Founded in 1947, the US Central Intelligence Agency was created as an organization dedicated to finding and punishing Nazi fugitive criminals. But gradually it turned into an ordinary spy network, not disdaining blackmail, bribery and political murder. Some CIA projects today cause concern not only for US allies, but also for the Americans themselves. Today - just about such.
Gehlen's organization
Before World War II, the United States used the communists to fight the fascists. After the war, they began, on the contrary, to use the services of the fascists to fight the communists. This shift in interests produced the most striking examples of collaboration. One of the strange allies of the CIA was the Gehlen organization, an intelligence structure created by the Germans for espionage operations on the Eastern Front. Its leader, General Reinhard Gehlen, foreseeing the fall of Hitler, hid some documents in order to sell them to the allies at the right time in exchange for freedom. He succeeded: in 1949, Gehlen's organization joined the ranks of the CIA to spy on the USSR, despite the fact that, as the Americans knew very well, there were former SS members in its ranks. By 1956, West German intelligence was created on its basis.
German Youth League
In 1950, the United States entered into an even stranger alliance with another ex-Nazi organization - the League of German Youth, which included not only members of the Hitler Youth, but also more mature members of the NSDAP. The CIA intended to use the organization as a guerrilla force to fight the Soviet army if they decided to invade the west of Germany - well, and on occasion, use their services for delicate assignments in the east of the country. The League received money and weapons from the CIA, but, as it turned out, had its own goals, different from the American ones. In 1952, after the arrest of one of the members of the organization, the public was amazed to learn about the existence of the organization's list of "traitors" from among the opposition politicians and left-wing activists whom the Lgi members were going to remove. The country was shocked, the CIA admitted its mistakes, and the German Youth League,in the end it was banned.
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Korean war
During the Korean War 1950 - 53. The CIA tried to help the army drive the communists out of Korea - or at least prevent the spread of communism to its southern regions. Unaware that its North Korean and Chinese agents were playing a double game, or simply giving it up, the CIA carried out an entire operation to send newly minted agents, young Ivy League graduates, to the Chinese border to train local agents in guerrilla tactics and gather intelligence. Almost all of the abandoned instructors were immediately captured and killed.
The last of the outstanding speeches of the CIA during the Korean War came in the summer of 1953. CIA trainees, training at a base on the South Korean island of Yong-Do, spotted a pleasure yacht at sea and, without thinking twice, fired at it. The yacht, as it turned out, belonged to the President of South Korea, Lee Seung Man, who was receiving guests on the yacht. Fortunately, no one was hurt, but Rhee Seung Man ordered the CIA to leave the country within 72 hours.
Project "Blue Pizza" / Project "Artichoke" / Project "MK-Ultra"
Almost immediately after its creation, the CIA began research into the control of human will and mind. From 1948 until at least the late 1950s, in Project Bluebird and other similar programs, the CIA used people for experiments that would guarantee the loyalty of agents and make foreign spies talk. The aim of the work was to create a technique for interrogation using drugs, including methamphetamine, heroin and LSD, as well as the CIA's own drug development. Hypnosis techniques were also tested. Among the first test subjects were two Russian agents transferred from Germany to a secret CIA prison in Panama, and several Korean double agents who were placed in a secret prison in Japan.
All over the world, under the aegis of the CIA, hundreds of similar programs of "scientific espionage and counter-espionage" were operating. Not all of the experimental subjects agreed to participate in the experiments, and some scientists did not even know that their research was funded by the CIA. For example, as part of the infamous MK-Ultra project, 77 inmates in American prisons were injected with LSD for 77 days. CIA officer Frank Olsen was also injected with LSD, and also without his knowledge, as a result of which he jumped out of the window and crashed to death.
A CIA operative opened two brothels in San Francisco, where unsuspecting clients were injected with drugs, after which CIA officers watched them through secret two-way mirrors, transparent on the back. Mind control programs were officially closed only in 1977, but cynics claim that they only changed their name and received an even more secret status.
