Ex-C.I.A. Aides Say Iraq Leader Helped Agency in 90's Attacks

[RamboLiberal]

http://www.nytimes.com/2004/06/09/politics/09ALLA.html?pagewanted=print&position=

Iyad Allawi, now the designated prime minister of Iraq, ran an exile organization intent on deposing Saddam Hussein that sent agents into Baghdad in the early 1990's to plant bombs and sabotage government facilities under the direction of the C.I.A., several former intelligence officials say.

Dr. Allawi's group, the Iraqi National Accord, used car bombs and other explosive devices smuggled into Baghdad from northern Iraq, the officials said. Evaluations of the effectiveness of the bombing campaign varied, although the former officials interviewed agreed that it never threatened Saddam Hussein's rule.

No public records of the bombing campaign exist, and the former officials said their recollections were in many cases sketchy, and in some cases contradictory. They could not even recall exactly when it occurred, though the interviews made it clear it was between 1992 and 1995.

The Iraqi government at the time claimed that the bombs, including one it said exploded in a movie theater, resulted in many civilian casualties. But whether the bombings actually killed any civilians could not be confirmed because, as a former C.I.A. official said, the United States had no significant intelligence sources in Iraq then.

One former Central Intelligence Agency officer who was based in the region, Robert Baer, recalled that a bombing during that period "blew up a school bus; schoolchildren were killed." Mr. Baer, a critic of the Iraq war, said he did not recall which resistance group might have set off that bomb.

[pinto]

1. a former C.I.A. official said, the United States had no significant intel

The Iraqi government at the time claimed that the bombs, including one it said exploded in a movie theater, resulted in many civilian casualties. But whether the bombings actually killed any civilians could not be confirmed because, as a former C.I.A. official said, the United States had no significant intelligence sources in Iraq then.

Yep. Our intelligence was based in a London penthouse...Chalabi

[grytpype]

2. There sure are a lot of leaks lately.

Lots of anonyomous figures in the CIA, the Pentagon, the White House itself are speaking out. It's this continuous background chatter that undercuts everything the Bushists try to pull.

[oblivious]

3. These officials are admitting they and the US engaged in terrorism

I find it incredible that they would actually admit they engaged in state-sponsored terrorism.

"The State Department definition which is included in the terrorism report annually defines it in terms of politically motivated attacks on non-combatant targets."

State involvement in terrorism:
The question of state involvement in terrorist attacks has been extensively discussed in Countering State-Sponsored Terrorism (ICT Papers, No. 1). There we suggest the following classification of states according to their level of involvement in terrorism:

1. States supporting terrorism - states that support terrorist organizations, providing financial aid, ideological support, military or operational assistance.

2. States operating terrorism - states that initiate, direct and perform terrorist activities through groups outside their own institutions.

3. States perpetrating terrorism - states perpetrating terrorist acts abroad through their own official bodies?members of its security forces or its intelligence services, or their direct agents. In other words, states intentionally attacking civilians in other countries in order to achieve political aims without declaring war.

http://www.ict.org.il/articles/researchdet.cfm?researchid=4

[lapfog_1]

4. Just proves the old adage

One man's terrorist is another man's freedom fighter.

[salin]

To cut to the chase.... we have just put a terrorist in power

one that we have funded. Sorta makes BUsh's moral clarity a little hard to find.

[daleo]

5. I don't doubt it is true

I have some suspicions about the years:

"No public records of the bombing campaign exist, and the former officials said their recollections were in many cases sketchy, and in some cases contradictory. They could not even recall exactly when it occurred, though the interviews made it clear it was between 1992 and 1995."

This seems to pin things entirely mostly on the first Clinton administration, which seems somewhat unlikely. Perhaps this puts the purported attempt to kill Bush I into some perspective, if the U.S. was engaged in state supported terrorism against Iraq at the same time. Although I have read that attempt on Bush I may have had nothing to do with Iraq or Hussein (a Kuwaiti black op has been plausibly suggested).

[jdj]

6. "Could not recall"? my behind.

I'm so sure.

I wonder if there is some battle of leaks going on, because this totally indicts Clinton...they don't remember, but they are sure it was during the Clinton era...and "schoolchildren were killed"... if this isn't spin it sure wants to be.

[lostnfound]

13. 1992 = Bush I, right? (Clinton inaugurated Jan 93)

So 1992-1995 doesn't necessarily pin it on Clinton.

[daleo]

15. Yes, 1992 would be Bush I

That is why I said they seemed to be "mostly" pinning it on Clinton. Also, it must take a while before a new administration really learns the ropes about what the last one did, especially with an agency like the CIA. So, even the post-1992 events claimed here may be leftover momentum from the Bush I administration, before Clinton could put a stop to it.

Mind you, Clinton maintained the sanctions and no-fly zones (perhaps at a different level than Bush I), so it is no sure bet that he would have been in a hurry to cancel these CIA activities.

On the other hand, the whole story could be disinformation.

[goforit]

7. Keep them coming out, guys!.....Nothing like a good dose of the truth

Expose them all to the bitter end!!

[maggrwaggr]

8. The shit storm is turning into a shit hurricane

for Bushco.

But will anyone notice? Have the news channels gone to 24-7 Ronald Reagan "remembrances"? Will we have even the old semblance of corporate news that we had a week ago?

Or has Ronald Reagan truly taken over the country?

