Gen. Hayden and the CIA's criminal past

Editors, Asheville Global Report, President Bush nominated General Hayden as CIA director. Due to his link to the president's illegal surveillance operations, some object. He defended circumventing the law stating that compliance involved too much "looping paperwork." He appears to have no problem with the Fourth Amendment. His ability to break the law and then to defend these actions make him the perfect candidate. The CIA has institutionalized law breaking. A brief look at CIA history is illustrative. The CIA has been repeatedly involved in coups. In 1953 and 1954 it overthrew the elected leaders of Iran and Guatemala. In 1963 and 1968 the CIA sponsored coups that brought the Baath Party and Saddam Hussein to power in Iraq. In 1965 the CIA brought General Suharto to power in Indonesia, resulting in the massacre of over 500,000 Indonesians. In 1973 the CIA assisted General Pinochet in overthrowing the elected government of Chile. Of course these coups were only a small fraction of the regime changes fostered illegally by the CIA. The CIA has regularly participated in assassinations. In Operation Phoenix, according to a 1971 congressional report, the CIA assisted in the murder of 20,000 Vietnamese opponents of the South Vietnam regime. In the Congo, Patrice Lumumba was murdered. After the above coups, the CIA furnished lists of "leftists" to the death squads. The CIA has also been involved in covert wars in Southeast Asia, Afghanistan, Central and South America, Africa, etc., resulting in the deaths of millions. Don't forget about the CIA's domestic activities. In Operation CHAOS the CIA infiltrated the anti-war and civil rights movements. It regularly opened domestic and foreign mail and conducted domestic spying. The CIA has violated the guarantee of a free press. In Operation Mockingbird the CIA recruited news organizations and journalists to become spies and to disseminate propaganda. Some 25 news organizations and 400 journalists became CIA assets as a result. The above are just a fraction of the CIA's criminal past but they show why General Hayden is the right man for the job. He will not be bothered by any "looping paperwork" such as the Constitution.