Operation Condor Summary

Operation Mockingbird was a operation in the United States that started in the 1950’s where major media outlets (such as New York Times and The Washington Post) were altered and modified by agents paid by the CIA. The goal of this operation was believed to be the CIA trying to influence propaganda and their opinions into the news. The finding of this operation was because of congressional onvestigations in the 1970’s. The operation cost over $1 billion dollars (in today's currency) to run. The operation was created by Allen Dulles and Cord Meyer, but was later led by Frank Wisner once Dulles had become director of the CIA. “After 1953 the network was overseen by Allen W. Dulles, director of the Central

     The activities of the CIA are largely undisclosed. It undoubtedly makes use of the surveillance Sattelites of theNational Recconasonsse Office (NRO) and the signal interception capabilities of the NSA, including the Echelon system, and the surveillance aircraft of the various branches of the US armed forces. At one stage, the CIA even operated its own fleet of U-2 surveillance aircraft. The agency also employs a group of officers with paramilitary skills in its Special Division. Micheal Spaan, a CIA officer killed in November 2001 during the U.S. Invasion of Afghanistan, was one such individual. In its earliest years the CIA attempted to rollback Communism in Eastern Europe by supporting local anti-communist groups; none of these attempts met with much success. It was more successful in its efforts to limit Communist influence in France and Italy, though many believe there was never much of a Communist threat in these nations.

This paper will discuss how the CIA and/or the American government played a role in the death of investigative journalist, Gary Webb. Whether it is a conspiracy or not many question how the investigative journalist died and why his death was ruled as a suicide. Gary Webb was most known for tracking down corruption and exposing it to millions of Americans. He wrote stories about corruption from county, state, and federal levels, for more than thirty four years. He is most known for writing an article titled "Dark Alliance", which “linked the CIA to the crack cocaine epidemic in Los Angeles during the Iran-Contra scandal. He found that drug dealers were smuggling cocaine into the United States and the CIA was using the money to arm Nicaraguan rebels.” (Webb, G. 1998) Webb is also known for writing his last article, written for the Sacramento News titled "The Killing Game”. The article exposes “the

The CIA, otherwise known as the Central Intelligence Agency, is a federal agency that is independent and has the responsibilities of providing the country of the United States with national security intelligence. The CIA is in charge of gathering information that is going on from other countries in order to help our own national security to become stronger, and to be able to protect the citizens of the United States better. However, what happens when the CIA tries to protect it’s citizens by screwing over other countries? What happens when the CIA is responsible for destroying other countries’ governments or placing leaders where we do not belong as a country to try and control politics that we should not even be involving ourselves in. While the CIA is meant to have good intentions for providing our country with national security, a lot of times the United States is responsible for meddling in affairs we never belonged in which cause harm, devastation, or death to the countries we force ourselves upon.

The CIA's original job was primarily intelligence gathering, but when Communism started to spread, the National Security Council directed that the agency take part in political, covert, paramilitary, and economic operations. When the Korean War broke out, the CIA performed these operations, it also had additional requirements to support the combat forces.

“We’ll know our disinformation program is complete when everything the American public believes is false.” This statement was made by William Casey, the director of the CIA in 1981. It begs the question: how exactly did the CIA plan to accomplish it’s malicious agenda on such a massive scale? In 1975 Operation Mockingbird was revealed to the public as a result of investigations held by the Select Committee in regards to intelligence activities of the governement. According to the Congress report published in 1976: “The CIA currently maintains a network of several hundred foreign individuals around the world who provide intelligence for the CIA and at times attempt to influence opinion through the use of covert propaganda. These individuals provide the CIA with direct access to a large number of newspapers and periodicals, scores of press services and news agencies, radio and television stations, commercial book publishers, and other foreign media outlets.”

