The secret wars of the CIA

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The Secret War in Laos (Part 2)

According to William M. Leary, a University of Georgia historian who analyzed Laotian operations for the CIA Center for the Study of Intelligence, CIA-led covert action in Laos was the largest paramilitary operation in the history of the Agency. There has been much controversy about Agency involvement in the Southeast Asia drug trade, and Leary takes an intermediate position. "For more than 13 years, the Agency directed native forces that fought major North Vietnamese units to a standstill.... As Joseph Westermeyer, who spent the years 1965 to 1975 in Laos as a physician, public health worker, and researcher, wrote in Poppies, Pipes, and People: 'American-owned airlines never knowingly transported opium in or out of Laos, nor did their American pilots ever profit from its transport. Yet every plane in Laos undoubtedly carried opium at some time, unknown to the pilot and his superiors--just as had virtually every pedicab, every Mekong River sampan, and every missionary jeep between China and the Gulf of Siam.' "If the CIA was not involved in the drug trade, it did know about it. As former DCI William Colby acknowledged, the Agency did little about it during the 1960s, but later took action against the traders as drugs became a problem among American troops in Vietnam. The CIA's main focus in Laos remained on fighting the war, not on policing the drug trade."

In 1950, the CIA, which supported but did not command covert action (until 1952), CIA determined that it could best meet its support responsibilities with a proprietary airline under its clandestne control. "In August 1950, the Agency secretly purchased the assets of Civil Air Transport (CAT), an airline that had been started in China after World War II by Gen. Claire L. Chennault and Whiting Willauer. CAT would continue to fly commercial routes throughout Asia, acting in every way as a privately owned commercial airline. At the same time, under the corporate guise of CAT Incorporated, it provided airplanes and crews for secret intelligence operations. During the Korean war, for example, it made more than 100 hazardous overflights of mainland China, airdropping agents and supplies."

A memorandum of November 12, 1969 from Kissinger to Nixon. reviewed the procedure for attacks in Laos. Kissinger raised several questions in response to a CIA memorandum on Vang Paos offensive in the Plain of Jars. A joint response from the CIA and the Departments of Defense and State said: - U.S. ability to control (including veto) a Lao operation is to all practical purposes complete because U.S. matériel and air support are vital. - In practice, most operations are conceived by commanders of individual Military Regions in close conjunction with U.S. Military Attachés, or in the case of Vang Pao and the other irregulars, with the local CIA Area Chief. - In brief, the following U.S. clearance procedures are followed: -- The cognizant U.S. military attaché or CIA Area Chief forwards the request to U.S. Country Team, consisting of Ambassador, DCM, Military Attachés and CIA Station Chief. -- Vang Paos operations are also cleared by the CIA base at Udom, Thailand which assesses the Agencys ability to provide necessary support. -- The Ambassador requests authorization from State for politically sensitive operations or activities exceeding established operating procedures and refers requests for air support to MACV.

 
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U.S. Support of Pol Pot and CIA Secret Wars

Saloth Sar or Minh Hai, (May 19, 1928 - April 15, 1998), widely known as Pol Pot, was the leader of the Cambodian communist movement known as the Khmer Rouge and was Prime Minister of Democratic Kampuchea from 1976-1979.

Pol Pot became the de facto leader of Cambodia in mid-1975. During his time in power, Pol Pot imposed a version of agrarian collectivization, forcing city dwellers to relocate to the countryside to work in collective farms and forced labor projects, toward a goal of "restarting civilization" in "Year Zero". The combined effects of slave labor, malnutrition, poor medical care, and executions resulted in the deaths of an estimated 1.7 to 2.5 million people, approximately 21% of the Cambodian population.

In 1979, after the invasion of Cambodia by neighboring Vietnam in the Cambodian-Vietnamese War, Pol Pot fled into the jungles of southwest Cambodia and the Khmer Rouge government collapsed. From 1979 to 1997 he and a remnant of the old Khmer Rouge operated from the border region of Cambodia and Thailand, where they clung to power and United Nations recognition as the rightful government of Cambodia.

Pol Pot died in 1998 while held under house arrest by the Ta Mok faction of the Khmer Rouge. Since his death, rumours that he was poisoned have persisted.

The Khmer Rouge reached Phnom Penh and took power in 1975. The regime, led by Pol Pot, changed the official name of the country to Democratic Kampuchea, and was heavily influenced and backed by China. They immediately evacuated the cities and sent the entire population on forced marches to rural work projects. They attempted to rebuild the country's agriculture on the model of the 11th century, discarded Western medicine, and destroyed temples, libraries, and anything considered Western. Over a million Cambodians, out of a total population of 8 million, died from executions, overwork, starvation and disease.

Estimates as to how many people were killed by the Khmer Rouge regime range from approximately one to three million. This era gave rise to the term Killing Fields, and the prison Tuol Sleng became notorious for its history of mass killing. Hundreds of thousands fled across the border into neighboring Thailand. The regime disproportionately targeted ethnic minority groups. The Cham Muslims suffered serious purges with as much as half of their population exterminated. In the late 1960s, an estimated 425,000 ethnic Chinese lived in Cambodia, but by 1984, as a result of Khmer Rouge genocide and emigration, only about 61,400 Chinese remained in the country. The professions, such as doctors, lawyers, and teachers, were also targeted. According to Robert D. Kaplan, "eyeglasses were as deadly as the yellow star" as they were seen as a sign of intellectualism.

