Reply #3: One of the biggest reasons to view the CIA with disgust and scorn

[EST]

is that they are absolutely NOT there to defend liberty or democracy. As is slowly coming out, the CIA is there to implement the policies of the ruling junta and that junta is nearly always composed of partisans who view their jobs as supporting and protecting the business and investment class, to the anguish, death, destruction and disenfranchisement of the "other" classes of people both here and world wide.

If the CIA were actually primarily involved in the acquisition and analysis of intelligence, as their name implies, the world would be a different place. As we have discovered and history now discloses, the CIA is not very good at its supposed job and has developed its expertise in entirely a different direction--that of supplying shock troops at the behest af the administration.

Of course, any individual member of that organization is free to and is likely to view his or her own job as essential to the maintenance of liberty or democratic principles. People go into the service of country with high minded ideals (or most of them do) and are handed that kind of sunshine pumping throughout their careers. There is no way that an individual "in the ranks" is likely to be able to accurately evaluate the overall goals and direction of the agency: as a matter of fact, it is severely frowned upon.

The jobs of policy, direction and sunshine pumping belong to management types, political employees and toadies of the administration and generally are occupied by those who have no compunction about destroying anyone who gets in their way in their own careers.

In sum, it is appropriate to honor those who have labored to advance their own notions of integrity and selflessness, even though myopic, but to remain skeptical of assuming anything at all about the organization they serve and whether or not it actually performs the services that we assume it is supposed to.