The CIA’s involvement in the killing of JFK is one of the popular theories put forward by conspiracy theorists. President Kennedy was said to have told an official in his administration, “I want to splinter the CIA into a thousand pieces and scatter it to the winds” (McGovern, 2013, para. 3). Many of the individuals who disliked Kennedy believed he was the reason for the failed Bay of Pigs invasion in 1961. They also believed that he would reduce the size of the military industrial complex and that he was not going after communism hard enough. The CIA was involved

"I think everyone knew we were walking a very thin line."(Owen) Not many Americans know the truth that lies behind the Iran-Contra scandals. Most would be surprised to know about the deception of our leaders. Still today, some truth of Iran-Contra lies hidden in the conscience of the people who organized it, aided it, and went through with it. It started with good intentions, but soon was corrupted. Some may argue that we must do what we can to smother the flame of communism, but I believe that deception, abuse of power and bloodshed is no way to go about it.

Although sometimes top officials at these institutions were aware of the CIA 's involvement, most often the CIA operated through these institutions using front organizations (“Id,”2016). They also conducted business through other organizations by having subprojects (“Id,”2016). These projects were the research that most did not know MK Ultra was driving (“Id,”2016). Some of these subcontracts were also through colleges (“Id,”2016).

The CIA’s scandal is closely related to President Nixon’s Watergate scandal. “On June 17, 1972, five men were arrested during a bungled break-in at the Democratic campaign headquarters at the Watergate hotel-apartment complex in Washington, D.C.” In June President Nixon and his Chief of Staff, Haldeman, were recorded on tape agreeing to order the CIA to disrupt the FBI’s investigation into the break-in at the Democratic National Committee. The following month the presidential tapes were made aware by the testimony of Alexander Butterfield. After these tapes were released the Watergate scandal was brought to a whole new level because now the white house was officially involved.(Zivich)This made people start to really question the government itself.

The article also addresses the difference between covert action and traditional military activities. Several historical instances of U.S. involvement in unconventional warfare (UW) touch upon this subject. ATP 3-05.1 Unconventional Warfare states “UW often inhabits the gray area of political engagement where it blends into warfare. It is crucial that Soldiers planning and executing UW pay careful attention to legal considerations and respect for authorities” This is a point of contention with the Title 10 and Title 50 debate as the word “covert”, and

The term “Covert Action” brings with it a connotation of shadowy figures wrapped in secrecy and intrigue. It also brings with it a substantial amount of moral questions as to “what is right.” The use of covert action has been widely publicized since the early seventies, but trying to find out the truth to these events has been difficult to say the least. What is even more difficult, is historically recording these events into categories of successes or failures. These operations are difficult to dissect because of their secrecy and although events have been recorded, some facts simply aren’t apparent. This paper will seek to identify the complex issues associated with covert operations.

“Victory has a thousand fathers while defeat is an orphan,” remarked John F. Kennedy. The Bay of Pigs invasion code named operation Zapata began in March of 1960 one month and a year before the famed invasion took place. United States President Dwight D. Eisenhower ordered the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) to begin a covert operation to bring down the pro-communist Cuban government. Nonetheless Fidel Castro’s potential pro-communist beliefs, the seizure of American owned companies and land lead to extreme concern from United States policy makers and officials. The mission, however would become possibly one of the greatest intelligence failures in the history of the United States. The failed Bay of Pigs invasion lead to a new era in the military and intelligence fields that continues to affect foreign policy

The lectures in class this week and the article “10 of the Most Lethal CIA Interventions in Latin America” by Olivier Acuña has opened my eyes to the U.S.’s international political connections. The U.S. has proved throughout history to be self serving and has proven to intervene in nations that will lead to its own economic and political advantages. I find it unfortunate that the CIA and American government tries to pride itself on our democratic system, but will support corrupt dictators and absolute rulers

Other intelligence operations also consist of covert, counterintelligence operations. Counterintelligence is usually used to collect information about the adversary and weaken foreign intelligence operations. Sabotage, spying, and infiltration are all characteristics of foreign intelligence operations. Covert operations hide the identity of the agent(s) or officer(s) executing the operations. If operations are compromised, this protects the agent(s) against retaliation from the enemy.