fraud settlement. (Why is ANY politician brokering any legal deal to stop criminal investigations into wrongdoing?  This is an atrocious subversion of the rule of law and the duties granted to our legal system.)  Secrecy is behind lobbyists dismantling the rule of law in our society.  Secrecy is the basis of everything that subverts democracy.  Secrecy is the ultimate manifestation of the war on democracy.  Political parties and their objectives are determined entirely in secrecy.  Democrats or Republicans, it matters not.

Politicians hiding behind secrecy in the United States have granted themselves the power of God to perpetrate torture, war crimes, crimes against humanity, selling illegal drugs to Americans to fund terrorism, supporting terrorism against other countries, murder of American citizens, secret medical experiments against Americans, propaganda to deceive Americans and who knows what else.  Who knows because of secrecy.  Sounds more like Nazi Germany than democracy.  Truly.   There is no benevolence in secrecy.  Only the intent to control.

The CIA is the vehicle through which much of these secret acts in our country have been committed.  I have remarked on here before that I believe the CIA should be shut down.   Period.  I base that remark on an very simple democratic ideal fundamental to suppressing tyranny.  That is, the CIA, as a fundamental entity, is an anti-democratic organization.  It is organization of men and not of laws.   We have seen this time and again when illegitimate CIA operations have been exposed through leaks or freedom of information acts.  Because it is an institution of men and not of laws, means justify the end.   In other words, there is no law that is above being broken to justify any desired outcome.  To any organization of men, laws mean nothing.  Think about that.   Were the international activities of the CIA perpetrated on American citizens, its actors would get life in prison, convictions of crimes against humanity or treason or all three or maybe even worse.  Stalin and Hitler thought any means justified an end too.  The rule of law protects a democracy from people and institutions that believe a rationalized means justifies and end. 

I think many would find it plausible to conclude, from the very little we know of this undemocratic institution, that it is a source of terrorism for many people around the world.  Even known acts of terrorism have been perpetrated against American citizens here in the United States.    There are many conspiracy theories surrounding the CIA.   That is to be expected.  We have no idea what is true and what is not but what we do know is any time there is a subversion of the rule of law through secrecy, there will always be paranoia and conclusions about why that secrecy is required.   That, because secrecy only serves one purpose; to deceive.   As President John F. Kennedy remarked, secrecy is repugnant to a free society.

We really don’t know how heinous many of the CIA’s actions are.  But, we do know some as information has leaked out over the decades.   This appears to be a reasonably fact-based documentary on the CIA and its origins.  One of the points outlined in this documentary are that quite a few hundred documented Nazis war criminals who helped create the CIA.   Is that really any surprise for an organization that embodies much of the ideals and intents of a tyrannical state?  Of an organization of men and not of laws?

How many Americans would support an organization such as this were state-sponsored secrecy not used to deceive our citizens?

posted by TimingLogic at 9:32 AM