The CIA
Red Cell memorandum released by WikiLeaks speaks volumes about the
doublethink, paranoia, deception, and delusion of the CIA itself.
1. In this memo, the CIA is concerned that �American
freedoms facilitate terrorism.� The �freedoms� include the Internet and the
ability to travel.
Translation: the
CIA wants these and other �freedoms� ended. Not even the post-9/11 �homeland
security� lockdown made possible by the USAPATRIOT Act has been enough.
2. The memo cites 1) Muslim-American men who traveled to
Pakistan to the �join the Taliban in jihad,� 2) David Headley�s membership in
the group Lashkar-i-Tabiya, and his involvement in the 2008 Mumbai terror
incident, 3) American Jews engaging in �violent acts against perceived enemies
of Israel,� and 4) Irish-American support for the IRA.
Translation: the
CIA absolves itself of any responsibility for the continuous management of
terrorist groups all over the world, in total denial of historical fact. It
makes no mention of its own role behind the incidents mentioned, its own
involvement behind the Mumbai event, notably the Pakistani ISI�s connection
to Lashkar-i-Tabiya and the other groups responsible.
It denies, ignores or purposely does not mention that CIA-Taliban-ISI-Al-Qaeda
is a collaborative network, and that maintaining �militant Islam� is a
long-term Anglo-American geostrategy. No mention is made of how Washington supports
the Taliban, or how �jihad� benefits Washington
resource war agendas.
It denies the overt and tacit support for all
military-intelligence operations aimed at all perceived enemies of the
interests of the US and its allies, when politically expedient to do so. It
also denies how the CIA plays all sides of all conflicts.
3. The CIA is concerned about the ability to continue
engaging in �extrajudicial activities� -- renditions, detention, �interrogation�
-- if the US were perceived as an exporter of terrorism, and US allies become
(for political reasons) less willing to cooperate.
Translation: CIA
must continue illegal �extrajudicial� activities programs, or else a key
component of the �war on terrorism� is threatened. No �interrogations,� no
false confessions. No false or guided confessions, no propaganda, no pretexts
for more war. No boogeymen.
It is fascinating to note that CIA Red Cell memos are meant
to be comprised of �out of the box� ideas meant to �provoke thought� from some
sort of opposing viewpoint. But the ideas represented in this one are narrow,
closed, robotic, delusional and one-sided. The opposing side is the same and
only side. The entire Langley bureaucracy -- and indeed, Washington as a whole --
runs out of this type of pathological mindset.
As former CIA veterans Victor Marchetti and John Marks wrote
in their 1974 book, The CIA and the Cult
of Intelligence, the CIA is �romanticized by myths� and �beclouded by false
images and shielded by official deceptions.� Its practices are �hidden behind
arcane and antiquated legalisms.�
The CIA is, in the authors� words, �not defending our
national security. It seeks rather to maintain the status quo . . .�
�The CIA has a momentum of its own, and its operatives
continue to ply their trade behind their curtain of secrecy. They do not want
to give up their covert activities, their dirty tricks. They believe in these
methods and they rather enjoy the game.�
Nothing
has changed.