CIA’s Bay of Pigs foreign policy laid bare

[Judi Lynn]

Posted on Saturday, 08.27.11
CIA’s Bay of Pigs foreign policy laid bare

A recently released, and brutally honest, look at the run-up to the disastrous Bay of Pigs Operation focuses on the CIA’s prominent role.

By CAROL ROSENBERG
[e-mail]

A once-secret CIA history of the Bay of Pigs invasion lays out in unvarnished detail how the American spy agency came to the rescue of and cut deals with authoritarian governments in Central America, largely to hide the U.S. role in organizing and controlling the hapless Cuban exile invasion force.

The report, in chronicling how American secret agents dealt with the ’60s-era governments of Guatemala and Nicaragua, provides important evidence, in official U.S. government words, to the truth of the old adage that the most powerful people in Central American embassies were the CIA station chiefs.

Ambassadors step aside and allow the CIA to negotiate deals for covert paramilitary bases in a newly released portion of the CIA’s “Official History of the Bay of Pigs Operation.” CIA pilots and Cuban foot soldiers then help suppress a Guatemalan Army coup attempt that threatened their foothold in the country. Gen. Anastasio Somoza hits up the CIA for a $10 million payoff, development loans, as the price of letting the Americans launch the Cuban exile invasion from Nicaragua.

“What you’re reading in this report shows again that in the hypocritical name of democracy the United States and CIA were willing to prop up some of the most cut-throat dictatorships,” says George Washington University researcher Peter Kornbluh of the school’s National Security Archive. He sued the CIA for release of the Top Secret document that dissects one of the agency’s greatest failures.

More:
http://www.miamiherald.com/2011/08/27/2377593/cias-bay-of-pigs-foreign-policy.html

[indepat]

1. Just how hypocritical is a democracy that props up some of the most cut-throat

dictatorships: at what point does one become worse than those you are supposedly protecting us from? :shrug: :patriot:

[Hydra]

2. That assumes we were a Democracy to start with

Since WWII and probably before our actions have been more than a little sketchy. Can you be a democracy and keep secrets like this?

[Fuddnik]

3. Check this out.

http://www.alternet.org/vision/152186/how_do_we_stop_the_relentless_expansion_of_the_american_empire_first%2C_uncover_the_truth_about_it/


How Do We Stop the Relentless Expansion of the American Empire? First, Uncover the Truth About It
AlterNet has dedicated some serious editorial muscle to do investigative reporting on US military operations around the globe -- can you help?
August 26, 2011 |



Dear AlterNet Reader,

A few weeks ago, in a conversation with U.S. Special Operations Command spokesman Colonel Tim Nye, Nick Turse -- one of the great investigative reporters on military powerand national security -- learned something truly shocking. He found out that, on any given day, American commandos are carrying out secret missions in 70 countries. And here is some startling news -- by the end of the year, that number is likely to reach 120.

That’s right. You read that correctly. America’s secret commandos are carrying out operations in 120 countries around the world. What Nick learned provides striking new evidence of a rising clandestine Pentagon power elite, waging a secret war in about 60% of the world’s nations -- a far larger number than was previously acknowledged.This represents a huge expansion by the Obama administration over that of George W. Bush, who deployed "Special Ops" troops in 60 countries.

As Turse points out: Without the knowledge of the American public, a secret unit within the U.S. military -- U.S. Special Operations Command (SOCOM) -- has grown into a combined force of startling proportions. Made up of the Army’s “Green Berets” and Rangers, Navy SEALs, Air Force Air Commandos, and Marine Corps Special Operations teams, in addition to specialized helicopter crews, boat teams, civil affairs personnel, para-rescuemen, and even battlefield air-traffic controllers and special operations weathermen, SOCOM carries out the United States’ most specialized and shadowy missions. These include assassinations, counterterrorist raids, long-range reconnaissance, intelligence analysis, foreign troop training, and weapons of mass destruction counter-proliferation operations.

(snip)