http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article4332.htm
Former CIA agent tells: How US infiltrates "civil society" to overthrow
governments
BY PHILIP AGEE
08/03/03: Condemnation of Cuba was immediate, strong and practically global
following the imprisonment of 75 political dissidentsand the execution of
three ferry hijackers. Prominent among the critics were past friends of Cuba
of recognised international stature.
As I read the hundreds of denunciations that came through my mail, it was
easy to see how enemies of the revolution had seized on those issues to
condemn Cuba for violations of human rights. They had a field day.
Deliberate or careless confusion between the political dissidents and the
hijackers, two entirely unrelated matters, was also easy because the events
happened at the same time. A Vatican publication went so far as to describe
the hijackers as dissidents when in fact they were terrorists. But others of
good faith toward Cuba also jumped on the bandwagon of condemnation treating
the two issues as one.
With respect to the imprisonment of 75 civil society activists, the main
victim has been history, for these people were central to US government
efforts to overthrow the Cuban government and destroy the work of the
revolution.
Indeed, regime change, as overthrowing governments has come to be known, has
been the continuing US goal in Cuba since the earliest days of the
revolutionary government. Programs to achieve this goal have included
propaganda to denigrate the revolution, diplomatic and commercial isolation,
trade embargo, terrorism and military support to counter-revolutionaries,
the Bay of Pigs invasion, assassination plots against Fidel Castro and other
Cuban leaders, biological and chemical warfare, and, more recently, efforts
to foment an internal political opposition masquerading as an independent
civil society.
The administration of US President Ronald Reagan in the early 1980s decided
that more than terrorist operations were needed to impose regime change in
Cuba. Terrorism hadn't worked, nor had the Bay of Pigs invasion, nor had
Cuba's diplomatic isolation, nor had the economic embargo. Now Cuba would be
included in a new world-wide program to finance and develop non-governmental
and voluntary organisations, what was to become known as civil society,
within the context of US global neoliberal policies.
Coups
The CIA and the Agency for International Development (AID) would have key
roles in this program as well as a new organisation christened in 1983 the
National Endowment for Democracy (NED).
Actually, the new program was not really new. Since its founding in 1947,
the CIA had been deeply involved in secretly funding and manipulating
foreign non-governmental voluntary organisations.
These vast operations circled the globe and targeted political parties,
trade unions and business associations, youth and student organisations,
women's groups, civic organisations, religious communities, professional,
intellectual and cultural societies, and the public information media. The
network functioned at local, national, regional and global levels.
Over the years, the CIA exerted phenomenal influence behind the scenes in
country after country, using these powerful elements of civil society to
penetrate, divide, weaken and destroy organisations on the left, and indeed
to impose regime change by toppling governments.
Such was the case, among many others, in Guyana, where in 1964, culminating
10 years of efforts, the Cheddi Jagan government was overthrown through
strikes, terrorism, violence and arson perpetrated by CIA agents in the
trade unions.
About the same time, while I was a CIA agent assigned to Ecuador, our agents
in civil society, through mass demonstrations and civil unrest, provoked two
military coups in three years against elected, civilian governments.
Anyone who has watched the opposition to President Hugo Chavez's government
in Venezuela develop can be certain that the CIA, AID and the NED are
coordinating the destabilisation and were behind the failed coup in April
2002 as well as the failed civic strikeof last December-January.
The Cuban American National Foundation was, predictably, one of the first
beneficiaries of NED funding. From 1983 to 1988, CANF received US$390,000
for anti-Castro activities.
NED
The NED is supposedly a private, non-government, non-profit foundation, but
it receives a yearly appropriation from the US Congress. The money is
channelled through four core foundations. These are the National Democratic
Institute for International Affairs (linked to the Democratic Party); the
International Republican Institute (Republican Party); the American Center
for International Labor Solidarity; and the Center for International Private
Enterprise (US Chamber of Commerce).
According to its web site, the NED also gives money directly to groups
abroad who are working for human rights, independent media, the rule of law,
and a wide range of civil society initiatives.
The NED's NGO status provides the fiction that recipients of NED money are
getting privaterather than US government money. This is important because so
many countries, including both the US and Cuba, have laws relating to their
citizens being paid to carry out activities for foreign governments.
The US requires an individual or organisation subject to foreign controlto
register with the attorney general and to file detailed activities reports,
including finances, every six months.
Cuba has its own laws criminalising actions intended to jeopardise its
sovereignty or territorial integrity as well as actions supporting the goals
of the anti-Cuba US Helms-Burton Act of 1996, such as collecting information
to support the US embargo or to subvert the government, or for disseminating
US government information to undermine the Cuban government.
Efforts to develop an opposition civil society in Cuba had already begun in
1985 with the early NED grants to CANF. These efforts received a significant
boost with passage in 1992 of the Cuban Democracy Act, better known as the
Torricelli Act, which promoted support, through US NGOs, of individuals and
organisations committed to non-violent democratic change in Cuba.
A still greater intensification came with passage in 1996 of the Cuban
Liberty and Solidarity Act, better known as the Helms-Burton Act.
As a result of these laws, the NED, AID and the CIA (the latter not
mentioned publicly but undoubtedly included) intensified their coordinated
programs targeted at Cuban civil society.
CIA
One may wonder why the CIA would be needed in these programs. There were
several reasons. One reason from the beginning was the CIA's long experience
and huge stable of agents and contacts in the civil societies of countries
around the world. By joining with the CIA, the NED and AID would come on
board on-going operations whose funding they could take over while leaving
the secret day-to-day direction on the ground to CIA officers.
