Secret Wars of CIA Have Cost Taxpayers Billions

[Donnachaidh]

http://www.opednews.com/articles/Secret-Wars-of-CIA-Have-Co-by-Sherwood-Ross-110605-267.html


It's been estimated the Iraq war, besides making that country pretty much unlivable, will flush $3 trillion in U.S. taxpayer dollars down the Pentagon drain. Nobel Prize economist Joseph Stiglitz, who made that cost estimate, wrote with co-author Linda Bilmes in The Washington Post March 9, 2008, "The Iraq adventure has seriously weakened the U.S. Economy...you can't spend $3 trillion---yes, $3 trillion ---on a failed war abroad and not feel the pain at home."

The Stiglitz study is well known and is a factor in making many Americans want to get out of Iraq. (A CNN poll this January found two-thirds opposed the war.) But other costly wars have been waged by the White House, Pentagon, and CIA that have been kept largely secret. Their costs ran into the billions of dollars and not only cheated uninformed taxpayers but lacerated innocent nations, turning their populations against us, and ruined for American business countries that should have been harmonious trading partners.

Take El Salvador. President John Kennedy in the early Sixties worked to help El Salvador's military set up ORDEN, a rural paramilitary network, and ANSESAL, an intelligence agency, that were the forerunners of the dreaded Death Squads. Between 1980 and 1992, the U.S. literally waged a war to help the government suppress El Salvador's poverty-struck people. The CIA created right-wing Death Squads to murder labor leaders who fought on behalf of the poor for decent wages. By the time those killer bands had finished their slaughter, 75,000 civilians lay dead and "the U.S. Treasury depleted by six billion dollars," according to journalist William Blum's "Rogue State" from Common Courage Press.

" Officially, the U.S. Military presence in El Salvador was limited to an advisory capacity. In actuality, military and CIA personnel played a more active role on a continuous basis," Blum writes. "About 20 Americans were killed or wounded in helicopter and plane crashes while flying reconnaissance or other missions over combat areas, and considerable evidence surfaced of a U.S. role in the ground fighting as well."

More at the link --

[Tierra_y_Libertad]

1. The CIA is jampacked with unindicted war criminals.

Not to mention their masters.

[Scuba]

2. But no healthcare for you Grandama!

[indepat]

3. Americans might wish to pray that there is no just God in heaven who dispenses just

desserts for egregious international iniquities. :patriot:

[Bigmack]

4. Their fuckups are bad enough....

but having to pay top dollar for those fuckups is the worst part.

The CIA could fuck up a jello sandwich.

[BOG PERSON]

5. i thought the CIA obtained funding for their secret shit

by way of the drug trade. which would explain the disproportionate CIA presence in afghanistan (our opium colony)

[Angry Dragon]

6. I will go on record and state that the United States of America

is the largest terrorist organization this world has ever seen.........

[drokhole]

8. All the while operating under the auspices of "freedom," "justice," and "democracy"...

...making it infinitely worse. It's absolutely disgusting. And people buy it now more than ever. It almost puts Orwell to shame.

[xiamiam]

9. one reason why transparency is so threatening to tbtb..nt

[leveymg]

7. Many of paramilitary wet-ops that the Pentagon does get pinned on the generic "CIA"

Here's a couple illustrative extracts from History Commons (no copyright issues): http://www.historycommons.org/entity.jsp?entity=green_berets_1

Profile: Green Berets
Green Berets was a participant or observer in the following events:
1960s: US Assists Salvadoran Government in Creation of New Security Agencies
Edit event

The United States helps the Salvadoran government organize a rural paramilitary force known as the Democratic Nationalist Organization (ORDEN) and the Salvadoran National Security Agency (ANSESAL) under the auspices of General Jose Alberto “Chele” Medrano, who is a senior officer in the National Guard and Armed Forces High Command of El Salvador. As early as 1963, the Green Berets send over ten counterinsurgency trainers to help Medreno. Both agencies are formed with the stated purpose of combating communism. ORDEN is tasked with “indoctrinat the peasants regarding the advantages of the democratic system and the disadvantages of the communist system,” but also operates as an intelligence network. Intelligence relating to “subversive” activities will regularly be relayed to ANSESAL and then to the office of the president, who will then take “appropriate action.” ORDEN in particular will be later blamed for numerous human rights abuses, with Amnesty International accusing it of being created with the intention of using “clandestine terror against government opponents.” One of the offshoots of ORDEN, the White Hand (Mano Blanco), is later called “nothing less that the birth of the death squads” by a former US ambassador to El Salvador.

Entity Tags: Salvadoran National Security Agency, Democratic Nationalist Organization, White Hand, Green Berets, Jose Alberto “Chele” Medrano

Timeline Tags: US International Relations, US-El Salvador (1980-2002)
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1980: Afghan Fighters Begin Training in US
Edit event

Some fighters opposing the Soviets in Afghanistan begin training in the US. According to journalist John Cooley, the training is done by Navy Seals and Green Beret officers who have taken draconian secrecy oaths. Key Pakistani officers are trained, as well as some senior Afghan mujaheddin. Much of the training takes place in Camp Peary, near Williamsburg, Virginia, which is said to be the CIA’s main location for training spies and assets. Other training takes place at Fort Bragg, North Carolina, Harvey Point, North Carolina, and Fort A. P. Hill, Virginia. Subjects are trained in how to detect explosives, surveillance, how to recruit new agents, how to run paramilitary operations, and more. They are taught to use many different weapons as well, including remote-controlled mines and bombs, and sophisticated timers and explosives. Cooley claims that “apparently Arab or other foreign volunteers” are trained in the US. However, in the late 1980s, US consular official Michael Springmann will notice fighters from many Middle Eastern nations are getting US visas, apparently to train in the US for the Afghan war (see September 1987-March 1989). Additionally, more training takes place in other countries. For instance, Cooley will note, “By the end of 1980, US military trainers were sent to Egypt to impart the skills of the US Special Forces to those Egyptians who would, in turn, pass on the training to the Egyptian volunteers flying to the aid of the mujaheddin in Afghanistan.” Cooley will further note, “Time and time again, these same techniques reappear among the Islamist insurgents in Upper Egypt and Algeria, since the ‘Afghani’ Arab veterans began returning there in the late 1980s and early 1990s.” It is not known how long these training programs continue.

Entity Tags: Green Berets, Central Intelligence Agency, Michael Springmann, Navy Seals

Timeline Tags: Complete 911 Timeline, War in Afghanistan
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[AntiFascist]

10. The biggest covert war ever...

was probably Operation Cyclone:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Cyclone

funded in order to end the Cold War, it provided a massive amount of funding and arms for mujahideen "freedom fighters" in Afghanistan. After the US pulled out, it left a vacuum from which Al Qaeda arose. Keep in mind that Al Qaeda remained a "right wing" organization whose likely purpose, even if funded by foreign entities, was to protect the powers-that-be by ultimately shifting the focus of unrest and revolution toward the US and Israel.

[Rageneau]

11. Stassi, KGB, Gestapo, CIA, Ton-Ton Macoutes, Ringwraiths -- alla same.

[tekisui]

12. Some within the Obama administration are pushing to cut back on

the CIA's wars and rampant drone attacks. But, Obama has thus far chosen to stay the course.

[hootinholler]

13. Sure, but that's an investment...

For the MIC. It gins up business by ensuring that the USA has a steady stream of enemies.

For an added bonus this doesn't even count the money the CIA's made on drugs and weapons.

-Hoot