In November 1978, Vietnam invaded Cambodia to stop Khmer Rouge incursions across the border and the genocide in Cambodia. Violent occupation and warfare between the Vietnamese and Khmer Rouge holdouts continued throughout the 1980s. Peace efforts began in Paris in 1989, culminating two years later in October 1991 in a comprehensive peace settlement. The United Nations was given a mandate to enforce a ceasefire, and deal with refugees and disarmament.

The U.S. opposed the Vietnamese military occupation of Cambodia, and in the mid-1980s supported insurgents opposed to the regime of Heng Samrin, approving $5 million in aid to the Khmer People's National Liberation Front of former prime minister Son Sann and the pro-Sihanouk ANS in 1985. Regardless of this, Pol Pot's Khmer Rouge remained the best-trained and most capable of the three insurgent groups who, despite sharply divergent ideologies, had formed the Coalition Government of Democratic Kampuchea (CGDK) alliance three years earlier. China continued to funnel extensive military aid to the Khmer Rouge, and critics of U.S. foreign policy claimed that the U.S. was indirectly sponsoring the Khmer Rouge due to U.S. assistance given the CGDK in keeping control of the United Nations "seat" of Cambodia. The U.S. refused to recognize the Cambodian government installed by the army of Vietnam or to recognize any Cambodian government operating while Cambodia was under the military occupation of Vietnam.

 
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The CIA & Nicaragua - US secret wars fought in South America

In 1909, the United States provided political support to conservative-led forces rebelling against President Zelaya. U.S. motives included differences over the proposed Nicaragua Canal, Nicaragua's potential as a destabilizing influence in the region, and Zelaya's attempts to regulate foreign access to Nicaraguan natural resources. On November 18, 1909, U.S. warships were sent to the area after 500 revolutionaries (including two Americans) were executed by order of Zelaya. The U.S. justified the intervention by claiming to protect U.S. lives and property. Zelaya resigned later that year.

U.S. Marines occupied Nicaragua from 1912 to 1933,[12] except for a nine month period beginning in 1925. From 1910 to 1926, the conservative party ruled Nicaragua. The Chamorro family, which had long dominated the party, effectively controlled the government during that period. In 1914, the Bryan-Chamorro Treaty was signed, giving the U.S. control over the proposed canal, as well as leases for potential canal defenses.

Nicaragua has experienced several military dictatorships, the longest one being the rule of the Somoza family for much of the 20th century. The Somoza family came to power as part of a CIA / US-engineered pact in 1927 that stipulated the formation of the National Guard to replace the small individual armies that had long reigned in the country.

Somoza used the National Guard to force Sacasa to resign, and took control of the country in 1937, destroying any potential armed resistance.

Upon assuming office in 1981, U.S. President Ronald Reagan condemned the FSLN for joining with Cuba in supporting Marxist revolutionary movements in other Latin American countries such as El Salvador. His administration authorized the CIA to begin financing, arming and training rebels, some of whom were the remnants of Somoza's National Guard, as anti-Sandinista guerrillas that were branded "counter-revolutionary" by leftists (contrarrevolucionarios in Spanish).

 
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The CIA's Covert Operations in Nicaragua

Bobby R. Inman (born 4 April 1931 in Rhonesboro, Texas) is a retired United States admiral who held several influential positions in the U.S. Intelligence community.

He served as Director of Naval Intelligence from September 1974 to July 1976, then moved to the Defense Intelligence Agency where he served as Vice Director until 1977. He next became the Director of the National Security Agency. Inman held this post until 1981. His last major position was as the Deputy Director of the Central Intelligence Agency, a post he held from February 12, 1981 to June 10, 1982.

Inman has been influential in various advisory roles. Notably, he chaired a commission on improving security at U.S. foreign installations after the Marine barracks bombing and the April 1983 US Embassy bombing in Beirut, Lebanon. The commission's report has been influential in setting security design standards for U.S. Embassies.

After retirement from the Navy, he was Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of the Microelectronics and Computer Technology Corporation (MCC) in Austin, Texas for four years and Chairman, President and Chief Executive Officer of Westmark Systems, Inc., a privately owned electronics industry holding company for three years. Admiral Inman also served as Chairman of the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas from 1987 through 1990.

Admiral Inmans primary activity since 1990 has been investing in start-up technology companies, where he is a Managing Director of Gefinor Ventures and Limestone Ventures. He is a member of the Board of Directors of Massey Energy Company and of several privately held companies. He serves as a Trustee of the American Assembly and the California Institute of Technology. He is an elected Fellow of the National Academy of Public Administration.

Since 2001, Inman has been the LBJ Centennial Chair in National Policy at The University of Texas at Austin Lyndon B. Johnson School of Public Affairs, and in 2005 was the school's interim dean. Inman graduated from Texas with a bachelor's in history in 1950.

In 2007, Inman was appointed to the new Commission on Cyber Security. The commission, comprised of 20-25 members, was established to make sure that the next president of the United States had an updated strategy to counter growing cyber threats. The commission was created to examine existing plans and strategies to assess what the administration of the 44th Presidency should continue, what it should change, and what new policies should be adopted or new authorities sought from Congress. Inman served as the commissions co-chair.