Operation Mockingbird
The CIA often used techniques invented by Soviet intelligence. Even in the early years of the CIA's existence, European bureau official Frank Wisner drew attention to the fact that many Soviet agents work in European news bureaus. In the early 1950s, the CIA also began to lure European journalists over to its side - both through money and flattery, and on the basis of mutual hatred of the Communists. In addition, the agency began recruiting its own American journalists to spy overseas. The ex-CIA director was particularly active in using family and social ties both to create reports that denigrate the enemies of the United States, and to prepare publications that put the CIA in a favorable light.
Since the early 1970s, the CIA has had much less pressure on the press. However, since October 19707, when the creator of the Watergate scandal, Karl Bernstein, published an article about the connections of the leading American media with the CIA, journalistic revelations have regularly appeared in the States, indicating that the organization's interest in the media sphere has not faded.
Operation Ajax
In the early 1950s, Britain began to fear that Iranian leaders would demand from it their share of the British oil revenues. Iranian Prime Minister Mohammed Mosadyk, having learned that the British were secretly preparing to overthrow him, expelled all British officials from the country. The CIA came to the aid of the British allies. Nobody cared that the US officially supported the legally elected government of Iran, led by Mossadegh. In the eyes of Winston Churchill and his foreign policy advisers, the Iranian prime minister was the enemy.
In March 1953, the head of the CIA, Allen Dulles, launched Operation Ajax. CIA agents in Iran spared no expense against opposition groups, while simultaneously launching a powerful propaganda campaign accusing Mossadegh of treason, political corruption and conspiracy. As a result, there was an attempted coup in the country, entirely inspired by the CIA. The formal leader of Iran, Shah Mohammed Reza Pahlavii, at first refused to support the CIA-backed conspirators and fled to Iraq. After some time, the CIA, manipulating the Iranian media, generously paying the Iranian military and hiring professional rebels, managed to convince the Iranians that Mossadegh himself was behind the coup.
In addition, the Americans persuaded Shah Pahlavi to cooperate with them, making him the formal leader of Iran. Soon the Iranians figured out that the Americans were behind the coup. This led to an increase in mistrust of the United States in Iraqi society and, according to some experts, led to the Iranian Islamic Revolution and the overthrow of Pahlavi in 1979.
Death of the President of the Congo
Belgium was one of the many European countries that had colonial possession of part of Africa and received their share of the benefits of the national wealth of the African countries. In June 1960, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, along with other African states, shook off the burden of colonial rule. Unfortunately for the first elected President of the Congo, Patrice Lumuba, his attempts at decolonization took place during the Cold War. Lumumba requested UN assistance in withdrawing Belgian troops from the country, which supported the armed groups that sought to overthrow him.
But the United Nations, influenced by the United States, did not respond to his request. Lumumba found a more accommodating partner in the USSR, which sent troops and instructors to his aid. As soon as the Soviet Union got involved in the case, US President Dwight D. Eisenhower decided that the best way out would be to eliminate the communist compromiser who stood at the head of the Congo.
CIA chemist Sidney Gottlieb came to the president's aid. Well-versed in the art of preparing poisons, which he mastered by participating in Operation Artichoke and the programs that followed, Gottlieb flew to the Congo with a suitcase full of poison and syringes, which he handed over to the most influential CIA agent in the Congo, Larry Devlin on September 10, 1960. … Devlin was ordered to mix poison in Lumumba's food, drink, or toothpaste. However, he refused to obey the order and buried the poison.
But the CIA overcame this difficulty by paying one of the rebel leaders, Josef Mobutu, who captured Lumumba and turned him over to the enemies who shot the first legally elected leader of the Congo. In the next few years, the Americans helped Mobutu seize control of the Congo. As a result, throughout the Cold War, the bloody dictator of the Congo, renamed Zaire, Mobutu Sese Seko remained one of the most loyal US allies in Africa.
Bay of Pigs
Cold War supporters in the United States were horrified when commandos led by Fidel Castro overthrew Cuban President Fulgencio Batista in 1959. Batista, who had declared himself a dictator several years earlier, nevertheless remained an ally of the United States and a friend of American business, which was actively investing in the island's economy. In early 1960, US President Dwight D. Eisenhower directly oversaw the development of the CIA's plans to invade Cuba, and when John F. Kennedy was elected to the presidency, he continued the work of his predecessor. The United States planned to launch a ground invasion with elite airborne combat units. In Guatemala, the CIA camp trained Batista supporters who had fled Cuba under the leadership of Jose Miro Cardona, who was promised the post of Cuban leader after Castro's overthrow.
