The CIA and its
"Unsavory" Foreign Agents

We are told repeatedly and officially that the CIA has no choice but to associate with "unsavory" persons if it wishes to obtain certain important information in foreign countries. But it should be clearly understood that these agents are not simply informants. To the CIA and the US military these men are America's allies on the same side a civil war. Our propaganda insists that these men are fighting for freedom and democracy.

We champion their cause, for it is our cause as well.

We select them to attend American military schools and we bestow graduation certificates upon them.

We wine and dine them in the US, we give them gifts, we set them up with prostitutes.
We train them and give them their uniforms.

We teach them methods of torture and methods of assassination.

We provide them with information about individuals from the CIA's mammoth international databases. Some of these individuals then wind up murdered.

We cover up their atrocities.

We facilitate and cover up their drug trafficking.

We socialize with them. They are our friends.

CIA payments to these unsavories necessarily bring more than information -- they bring influence and control. For what ends is this influence and control used? If the United States must take sides in a civil war, why must it be on the side of the gross violators of human rights?

Documentation for the above can be found in Killing Hope: U.S. Military and CIA Interventions Since World War II, by William Blum

William Blum page