Inman has also served on the Board of Directors of the Council on Foreign Relations, Dell Computer, SBC Corporation (now AT&T) and Massey Energy.

Alexander Meigs Haig, Jr. (born December 2, 1924) is a retired United States Army general who served as the United States Secretary of State under President Ronald Reagan and White House Chief of Staff under Presidents Richard Nixon and Gerald Ford. In 1973 Haig served as Vice Chief of Staff of the Army, the number-two ranking officer in the Army. Haig served as the Supreme Allied Commander Europe, commanding all U.S. and NATO forces in Europe. He was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

Haig, a veteran of the Korean War and Vietnam War, is a recipient of the Distinguished Service Cross, the Silver Star with oak leaf cluster, and the Purple Heart.

 
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"Mind Control"- Americas Secret War

U.S. intelligence agencies spent millions on top-secret mind control projects with a goal of creating totally dependable, programmable human robots. The projects involved brutal, often terminal experiments on thousands of unwitting citizens in direct defiance of law, all ethical codes, and the most basic human rights. We talk to author John Marks, who broke the story of the CIA's experiments known as MK-ULTRA and a woman whose past was erased by a brainwashing experiment.

Produced and broadcast by the History Channel - 07/04/06 Runtime 50 Minutes




 
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Afghanistan: The CIA's Biggest War

The Soviet War in Afghanistan, also known as the Soviet-Afghan War, was a nine-year conflict involving the Soviet Union, supporting the Marxist government of the Democratic Republic of Afghanistan at their own request, against the Islamist Mujahideen Resistance. http://congressandlaw.blogspot.com/20... - Current situation in Afghanistan

The Afghan government was also supported by India, while the mujahideen found other support from a variety of sources including the United States, Saudi Arabia, Pakistan, and other Muslim nations through the context of the Cold War and the regional India-Pakistan conflict.

The initial Soviet deployment of the 40th Army in Afghanistan began on December 24, 1979 under the leadership of Soviet President Leonid Brezhnev. The final troop withdrawal started on May 15, 1988, and ended on February 15, 1989 under the last Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev. Due to the interminable nature of the war, the conflict in Afghanistan has often been referred to as the Soviets' Vietnam; in relation to the Vietnam War.

Afghanistan is, as of March, 2008, the greatest illicit (in Western World standards) opium producer in the world, before Burma (Myanmar), part of the so-called "Golden Crescent". Opium production in Afghanistan has been on the rise since the downfall of the Taliban in 2001. Based on UNODC data, there has been more opium poppy cultivation in each of the past four growing seasons (2004-2007), than in any one year during Taliban rule. Also, more land is now used for opium in Afghanistan, than for coca cultivation in Latin America. In 2007, 93% of the opiates on the world market originated in Afghanistan. This amounts to an export value of about $4 billion, with a quarter being earned by opium farmers and the rest going to district officials, insurgents, warlords and drug traffickers. In the seven years (1994-2000) prior to a Taliban opium ban, the Afghan farmers' share of gross income from opium was divided among 200,000 families.

One of the American intelligence community's biggest operations and initially considered a major success was the funding of the Mujahedeen (Islamist fighters) in Afghanistan and their training, arming, and supplying. The program was initiated under President Jimmy Carter and greatly expanded following the Soviet intervention in Afghanistan in December 1979. Under Reagan funding reached levels of $600 million/year.

Roger Morris, writing in the Asia Times, states that in April 1978, the crackdown by the regime of Daoud on Afghanistan's small Communist Party provoked a successful coup by Communist Party loyalists in the army. The coup occurred in defiance of a skittish Moscow, which had stopped earlier coup plans.

According to Morris, by autumn 1978, an Islamic insurgency, armed and planned by the U.S., Pakistan, Iran and China, and soon to be actively supported, at Washington's prodding, by the Saudis and Egyptians, was fighting in eastern Afghanistan. U.S. planners continued funding the radical Islamic insurgency to "suck" the Russians into Afghanistan.

The Afghans were supported by a number of other countries, with the US and Saudi Arabia offering the greatest financial support. However, the Afghans were also aided by others: the UK, Egypt, China, Iran, and Pakistan. Ground support, for political reasons, was limited to regional countries.

The United States began training insurgents in, and directing propaganda broadcasts into Afghanistan from Pakistan in 1978. Then, in early 1979, U.S. foreign service officers began meeting insurgent leaders to determine their needs. According to the then US National Security Advisor Zbigniew Brzezinski, CIA aid to the insurgents within Afghanistan was approved in July 1979, six months before the Soviet Invasion.

United States President Jimmy Carter insisted that what he termed "Soviet aggression" could not be viewed as an isolated event of limited geographical importance but had to be contested as a potential threat to US influence in the Persian Gulf region. The US was also worried about the USSR gaining access to the Indian Ocean by coming to an arrangement with Pakistan.

After the Soviet deployment, Pakistan's military ruler General Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq started accepting financial aid from the Western powers to aid the mujahideen. In 1981, following the election of US President Ronald Reagan, aid for the mujahideen through Zia's Pakistan significantly increased, mostly due to the efforts of Texas Congressman Charlie Wilson and CIA officer Gust Avrakotos.

