CIA makes a comeback

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cuts at the end of August because coal stocks will be reduced. The railway unions have told us they'll carry no coal to the power stations at that time-and no oil either.

Unfortunately, most of the miners in Nottinghamshire are still working. They get higher pay than we do, because their pits are shallow, and they're paid according to the amount of coal produced. If Notts had come out with us, this strike would have been over weeks ago. Now we still have to battle for them to join us.

After a period of downturn in its fortunes during the 1970s, the Central Intelligence Agency is making a comeback. The infamous agency lost ground for a decade largely because of widespread public disgust with its role in the Vietnam War. But now, according to the June 25 U.S. News and World Report, the CIA is back at work "flush with money and manpower... operating on a scale not seen since the Vietnam Lest it be thought that the CIA expansion is simply a Reagan gambit, beginning perhaps with his appointment of William J. Casey to be CIA director, U.S. News makes it plain that the CIA is championed by both the Republicans and the Democrats: "Congress, while attempting to keep a tight rein on the CIA, actually began pushing the buildup of the organization even before Casey took over and has strongly supported it since. "

The CIA is now supposed to be battling against international drug traffickers as part of its expanded roleexpanded, that is, beyond such "covert" actions as the organizing of the contras against Nicaragua; rigging elections, as in the agency's support of Jose Napoleon Duarte in El Salvador; and the usual spy and double agent scullduggery. The CIA fighting drug traffickers? It is to laugh! In Vietnam the CIA supported heroin smuggling carried out by the anti-communist Hmong mercenaries.

And now they are doing it again in Afghanistan. The March-May issue of Counterspy reports: "According to David Melocik, the Drug Enforcement Agency congressional liaison, '250 to 300 tons of opium were produced in Afghanistan in 1982, ' enough to convert into 25 to 30 tons of heroin. The Drug Enforcement Agency estimates that 4 to 4.5 tons of heroin are smuggled into the United States annually. In a rare moment of candor for an administration official, Melocik even concluded that 'American interests in Afghanistan are somewhat contradictory because the administration wants to fight drug trafficking but also would like to see the Afghans drive out the Soviets. ' "

It is typical that the administration and the CIA, which is carrying out this covert paramilitary operation, are willing to support the most unsavory Afghan forces-those which, according to Counterspy, are financing their war, in part, with proceeds from the sale of opium.

According to the Dec. 26 Newsweek, the total annual CIA budget for its Afghanistan operation is about $125 million. The June 25 U.S. News reports that the total CIA budget exceeds $1.8 billion a year.

CIA-fabricated material

Much of this money is used to manipulate foreign and domestic public opinion. An important instance of this was revealed by David MacMichael, who served until April 1983 as a CIA estimates officer specializing in Central American and Caribbean affairs.

MacMichael stated that intelligence reports of cross-border arms shipments from Nicaragua to the Salvadoran rebels "fell off to nothing" after the spring of 1981. He asserted that the White House has "systematically misrepresented Nicaraguan involvement in the supply of arms to Salvadoran guerrillas to justify its efforts to overthrow the Nicaraguan government. "

Time for June 25 reports that Secretary of State George Shultz, not surprisingly, denied MacMichael's charges. After all, the claim of the White House that Nicaragua is the arms supplier to the FMLN in El Salvador is based on CIA-fabricated material. This does not mean that the Reagan administration is the innocent victim of the big bad CIA, but, rather, that the CIA is the eager servant of government policy with deceit and scullduggery as its special mission.

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7 PAGES Efforts are under way to make the CIA even stronger. The June 25 U.S. News reports, "Some Pentagon and White House officials, backed by a few lawmakers, insisted that the CIA take up the task of assassinating terrorists before they could strike. "

This is especially ominous considering that the word "terrorism" has taken on new meaning as the power of the witch-hunting phrase "communist conspiracy" has tended to fade. Now, "terrorist" is used to describe left-wing guerrilla forces, politically active revolutionary socialists who supposedly advocate "force and violence, " or even progressive militants opposed to one or another policy or government supported by the White House.

The CIA is fundamentally an expression of U.S. capitalism's desire to preserve and maximize its openings for making money, in total disregard of such questions as "legality. "

Congress' attempts "to keep a tight rein on the CIA" (U.S. News quoted above) are no help at all since both Democrats and Republicans stand united behind the need to keep the CIA powerful. Only the billionaires and their servants need the CIA. The rest of us don't.

AUGUST 1984

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