Unfortunately for the CIA, already the first stage of the plan, the bombing of Cuba with the help of Nicaraguan planes, failed shamefully. Castro knew about the plans of the Americans and was ready for them. When on April 17, 1961, 1,400 soldiers from brigade 2506 tried to land on the deserted coast in the Bay of Pigs, the Cubans were already waiting for them. In two days, Cuban troops killed 100 soldiers, the remaining 1200 surrendered. Gradually, Cuba gave the US all the captives in exchange for baby food and medicine. But even this disaster did not stop the CIA from further attempts to change the situation in Cuba.
Operation Mongoose
After Fidel Castro defeated the Americans in the Bay of Pigs, John F. Kennedy continued to seek a solution to the Cuban problem. Attorney General Robert Kennedy has proposed removing Castro from power. Planned in late 1961, Operation Mongoose was designed by the CIA in response to the president's demand to overthrow Castro without sending American troops to the island. It was decided to kill Castro.
But this required establishing contact with agents in Cuba or transferring their own people there. After that, the CIA agent had to get close to Castro and eliminate him. Ideas for how to do this came from William Harvey, a leading CIA agent in Cuba. To begin with, an attempt was made to negotiate with the mafia man John Roselli. Harvey handed him a truckload of weapons and poison pills in Miami, which Roselli was supposed to try to plant Castro in his coffee. Then another agent, Desmond Fitzgerald, put forward a series of fantastic proposals - toss shells filled with explosives into the bay where Castro dived with scuba diving, make bombs in the shape of Cuban cigars, hire a hitman from Europe, and even inject Castro into his boots with thallium salt to, even if Castro did not die, his beard came out, and he was humiliated in front of his comrades.
But none of the methods developed during Operation Mongoose have worked.
Phoenix Project
In Vietnam, the CIA worked hand in hand with the military. Part of his activity was the Phoenix program, aimed at fighting the partisans. It was headed by General William Westmoreland, and its immediate supervisor was an experienced CIA operative, Robert Comer.
In 1967, as part of the program, a secret investigation center was established, where the Americans tortured the allies of the communists. Comer has repeatedly complained about the inconsistency in the actions of the two branches of his leadership: CIA Director Richard Helms demanded to accurately count the number of those who are fighting on the side of the communists, and the army leadership preferred lower numbers. As a result, Comer went along with the army, but secretly warned President Lyndon Johnson that the Americans would not win in Vietnam.
As a result, by 1975, when the Vietnam War ended, about 20,000 Vietnamese had been killed during the Phoenix program. In the photo you see the evacuation of the last Vietnamese CIA officers who worked in the Phoenix project and their families: they perfectly understood that they did not have to wait for mercy.
Operation Iran-Contra
In 1979, the left-wing Sandinista party came to power in Nicaragua. US President Ronald Reagan did not want to see communist ideas spread from Nicaragua across the continent. He wanted the Contra rebel movement to overthrow the country's government. CIA Director William Casey has agreed with the Argentine authorities to help the contras. The CIA led insurgents who attacked government forces from Costa Rica in the south and Honduras in the north.
From the beginning of 1982, American journalists began to write openly about the participation of the White House in events in Central America.
In 1982 and 1984, the US Congress passed two laws to prevent the US government from providing assistance to the Contras. However, there were still holes in the legislation that allowed continued support for the American rebels - at least so the most rabid anti-communists, such as the member of the National Security Council, Marine Corps officer Oliver North, believed. He continued to support the Contras through CIA agents.
In 1985-86, he launched the famous Iran-Contra operation. North sold US missiles to Iran through Israel's intermediary, and he set up a private company in his own name to help free American hostages held by pro-Iranian forces in Beirut. However, the money from the sale of missiles, which went into the accounts of this company, very soon ended up in the private accounts of North and his agents, and from there went to support the contras.
This operation did not remain a secret for long: in November 1986, the whole world learned about it. In March 1987, congressional hearings began in the Iran-Contra case. North was accused of many sins, but connections with the CIA helped him get out of problems. The Sandinistas lost the elections in 1990, but a few years later Daniel Ortega again became President of Nicaragua. He still holds this post.