 
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CIA in Tibet - Escape of The Dalai Lama - part 1

Currently in production, CIA IN TIBET is an inside look at the CIA's covert backing of Tibet's guerrilla war with China in the 50s and 60s. This documentary project is being produced by the daughter of a former CIA case officer who worked on the Tibetan Task Force in India and Nepal. Combined with rare archival and personal footage, her father's never-before-told stories mix with other key player's accounts and diverse perspectives in this timely examination of a seminal event in Tibet's continuing struggle for independence from China. * 1 feature-length documentary * video blog and website photo galleries

From the beginnings of the Communist Chinese occupation of Tibet in 1950, to the end of the CIA's operation in 1972, CIA IN TIBET recounts an epic era where an estimated 1.2 million Tibetans died in the Resistance, and seeks to reveal how the events of the past have shaped the ongoing issues today. * How did the Tibetan resistance deal with with the conflict between their Buddhist belief in non-violence, and the need to fight for their country's freedom? * From top-secret training in guerrilla warfare, to midnight overflights dropping weapons, supplies, and Tibetan freedom fighters into Chinese-occupied Tibet, what finally brought an end to the CIA's 15 year operation? * What impact did the CIA ultimately have in Tibet's ongoing mission to be an independent nation?

www.KefiBlog.com
It was on this day, after a week of ongoing protests by tens of thousands of Tibetans, that the Chinese People's Liberation Army retaliated by shelling Norbulingka, the Dalai Lama's summer palace. In secrecy, the Dalai Lama fled that night, arriving in India two weeks later. To this date, he has never returned to his homeland.

There are many stories within this larger drama, so this will be the first in a short series of posts dealing with the Dalai Lama's escape. Some bits are still in rough stages as certain elements won't be in a finished state until the feature is closer to being done. Hopefully that won't deter this and future posts from being worth watching.

 
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CIA in Tibet - Escape of The Dalai Lama - part 2
When the Dalai Lama first fled Lhasa on March 17, 1959, no one but his entourage knew where he was, until the CIA eventually located him through the two-man radio team they had trained. For the rest of the world, rumors began spreading and the international press had a field day. This video gives some context of the media frenzy that spread throughout the world about the disappearance of the Dalai Lama.

 
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CIA in Tibet - Escape of The Dalai Lama - part 3

Currently in production, CIA IN TIBET is an inside look at the CIA's covert backing of Tibet's guerrilla war with China in the 50s and 60s. This documentary project is being produced by the daughter of a former CIA case officer who worked on the Tibetan Task Force in India and Nepal. Combined with rare archival and personal footage, her father's never-before-told stories mix with other key player's accounts and diverse perspectives in this timely examination of a seminal event in Tibet's continuing struggle for independence from China. * 1 feature-length documentary * video blog and website photo galleries

From the beginnings of the Communist Chinese occupation of Tibet in 1950, to the end of the CIA's operation in 1972, CIA IN TIBET recounts an epic era where an estimated 1.2 million Tibetans died in the Resistance, and seeks to reveal how the events of the past have shaped the ongoing issues today. * How did the Tibetan resistance deal with with the conflict between their Buddhist belief in non-violence, and the need to fight for their country's freedom? * From top-secret training in guerrilla warfare, to midnight overflights dropping weapons, supplies, and Tibetan freedom fighters into Chinese-occupied Tibet, what finally brought an end to the CIA's 15 year operation? * What impact did the CIA ultimately have in Tibet's ongoing mission to be an independent nation?

It was on this day in 1959 that the Dalai Lama safely arrived at India's border, after a harrowing 14-day flight from Lhasa. His dramatic escape brought international attention to the Chinese capture of Tibet, a situation that Tibetans continue to struggle with to this day.

The news of his arrival was received by the U.S. on April 2nd, sent by CIA-trained radio operators, Athar and Lhotse. For anyone who wishes to read it, that message is posted on the Kefiblog facebook page:

 
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The CIA's Secret War with Dana Priest

Dana Priest returns to UC Santa Cruz to receive the first annual Social Sciences Division "Distinguished Social Sciences Alumni Award" and deliver a lecture on the secret CIA-run prisons for terror suspects she exposed as the national security correspondent for the Washington Post. [3/2006] [Public Affairs] [Show ID: 11488]

 
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"HUNTED LIKE ANIMALS" History of Hmong Lao-Vietnam War

To Watch Video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f8YFiE... © SommerFilms, 2007 (by Rebecca Sommer) All rights reserved. http://www.sommerfilms.org
Brief history (Vietnam War) of the ethnic Hmong Lao people of Laos, narrated by Hmong leader General Vang Pao, and Mr. Vang from the LHRC. In the 75 minute-long awareness-raising documentary "Hunted Like Animals", the refugees who fled from Laos to Thailand explain what the military inside of Laos did to them, while they were running and hiding, half starved, from the attacks by the soldiers ~ over 30 years after the Vietnam War ended. Some footage in "Hunted Like Animals" was filmed by the Hmong-in-hiding themselves- in the mountainous conflict areas of Laos (2002-2006). (Cameras were smuggled in, and tapes out of the conflict area by Fact Finding Commission.)