[progressivebydesign]

17. I think people are starting to notice.

In the past week, I've stumbled across several people that I assumed to be conservative, trashing Bush and his underhanded ways. Last night in the libary, a patron and the entire front desk staff were discussing it. The library employees were being discreet.. the patron was not. But we all were making quiet comments about what articles to read yesterday in which paper, etc. The media is waking up from a long, threat and corporate inuced sleep. That's MY version of Morning in America.

[ScrewyRabbit]

9. Terrorism is OK when the US sponsors it

just like Reagan in the '80s supporting the Contras, Salvedoran death squads, etc. Just like when we funded islamic fundamentalists in Afghanistan in their war against the Soviets. Terror is as terror does...

[I thought so.]

10. Great post.

O/T thanks for posting the real link. I am registered @ NYT but its a pain to go thru the gatekeeper. I wish others would do the same.

[NashVegas]

11. Cause We Loooooooves Helping Terrorists

oy

[Disturbed]

12. When I have posted that the CIA

is a terrorist org. many people have replied that I was a loon or just ignored my post. The CIA is a muscle for the Multi-corps and has been such from it's founding.

More about the CIA
Links to Further Documents Concerning the CIA


CIA operations follow the same recurring script. First, American business interests abroad are threatened by a popular or democratically elected leader. The people support their leader because he intends to conduct land reform, strengthen unions, redistribute wealth, nationalize foreign-owned industry, and regulate business to protect workers, consumers and the environment. So, on behalf of American business, and often with their help, the CIA mobilizes the opposition. First it identifies right-wing groups within the country (usually the military), and offers them a deal: "We'll put you in power if you maintain a favorable business climate for us." The Agency then hires, trains and works with them to overthrow the existing government (usually a democracy). It uses every trick in the book: propaganda, stuffed ballot boxes, purchased elections, extortion, blackmail, sexual intrigue, false stories about opponents in the local media, infiltration and disruption of opposing political parties, kidnapping, beating, torture, intimidation, economic sabotage, death squads and even assassination. These efforts culminate in a military coup, which installs a right-wing dictator.

The CIA trains the dictator's security apparatus to crack down on the
traditional enemies of big business, using interrogation, torture and murder. The victims are said to be "communists" but almost always they are just peasants, liberals, moderates, labor union leaders, political opponents and advocates of free speech and democracy. Widespread human rights abuses follow. - Steve Kangas: Timeline of CIA Atrocities

http://www.serendipity.li/cia.html

[lostnfound]

14. Here's one bombing on US soil while Bush I was head of CIA

http://www.kmf.org/williams/bushbook/bush15.html

One of the most spectacular scandals of Bush's tenure at the CIA was the assassination in Washington DC of the Chilean exile leader Orlando Letelier, who had been a minister in the government of Salvador Allende Gossens, who had been overthrown by Kissinger in 1973. Letelier along with Ronnie Moffitt of the Washington Institute for Policy Studies died on September 21, 1976 in the explosion of a car bomb on Sheridan Circle, in the heart of Washington's Embassy Row district along Massachusetts Avenue.

Relatively few cases of international terrorism have taken place on the territory of the United States, but this was certainly an exception. Bush's activities before and after this assassination amount to one of the most bizarre episodes in the annals of secret intelligence operations.

One of the assassins of Letelier was unquestionably one Michael Vernon Townley, a CIA agent who had worked for David Atlee Philips in Chile. After the overthrow of Allende and the advent of the Pinochet ditatorship, David Atlee Philips had become the director of the CIA's western hemipshere operations. In 1975 Phillips founded AFIO, the Association of Former Intelligence Officers, which has supported George Bush in every campaign he has ever waged since that time. Townley, as a "former" CIA agent, had gone to work for the DINA, the Chilean secret police, and had been assigned by the DINA as its liaison man with a group called CORU. CORU was the acronym for Command of United Revolutionary Organizations, a united front of four anti-Castro Cuban organizations based primarily in the neighborhood of Miami called Little Havana. With CORU, we are back in the milieu of Miami anti-Castro Cubans whose political godfather George Bush had been since very early in the 1960's. CORU was at that time working together with the intelligence services of Chile's Pinochet, Paraguay's Alfredo Stroessner, and Nicaragua's Somoza for operations against common enemies, including Chilean left-wing emigres and Castro assets. Soon after the foundation of CORU, bombs began to go off at the Cuban Mission to the United Nations in New York.

[progressivebydesign]

16. U.S. is addicted to BLOWback.

When will we ever learn? Build them up, tear them down, friends, then foes. Killing schoolchildren? I'm sorry... do the Iraqi people know what type of person we have chosen for them?

[SOS]

18. So when Iraqi insurgents

blow up a member of the IGC it's terrorism.
But when the CIA blows up a bus full of children and a movie theater it's called "capability demonstration".
Gotcha.

[SOS]

19. Another question...

How could Brahimi pick a CIA terrorist? What's going on here?

[oblivious]

20. Right. What a message to send during the "WARRR ON TERRRRORR"

Unbeliveable hypocrites. Will the UN have any authority or respect in Iraq after this?

[Just Me]

21. Whoah!!! This is one heavy and loaded article!!!

Dang,...damn,...the shit really is hitting the fan, huh!!! :bounce:

I am totally LMAO!!!

The BFEE is in such deep caa caa!!!

This is great. Really. This is more than great,...it's extraordinary!!!