Traitor drone
After September 11, 2001, the CIA's counterterrorism department was significantly strengthened and received additional funding, in particular to help the army in Afghanistan and Pakistan. However, the military and CIA officers often pursued different goals in these countries. This was especially clearly shown by the incident that happened in February 2002 near the Afghan border, when the Afghan Taliban Interior Minister, Mullah Khairullah Khairhava, was at the center of the attention of the military and the police.
The military hunted Khairkhava, while the secret service secretly tried to recruit him. Unaware of the CIA's plans, the military asked the "allies" for help, tracking the movement of Khairhava's car with a military droid. The CIA agents provided the army with the recording from the droid, but replaced the Khairhava truck on the tape with another one of the same white color.
The military rushed in pursuit - while the CIA agents, meanwhile, secretly made sure that Khairhava went unhindered across the Pakistani border. As a result, when the soldiers stopped the car, instead of the minister, there were three civilian men and a boy in it. All of them were taken to the cell and remained there until the military realized that they had captured the wrong ones. The civilians were then released, having handed them rations as an apology. Khairhava, in the end, was detained by the CIA officers themselves: after he finally refused to cooperate, the CIA men grabbed him and escorted him to the notorious Guantanamo prison.
Strawberry Glades and Penny Lane
As early as the beginning of the "war of terror", the CIA proposed creating a secret prison for terrorists in order to avoid unnecessary accusations of putting people in jail without trial. This is how the secret military prison of Guantanamo was born. Rather, a military prison was there before, but now inside it is another, secret CIA prison, nicknamed "Strawberry Glades." Nobody was going to limit the terms of imprisonment for the local inhabitants, and during interrogation they were subjected not only to psychological violence, but also to torture. For those who agree to become a double agent, another part of the prison is provided - eight completely modern cottages, which local witches have already nicknamed "Penny Lane" - after another song by The Beatles.
Immunization Clinic Abbottabbad
After the election of Barack Obama to the presidency of the United States, the CIA began the hunt for Osama bin Laden. To discover bin Laden's hideout, the CIA devised an ingenious plan. Department officials instructed their informant, Dr. Dr. Shaquil Afridi, to deploy a network of mobile clinics where the local population could receive vaccinations against hepatitis B. The blood of the vaccinated was then secretly compared with the available DNA samples from bin Laden and his immediate environment. Afridi successfully completed the mission, giving the CIA blood samples and receiving 5.3 million rupees for this. A few months later, US SEALs stormed bin Laden's hideout, and Obama solemnly announced the death of al-Qaeda's leader.
The subtlety of the operation could be admired if not for one "but". The Taliban, who had long held control of the area, banned vaccinations, declaring that they were nothing more than a secret program of sterilization of the population carried out by the CIA. After the details of the operation became known, the local population became convinced that the vaccination rooms were indeed under the control of the American special services. Many stopped vaccinating their children, several clinics that had nothing to do with Afridi's brainchild were destroyed by an outraged crowd, and their employees were injured or killed. Dr. Afridi himself has been in a Pakistani prison since 2012 - as he claims, on trumped-up charges.
Death of Abdurakhan al-Awlaki
Abdurahman al-Awlaki was born in Denver, Colorado in 1995. His father, Abdul, who was born in New Mexico, was an imam who actively opposed what he believed to be anti-Muslim policies of the American authorities. When Abdurahman was seven years old, his father moved the whole family to Yemen, where Abdurahman's grandfather, Nasser, served as Minister of Agriculture. farms. In Yemen, his anti-American speeches became even hotter, and as a result, Abdul al-Awlaki ended up on the CIA's "death list". In September 2011, he was shot to death with a battle droid. Meanwhile, Abdurahman, who has already turned 16, was looking for his trapped father all over the country. Having reached South Yemen and learning about the death of his father, he was returning home when, having sat down to eat in a cafe, he became the victim of a missile attack. The rocket was rumored to have been fired at a cafe with the intent to kill a manwho was supposed to be there, but did not come. It is not known whose apparatus released it - the CIA or the intelligence groups of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. Only one thing is clear: the boy's death may serve as the starting point for another wave of terror.