Thousands of Hmong Lao fled from Laos to Thailand - starting 2004- to escape increasing military attacks inside of Laos, and settled in Thailand's Ban Huay Nam Khao Refugee Camp.
Over 1400 DVD of HUNTED LIKE ANIMALS were disseminated to governments, UN system and NGOs end of 2006 and 2007. Even so diplomats and UN officials has no access to the people-in-hiding inside of Laos, or to the refugees in Thailand's refugee camp - HUNTED LIKE ANIMALS brings the voices of the desperate Hmong Lao directly to them. The refugees want the world to know what they have endured, and speak on behalf of many thousands of Hmong left behind -- who are still trapped inside of remote mountainous jungle areas, chased, attacked, tortured, mutilated, killed, starving -- AT THIS VERY MOMENT !!!!!

Please contact the filmmaker Rebecca Sommer, if you would like to order a DVD - or if you have questions: [email protected]

 
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According to this 1998 interview with Zbigniew Brzezinski, the CIA's intervention in Afghanistan preceded the 1979 Soviet invasion. This decision of the Carter Administration in 1979 to intervene and destabilise Afghanistan is the root cause of Afghanistan's destruction as a nation.

M.C.

The CIA's Intervention in Afghanistan


Interview with Zbigniew Brzezinski,
President Jimmy Carter's National Security Adviser

Le Nouvel Observateur, Paris, 15-21 January 1998
Posted at globalresearch.ca 15 October 2001

Question: The former director of the CIA, Robert Gates, stated in his memoirs ["From the Shadows"], that American intelligence services began to aid the Mujahadeen in Afghanistan 6 months before the Soviet intervention. In this period you were the national security adviser to President Carter. You therefore played a role in this affair. Is that correct?

Brzezinski: Yes. According to the official version of history, CIA aid to the Mujahadeen began during 1980, that is to say, after the Soviet army invaded Afghanistan, 24 Dec 1979. But the reality, secretly guarded until now, is completely otherwise Indeed, it was July 3, 1979 that President Carter signed the first directive for secret aid to the opponents of the pro-Soviet regime in Kabul. And that very day, I wrote a note to the president in which I explained to him that in my opinion this aid was going to induce a Soviet military intervention.

Q: Despite this risk, you were an advocate of this covert action. But perhaps you yourself desired this Soviet entry into war and looked to provoke it?

B: It isn't quite that. We didn't push the Russians to intervene, but we knowingly increased the probability that they would.

Q: When the Soviets justified their intervention by asserting that they intended to fight against a secret involvement of the United States in Afghanistan, people didn't believe them. However, there was a basis of truth. You don't regret anything today?

B: Regret what? That secret operation was an excellent idea. It had the effect of drawing the Russians into the Afghan trap and you want me to regret it? The day that the Soviets officially crossed the border, I wrote to President Carter. We now have the opportunity of giving to the USSR its Vietnam war. Indeed, for almost 10 years, Moscow had to carry on a war unsupportable by the government, a conflict that brought about the demoralization and finally the breakup of the Soviet empire.

Q: And neither do you regret having supported the Islamic fundamentalism, having given arms and advice to future terrorists?

B: What is most important to the history of the world? The Taliban or the collapse of the Soviet empire? Some stirred-up Moslems or the liberation of Central Europe and the end of the cold war?

Q: Some stirred-up Moslems? But it has been said and repeated Islamic fundamentalism represents a world menace today.

B: Nonsense! It is said that the West had a global policy in regard to Islam. That is stupid. There isn't a global Islam. Look at Islam in a rational manner and without demagoguery or emotion. It is the leading religion of the world with 1.5 billion followers. But what is there in common among Saudi Arabian fundamentalism, moderate Morocco, Pakistan militarism, Egyptian pro-Western or Central Asian secularism? Nothing more than what unites the Christian countries.

Translated from the French by Bill Blum
 
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Operation PBFORTUNE

Operation PBFORTUNE was the name of a contingency plan drafted by the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency in 1951 that outlined a method of ousting Guatemalan President Jacobo Arbenz if he was deemed a Communist threat in the hemisphere. The plan was a precursor to Operation PBSUCCESS, codename for the covert operation that went forward successfully in 1954.
Although PBFORTUNE was officially approved on September 9, 1952, various planning steps had been taken earlier in the year. In January 1952, officers in the CIA's Directorate of Plans compiled a list of "top flight Communists whom the new government would desire to eliminate immediately in the event of a successful anti-Communist coup." Later, in April 1952, Nicaraguan President Anastasio Somoza García visited US President Harry Truman and said that if provided arms, he would collaborate with Guatemalan exile Carlos Castillo Armas to overthrow Guatemalan President Arbenz. After a CIA agent investigated the feasibility of such a plan, it was proposed that the CIA supply the needed arms and $225,000 to Castillo Armas, and that Nicaragua and Honduras should supply air support to the Guatemalan rebels.
Part of the CIA plan called for the assassination of over 58 Guatemalans, and Castillo Armas agreed to collaborate with a request from General Rafael Leónidas Trujillo, the dictator of the Dominican Republic, to assassinate 4 additional Santo Dominicans who were in Guatemala. Several other assassination plans continued after the termination of PBFORTUNE in October, 1952, when the CIA learned that PBFORTUNE had been discovered.
 

