The Envelope, Please

Today is 1 June 2006.

In a comment on yesterday’s post, “Anonymous” asked: "Out of curiosity, as Executive Director of the Museum of the Bourgeois, whom would you have chosen for CIA Director?"

An excellent question, and, as Nixon would say, “I’m glad you asked me that.” (Of course, when RN said that, he was lying; I’m pleased as punch.)

In all seriousness, that’s rather like asking whom would I chose as capo di tutti capi of the Mafia.

I consider that the CIA, as a prime intelligence organ of the United States Empire/United and Subject States (USE/USSA), is without possibility of reform. The mission of the CIA (and the larger intelligence apparatus) is to advance, by “fair” means or foul, the interests of the USE/USSA, at the expense of the rest of the world, whatever that cost may be. It’s not that the administrative style of the CIA is flawed; it’s that the core raison d’etre of the CIA is wicked.

(Among exhibits for the prosecution: After its founding in 1947, the CIA assumed responsibility for concealing and employing Nazi war criminals, including SS exterminators of Jews, etc., so they could be used against the USSR. In 1953, the CIA overthrew the democratically elected government of Guatemala and installed a military dictatorship, igniting a war of resistance during which the military fuhrers, always supported by the USE/USSA, would murder more than 350,000 civilians. In 1954, the CIA overthrew the democratically elected government in Iran, re-installing the military dictatorship of former Nazi sympathizer “Shah” M.R. Pahlavi (a crime which in time would lead to the present clerico-fascist dictatorship). In 1965, the CIA collaborated in the overthrow of the Sukarno government in Indonesia, inaugurating three decades of military dictatorship by Suharto. (The Suharto regime, guided in part by CIA death lists, exterminated 1,000,000+ civilians in consolidating power.) In 1970-73, the CIA attempted to foment coups in Chile, finally culminating in the overthrow of the democratically elected government of Salvador Allende and his murder, and the two decade dictatorship of the corrupt and murderous Pinochet. From 1981-88, the CIA financed and manipulated the terrorist mujahideen in Afghanistan, including the kernel of what would become Osama bin Laden’s Al-Qaeda.)

All empires, from the Sumerian five thousand years ago, up to and including the USSR and the USE/USSA, are evil empires. They prosper by exporting repression and poverty to their subject nations and peoples, and importing freedom and prosperity stolen from those nations and peoples. The CIA, like KGB and MI6, are governmental units charged with particular tasks within the larger conspiracy of exploitation.

I do not deny that the USE/USSA has done some good for other peoples and nations, but it has usually done very well by doing little good. The pittance of foreign aid is at best a mere 1% of the Federal budget, and at least half of that goes to prop up the militaries of allies. Certainly, private aid agencies do something, but most of that goes to ameliorate conditions caused by the depredations of imperial capitalism. Little credit is due for putting band-aids on wounds one continues to inflict.

As to the personality in the Directorship: this pretend-president will appoint no one who is not whole-heartedly his creature. They say a fish rots from the head, but when the body of the fish, and the body of water in which the fish swims, are rotten, the condition of the head is irrelevant.

So, my answer would be … I would appoint persons with values like mine, who would preside over termination of the CIA and liquidation of the entire structure of exploitation of the USE/USSA.

A principle difference between me and my comrades, and the ruling elite and most citizens of the USE/USSA: we choose to not embrace violence. It has been my lifelong project to discover how to effect the most profound, transformative, positive social change without violence.