CIA or CKA – Central Killing Agency?

[Demeter]

http://english.ruvr.ru/2011/09/02/55566607.html

On September 6, General David Petraeus will be officially inaugurated as the new CIA chief. What legacy is he getting?

By coincidence or not, on Thursday, September 1, The Washington Post published a long article outlining in detail the new profile of the Central Intelligence Agency. By analyzing numerous examples from all parts of the world, and especially from the Middle East with a special focus on Yemen, the paper concludes that instead of collecting intelligence data, now the CIA is mostly engaged in finding and killing suspects without trial.

The agency has even designed a special unit – an agency within an agency – the Counterterrorism Center entrusted with the task to track and eliminate terrorists around the globe....At the time of creation, the CTC had about 300 employees, but now its total staff is around 2,000 (about 10 percent of the total number of CIA employees) and exceeds the total manpower of Al Qaeda. The tactics used by the CTC at the early stages of its existence seemed unthinkable and futuristic, but now have become just a matter of routine. This primarily concerns the notorious drone strikes that have killed more than 2,000 militants and civilians and irreversibly spoiled U.S. relationships with its have-been allies like Pakistan.

In fact, formerly the CIA’s main purpose was to collect data and work out advice for policy-makers, but now it has turned into what can be called a “lawlessness enforcement” agency and a kind of paramilitary force with man hunting as its primary occupation....“Traditional” intelligence officers long for the times when the CIA’s job was purely analytical. Human rights activists point at numerous violations of human rights and indiscriminate killings...What makes too many in the U.S. and abroad worry is the fact that the CIA is acting in a manner of a “killing machine” without any transparent account to the supervising authorities. The worst nightmares of 20th century science fiction are coming true! And the CTC top officials seem to be proud of the fact. The Washington Post quotes the CTC chief as saying, “We are killing these sons of bitches faster than they can grow them now.”

MORE AT LINK

[westerebus]

1. Traditional intelligence officers.

Like the ones who thought carpet bombing indo-china would turn the tide?

Or disposing of local labor organizers in latin america who thought labor should be organized in their own country?

Iran's Shah perhaps, those intelligence officers?

That's about fifty odd years worth of tradition.

Nothing has changed with the exception of the technology.

Now the job is no longer out sourced, with limited exceptions.

Supervising authorities? They get briefed daily.

They get to sit in and watch the play by play.

Nothing like a little rewriting of histo.