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KHAMBA Horsemen

Chushi Gangdruk was an organization of Tibetan guerrilla fighters who attempted to overthrow the rule of the People's Republic of China (PRC) in Tibet that began with the People's Liberation Army invasion of Tibet (1950–1951). Chushi Gangdruk now supports survivors of the Chushi Gangdruk resistance currently living in India.
The formation of the Chushi Gangdruk Defend Tibet Volunteer Force was announced on June 16, 1958. "Chushi Gangdruk" is a Tibetan phrase meaning "land of four rivers and six ranges," and refers to Kham. The group included Tibetans from the Kham and Amdo regions of eastern Tibet, and its main objective was to drive PRC occupational forces out of Tibet. While central and western Tibet were bound by a 17-point agreement with the People's Republic of China, the PRC initiated land reform in eastern Tibet (including Kham and Amdo) and engaged in harsh reprisals against the Tibetan land-owners there.
Under the direction of General Andruk Gonpo Tashi, Chushi Gangdruk included 37 allied forces and 18 military commanders. They drafted a 27-point military law governing the conduct of the volunteers. Their headquarters were located at Tsona, then later moved to Lhagyari.
Initially militia members purchased their own weapons, mainly World War II-era British .303 in, German 7.92 mm, and Russian 7.62 mm caliber rifles. Chushi Gangdruk contacted the US government for support. However, the State Department required an official request from the Tibetan government in Lhasa, which was not forthcoming. State Department requests were made and ignored in both 1957 and 1958.
Eventually, the US Central Intelligence Agency provided the group with material assistance and aid, including arms and ammunition, as well as training to members of Chushi Gangdruk and other Tibetan guerrilla groups at Camp Hale. Chushi Gangdruk also received aid from the government of the Republic of China in Taiwan, led by Chiang Kai-shek.
From 1960, Chushi Gangdruk conducted its guerrilla operations from the northern Nepalese region of Mustang. In 1974, guerrilla operations ceased after the CIA, given the realignment of Sino-American relations initiated by President Richard Nixon, terminated its program of assistance to the Tibetan resistance movement and the Dalai Lama, the spiritual leader of the previously ruling Gelugpa, taped a message telling the Tibetans to lay down their weapons and surrender peacefully.
 

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CIA Activities in Indonesia



Intelligence collection
During an unguarded conversation in Washington before 1958, the Indonesian military attaché mentioned to Americans that there were many prominent and strong people in Indonesia who would be ready to rise against President Sukarno if they were given a little support and encouragement from the United States. One of those U.S friends was a CIA staffer who reported the words to Frank Wisner, then the Deputy Director of Plans.

Covert action

The attaché returned to Indonesia with CIA personnel under military cover. They learned enough about the potential strength of this opposition to encourage the CIA to set in motion its biggest operation up to that date. Those personnel contacted Filipino military men, especially a Colonel Valeriano, with whom the CIA had worked in Ramon Magsaysay's counterinsurgency against the Hukbalahap leftist rebels.
CIA and Filipino counterinsurgents had, by early 1958, set up special operations training bases, apparently with United States Army Special Forces trainers, and made clandestine air bases on Palawan and Mindanao available to Indonesian rebels.
On Feb. 9, 1958, rebel Colonel Maluddin Simbolon issued an ultimatum in the name of a provincial government, the Central Sumatran Revolutionary Council, calling for the formation of a new central government. Sukarno refused and called upon his loyal army commander, General Abdul Haris Nasution, to destroy the rebel forces. By Feb. 21 loyal forces had been airlifted to Sumatra and had begun the attack. The rebel headquarters was in the southern coastal city of Padang. Rebel strongholds stretched all the way to Medan, near the northern end of the island and not far from Malaysia.
CIA supported the Indonesian rebellion from the main Far East base in Naha, Okinawa, under Ted Shannon. Another support facility was on Taiwan, where B-26 bombers were prepared to ferry them to the Philippine bases that would support the Indonesian rebels. CIA, drawing on US Marine and Army stocks, provided 42,000 rifles.

Armed Indonesians returned to Sumatra by airdrop from the Philippines, and by landings from US submarines. In May 1958 an B-26 operated by CIA proprietary Civil Air Transport was shot down during a bombing and strafing mission and the resulting publicity ended the attempt.
 

ajtr

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The CIA' Secret War in Tibet, by Kenneth Conboy and James Morrison


Department of History and Political Science, Iona College

Kenneth J. Conboy and James Morrison. The CIA's Secret War in Tibet. Modern War Studies. Lawrence: University Press of Kansas, 2002. x + 301 pp. Photographs, maps, notes, index. $34.95 (cloth), ISBN 0-7006-1159-2.

Published by H-Diplo (June, 2002)

In The CIA's Secret War in Tibet, Kenneth Conboy and James Morrison recount the efforts of the Central Intelligence Agency to assist Tibetan resistance fighters in their struggle against the People's Republic of China (PRC) from the 1950s to the 1970s. Although the Agency had contacts with Tibetans since the Chinese reoccupied Tibet in 1950, it did not organize a major operation in the country until Khampa tribesmen launched rebellions against the PRC in 1955 and 1956. With the assistance of Gyalo Thondup, a brother of the Dalai Lama who was active in the politics of the Tibetan refugee community, the CIA recruited and trained six Tibetan refugees to serve as agents in assessing the strength of rebellion and in preparing for the creation of a resistance network. By 1958, reports from these agents convinced the Eisenhower administration that the Tibetans had the ability to wage a sustained campaign against Chinese rule. The CIA therefore carried out a program of secretly dropping supplies to the Tibetan insurgents and training Tibetan agents to organize resistance and intelligence networks within the country. This effort, however, was launched just as the People's Liberation Army took increasingly effective measures in suppressing the rebels. Tibetan radio agents did play a crucial role in assisting the Dalai Lama as he fled the escalating fighting by informing the U.S. and Indian governments about the Lama's request for sanctuary in India. This important propaganda victory nevertheless did nothing to stop the PLA's destruction and dispersal of the guerrilla bands that the Agency assisted.