Former CIA agent tells: How US infiltrates "civil society" to overthrow
governments
BY PHILIP AGEE
08/03/03: Condemnation of Cuba was immediate, strong and practically global
following the imprisonment of 75 political dissidentsand the execution of
three ferry hijackers. Prominent among the critics were past friends of Cuba
of recognised international stature.
As I read the hundreds of denunciations that came through my mail, it was
easy to see how enemies of the revolution had seized on those issues to
condemn Cuba for violations of human rights. They had a field day.
Deliberate or careless confusion between the political dissidents and the
hijackers, two entirely unrelated matters, was also easy because the events
happened at the same time. A Vatican publication went so far as to describe
the hijackers as dissidents when in fact they were terrorists. But others of
good faith toward Cuba also jumped on the bandwagon of condemnation treating
the two issues as one.
With respect to the imprisonment of 75 civil society activists, the main
victim has been history, for these people were central to US government
efforts to overthrow the Cuban government and destroy the work of the
revolution.
Indeed, regime change, as overthrowing governments has come to be known, has
been the continuing US goal in Cuba since the earliest days of the
revolutionary government. Programs to achieve this goal have included
propaganda to denigrate the revolution, diplomatic and commercial isolation,
trade embargo, terrorism and military support to counter-revolutionaries,
the Bay of Pigs invasion, assassination plots against Fidel Castro and other
Cuban leaders, biological and chemical warfare, and, more recently, efforts
to foment an internal political opposition masquerading as an independent
civil society.
The administration of US President Ronald Reagan in the early 1980s decided
that more than terrorist operations were needed to impose regime change in
Cuba. Terrorism hadn't worked, nor had the Bay of Pigs invasion, nor had
Cuba's diplomatic isolation, nor had the economic embargo. Now Cuba would be
included in a new world-wide program to finance and develop non-governmental
and voluntary organisations, what was to become known as civil society,
within the context of US global neoliberal policies.
Coups
The CIA and the Agency for International Development (AID) would have key
roles in this program as well as a new organisation christened in 1983 the
National Endowment for Democracy (NED).
Actually, the new program was not really new. Since its founding in 1947,
the CIA had been deeply involved in secretly funding and manipulating
foreign non-governmental voluntary organisations.
These vast operations circled the globe and targeted political parties,
trade unions and business associations, youth and student organisations,
women's groups, civic organisations, religious communities, professional,
intellectual and cultural societies, and the public information media. The
network functioned at local, national, regional and global levels.
Over the years, the CIA exerted phenomenal influence behind the scenes in
country after country, using these powerful elements of civil society to
penetrate, divide, weaken and destroy organisations on the left, and indeed
to impose regime change by toppling governments.
Such was the case, among many others, in Guyana, where in 1964, culminating
10 years of efforts, the Cheddi Jagan government was overthrown through
strikes, terrorism, violence and arson perpetrated by CIA agents in the
trade unions.
About the same time, while I was a CIA agent assigned to Ecuador, our agents
in civil society, through mass demonstrations and civil unrest, provoked two
military coups in three years against elected, civilian governments.
Anyone who has watched the opposition to President Hugo Chavez's government
in Venezuela develop can be certain that the CIA, AID and the NED are
coordinating the destabilisation and were behind the failed coup in April
2002 as well as the failed civic strikeof last December-January.
The Cuban American National Foundation was, predictably, one of the first
beneficiaries of NED funding. From 1983 to 1988, CANF received US$390,000
for anti-Castro activities.
NED
The NED is supposedly a private, non-government, non-profit foundation, but
it receives a yearly appropriation from the US Congress. The money is
channelled through four core foundations. These are the National Democratic
Institute for International Affairs (linked to the Democratic Party); the
International Republican Institute (Republican Party); the American Center
for International Labor Solidarity; and the Center for International Private
Enterprise (US Chamber of Commerce).
According to its web site, the NED also gives money directly to groups
abroad who are working for human rights, independent media, the rule of law,
and a wide range of civil society initiatives.
The NED's NGO status provides the fiction that recipients of NED money are
getting privaterather than US government money. This is important because so
many countries, including both the US and Cuba, have laws relating to their
citizens being paid to carry out activities for foreign governments.
The US requires an individual or organisation subject to foreign controlto
register with the attorney general and to file detailed activities reports,
including finances, every six months.
Cuba has its own laws criminalising actions intended to jeopardise its
sovereignty or territorial integrity as well as actions supporting the goals
of the anti-Cuba US Helms-Burton Act of 1996, such as collecting information
to support the US embargo or to subvert the government, or for disseminating
US government information to undermine the Cuban government.
Efforts to develop an opposition civil society in Cuba had already begun in
1985 with the early NED grants to CANF. These efforts received a significant
boost with passage in 1992 of the Cuban Democracy Act, better known as the
Torricelli Act, which promoted support, through US NGOs, of individuals and
organisations committed to non-violent democratic change in Cuba.
A still greater intensification came with passage in 1996 of the Cuban
Liberty and Solidarity Act, better known as the Helms-Burton Act.
As a result of these laws, the NED, AID and the CIA (the latter not
mentioned publicly but undoubtedly included) intensified their coordinated
programs targeted at Cuban civil society.
CIA
One may wonder why the CIA would be needed in these programs. There were
several reasons. One reason from the beginning was the CIA's long experience
and huge stable of agents and contacts in the civil societies of countries
around the world. By joining with the CIA, the NED and AID would come on
board on-going operations whose funding they could take over while leaving
the secret day-to-day direction on the ground to CIA officers.