The failure of the rebellion, however, did not bring an end to American efforts to use Tibet as an active front against the PRC. In the 1960s, the CIA continued training Tibetan agents for intelligence and sabotage operations in Tibet and it set up a base for a guerrilla unit in the remote Nepalese kingdom of Mustang. After China's border war with India in 1962, the Agency worked closely with Indian intelligence services in training and supplying agents in Tibet and in creating a special forces unit of Tibetan refugees that was eventually called the Special Frontier Force. The CIA's Tibetan operations continued until the 1970s when strains in U.S.-Indian relations, the improvement of U.S. diplomatic ties with the PRC, and the Nepalese government's occupation of the Mustang base brought the Tibet program to an end.

In addition to training agents and paramilitary units for operations inside Tibet, the CIA took other steps to aid the Tibetan resistance. A CIA subsidiary, the Committee for Free Asia, financed a trip that Thubten Norbu, another one of the Dalai Lama's brothers, made to the United States in the early 1950s to plead for American support for Tibetan independence. When Tibetans lobbied for the passage of a United Nations resolution that expressed concern over PRC policies in Tibet in 1959, the CIA provided information to sympathetic journalists and editors in an effort to build up public support for the resolution. The Agency also assisted the Dalai Lama's government-in-exile by giving a $180,000 annual donation to the Dalai Lama's charitable trust fund until 1967 and by subsidizing a training program for Tibetan officials and agents at Cornell University. It also purchased Tibetan art works for display at the government-in-exile's Tibet House in New Delhi.

In the book's preface, Conboy and Morrison write that the story of the CIA's activities in Tibet has been told before, but they contend that this story needs to be retold for several reasons. "Tibet," they claim, "became a vital cold war proving ground for CIA case officers and their spycraft." Much of the equipment that the Agency used in subsequent years, especially aircraft and communications gear, was "combat tested in the most extreme conditions imaginable" (p. ix). CIA personnel also learned techniques for air dropping supplies and in establishing communications networks that were used in subsequent operations. Moreover, they learned to work closely with other government agencies, especially the armed forces and U.S. Forest Service, in getting the pilots, parachute instructors, and aircraft needed to implement the program. Finally, many of the officers who participated in the Tibet program later assumed positions of greater responsibility in directing CIA activities in other parts of the world, especially Vietnam and Laos. John Kenneth Knaus, who trained Tibetan agents and later headed the Tibet Task Force in the early 1960s, went on to hold senior positions at Langley. Roger McCarthy, the head of the Tibet Task Force at the height of its activities from 1959 until 1961, later led operations in Vietnam and Laos. Two CIA members who trained Tibetan agents in Colorado, Thomas Fosmire and Anthony Poshpenny (Tony Poe), also served in Indochina for several years.

The authors also write that the CIA's Tibet program played an important role in forging closer ties between the United States and India, particularly the CIA and its Indian counterparts. Despite serious disputes over issues such as India's Cold War neutralism and America's alliance with Pakistan, common fears about Chinese policies in Tibet "led Washington and New Delhi to become secret partners over the course of several U.S. administrations" (p. x). Conboy's and Morrison's description of this partnership is one of the greatest strengths of the book. The authors provide a detailed account of CIA collaboration with the Indian intelligence services in training and equipping Tibetan agents and special forces troops and in forming joint aerial and intelligence units such as the Aviation Research Center and Special Center. This collaboration continued well into the 1970s and some of the programs that it sponsored, especially the operations of the Special Frontier Force under Indian command, continue into the present.

Finally, Conboy and Morrison claim that the CIA's role in assisting the Dalai Lama in his flight from Tibet and in establishing a Tibetan government-in-exile as well as paramilitary forces "was a significant boost in the morale in the refugee community." This assistance, they argue, "helped carry the diaspora community and its leadership through the darkest years of exile when their cause might have been otherwise forgotten" (p. x). This argument is likely to spark the strongest disagreement from some of the book's readers. Although it is true that the Americans gave valuable assistance to the Dalai Lama during the early years of his exile, their very involvement in the revolt against the PRC did much to create the tensions that shaped his decision to flee Tibet. Moreover, as Tsering Shakya writes in The Dragon in the Land of Snows, the CIA's Tibetan operations convinced the PRC's leaders that they faced "a direct threat to China's security" and this conviction "may explain the ferocity of Chinese suppression of the Tibetan revolt."[1]

The book also gives the impression that many of the CIA's Tibetan operations were simply ineffectual and costly failures despite the ingenuity and bravery of both the Tibetan and American agents. Aid to the revolt in the late 1950s did not prevent the rebellion's ultimate defeat and the harsh Chinese policies that followed. Virtually all of the agents who infiltrated Tibet for the purpose of creating resistance or intelligence networks were killed, captured, or forced to flee the country. The guerrilla force based at Mustang scored an impressive early success by capturing a cache of classified Chinese documents in 1961, but did little in subsequent years because of effective Chinese border control measures and infighting among the force's leadership. The unit, as one of its officers put it, "went on existing for the sake of existence" (p. 199).

Although Conboy and Morrison do not systematically analyze the reasons for the Tibet program's failure, they do mention a number of factors that undermined its effectiveness. The Tibetan leadership constantly suffered from differences concerning personalities, policy, and regional loyalties. Despite widespread resentment against their rule, the Chinese implemented rigorous security measures that discouraged local support for the CIA's Tibetan agents. Finally, neither the United States nor the South Asian governments that supported or tolerated the Agency's activities were willing to countenance a campaign that risked an open conflict with the PRC.

In writing The CIA's Secret War in Tibet, Conboy and Morrison draw on earlier accounts such as John Prados's Presidents' Secret Wars. They also acknowledge their debt to memoirs written by former CIA officers such as Knaus and McCarthy.[2] The authors have nevertheless added a great deal of new information concerning the CIA's work. They have consulted documents from the Foreign Relations of the United States series and Declassified Documents Reference Service as well as memoirs and secondary works concerning the Tibet operation. They add much to the record through their interviews of many of the surviving principals. They have interviewed or corresponded with many of the surviving CIA personnel, including Knaus, McCarthy, Fosmire, and Poshpenny as well as American civilian and military personnel who supported the program. Many of the Tibetan leaders and agents such as Gyalo Thondup, Lhamo Tsering, Baba Yeshi, and Jamba Kalden were also interviewed. Moreover, Conboy and Morrison also contacted Indians, Nepalese, and Sikkimese who dealt with the CIA during this time. In drawing on interviews in writing the book, the authors have been careful to check the reliability of their sources and have avoided making sensationalist claims.

The CIA's Secret war in Tibet clearly describes the organization and execution of CIA operations, but provides less detail about the higher level policy decisions affecting the CIA program. The book provides enough information for readers to understand the general direction of American, Chinese, and Tibetan policies, but other works give a more comprehensive coverage of these matters. Knaus's Orphans of the Cold War provides a detailed view of Washington's Tibet policies while works by Shakya, A. Tom Grunfeld, and Melvyn C. Goldstein discuss the problems faced by leaders in Beijing and Lhasa.[3] The book's coverage of American policies is stronger than that of China's although the authors have consulted histories published in Taiwan and the PRC. The book's discussion of Chinese affairs is also marred by misspellings and inconsistencies in using the Wade-Giles and Pinyin systems. The most striking example of this is when the authors repeatedly refer to China's Hui Muslim minority as "Hiu" Muslims. Conboy and Morrison are generally sympathetic and respectful in their treatment of Tibetan culture, but they refer to the Dalai Lama's consultations with spiritual mediums as "channeling sessions."

Despite these problems, The CIA's Secret War in Tibet provides a clear and valuable account of the Agency's Tibetan campaign and it is a welcome addition to the literature of the subject.

Notes
 

civfanatic

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I think that out of all the organizations that have existed in modern history, the CIA is the one responsible for the most suffering...

The most sickening part is that all the assassinations, coups, engineered civil wars, etc. are carried out in the name of "freedom" and "liberty".
 

amoy

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B: It isn't quite that. We didn't push the Russians to intervene, but we knowingly increased the probability that they would.

Q: When the Soviets justified their intervention by asserting that they intended to fight against a secret involvement of the United States in Afghanistan, people didn't believe them. However, there was a basis of truth. You don't regret anything today?

B: Regret what? That secret operation was an excellent idea. It had the effect of drawing the Russians into the Afghan trap and you want me to regret it? The day that the Soviets officially crossed the border, I wrote to President Carter. We now have the opportunity of giving to the USSR its Vietnam war. Indeed, for almost 10 years, Moscow had to carry on a war unsupportable by the government, a conflict that brought about the demoralization and finally the breakup of the Soviet empire.

Q: And neither do you regret having supported the Islamic fundamentalism, having given arms and advice to future terrorists?

B: What is most important to the history of the world? The Taliban or the collapse of the Soviet empire? Some stirred-up Moslems or the liberation of Central Europe and the end of the cold war?

Q: Some stirred-up Moslems? But it has been said and repeated Islamic fundamentalism represents a world menace today.

B: Nonsense! It is said that the West had a global policy in regard to Islam. That is stupid. There isn't a global Islam. Look at Islam in a rational manner and without demagoguery or emotion. It is the leading religion of the world with 1.5 billion followers. But what is there in common among Saudi Arabian fundamentalism, moderate Morocco, Pakistan militarism, Egyptian pro-Western or Central Asian secularism? Nothing more than what unites the Christian countries.
Master strokes of CIA... Even Sun Tze could have waken up from the tomb and saluted to Brzezinski
 

Ray

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The Secret War of the CIA was not pursued seriously and hence was a damp squib.

India also was on the non aligned 'high' and so was hardly any help.

Taking the issue purely from a military operational art stand point, it would have been ideal when China was embroiled in Korea and its forces focussed out there.
 
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