CIA is a terrorist organization

An analyst says the appointment of John Brennan, the purported architect of Washington’s drone operations, as the next CIA director comes as no surprise since the agency is in itself a “terrorist organization.”

The comment comes as the US Senate has confirmed John Brennan, the top White House adviser on the so-called war on terror, as the next director of the CIA. Last Thursday, the Senate voted 63-34 in favor of Brennan, overcoming Republican Sen. Rand Paul’s filibuster of the nomination to demand an answer from the White House over its use of assassination drones. Washington uses assassination drones in several countries, claiming that they target “terrorists.” According to witnesses, however, the attacks have mostly led to massive civilian casualties.

Press TV has conducted an interview with Caleb Maupin, with the International Action Center, in New York to further discuss the issue. The program also offers the opinions of former US diplomat George Lambrakis in London. What follows is an approximate transcription of the interview with Maupin.

Press TV: Caleb Maupin, what do you think about the appointment of John Brennan as the CIA director?

Maupin: Well, there is nothing particularly new about John Brennan’s policies and his love of assassinating people. The CIA is a terrorist organization that functions to serve the Wall Street monopolists. It was formed shortly after the Second World War and some of its first policies were creating instability and chaos in Italy when it looked like anti-US forces might win the elections.

The CIA brought down the government of Salvador Allende, a democratically elected government in Chile, and assassinated Salvador Allende, killing 20,000 innocent people in the process of that.

All over the world wherever people are demanding justice and fighting for things people want like peace, jobs, democracy and equality, the CIA goes in to defend the interests of Wall Street, to assassinate, to murder and to commit chaos and crimes.

So, it’s no surprise that John Brennan, who kind of engineered it with this drone policy, which leads to thousands of innocent people being killed… It’s no surprise that he has been put at the top of the CIA because the CIA is an organization that serves Wall Street; that commits crimes against humanity and really that’s what they’re all about.

Press TV: Caleb Maupin, this assassination drone program… it’s going to be focused more domestically, isn’t it, on Americans themselves? Tell us more about that even though the US government is not so keen on expanding on it?

Maupin: Well, it is interesting drones actually have been used domestically. There are multiple states that have drones surveillance actually on the books and that is an increasing part of the repression in the United States drones have been used for surveillance to attack political movements.

And the CIA, which is officially only supposed to operate outside of the United States, actually has a history of operating inside the United States. Files have been released showing that the CIA took action against the anti-war movement in the 1960s and against organized labor.

The CIA is an arm of Wall Street. You know the other guest said that policy is set by the president. Now policy is set by Wall Street and the bankers. They are the ones that set the policy and that’s why whenever any government around the world starts standing up for its people and starts defying the will of the bankers and the corporations, all of a sudden the CIA is going in and destabilizing and terrorizing it.

I mean how many times has the CIA attempted to murder Fidel Castro? Over 300, last time I checked. This is unacceptable. That’s what the CIA is. The CIA murdered Che Guevara and all over the world people love Che Guevara.

You know, whether it’s Asia, Latin America, everywhere people are looking up to Che Guevara as the symbol of the fight for equality and all the things that Wall Street and the bankers have fought against. Yet the CIA murdered Che Guevara.

The CIA has committed so many ugly crimes against humanity. You know, any corner of the globe you name it, whether Asia, Latin America, you know, all over the world, the CIA has murdered people and it speaks for Wall Street and what is the results they’ve gotten.
In Eastern Europe, the CIA staged all kinds of these color revolutions to bring down governments that were defying the United States.

And what is the result? Are the people of Eastern Europe better off? No. Sex trafficking has gone up, drug addiction, poverty, unemployment. That’s the result of the CIA’s intervention around the world. Nowhere have they ever brought peace and stability.

Everywhere they have created chaos, and that’s why we have to stand against them and that’s why the people of the world loathe the CIA and admire people that they murder ruthlessly, people like Che Guevara.

Press TV: Caleb Maupin, if you have a response to Mr. George Lambrakis there?

Maupin: Oh, of course, he raises this false dichotomy: It’s either bombs or drones. I say self-determination. I say the people of the Middle East have the right to run their countries without Washington D.C. and Wall Street intervening and if they fight for their country and fight for national sovereignty and independence, the US should stay out of there.

And he says that Wall Street doesn’t run the United States. I disagree with that. The people of the United States don’t want another war in Syria. They don’t hate the Iranian people. They want their mail to come on time. They want libraries and hospitals to stop closing down. That’s what they want.

All across this country there is unemployment and there is suffering, yet there is more and more money for groups like the CIA, for things like this drone program that lead to people to be murdered and that’s outrageous. The people of this country are clearly upset with the economic situation.

It’s Wall Street that wants wars. It’s Wall Street that wants chaos. That’s how it is. That’s what’s going on and, you know, look at this, he talks about the CIA prevented communists from overtaking Europe.

Well, in Italy the reason the communists could have won the election in Italy was because they had been the anti-fascist fighters. While the US bankers were doing business with Mussolini and Hitler, the communists in Italy were resisting and they were held in high admiration by the Italian public and the CIA went in to prevent democracy because the Italian people wanted to elect communists to their government.

All over the CIA… well the propaganda is, he talks about propaganda… the propaganda is that the US loves democracy and freedom. Whenever people want to vote in a government that the US doesn’t approve of. all the sudden all that talk of democracy falls out.

You know the CIA was absolutely involved in what happened in Venezuela, the coup attempt against Hugo Chavez, the democratically-elected leader. Everywhere democracy doesn’t serve the one percent; everywhere democracy doesn’t serve Wall Street, the CIA, the armed forces are there to enforce their will.

That’s what the CIA is all about. It is an armed wing of the capitalist government of the United States, which serves Wall Street. That’s what, it is plain and simple.

And I will also point out, you know, he mentioned Savak. Savak, you know the organization that served the Shah of Iran was trained by the CIA, backed up by the CIA. In fact there were so many in the United Sates during the Iranian revolution when the Iranian students would go out to demonstrate against the Shah they had to wear bags over their heads in the fear that the CIA would take their picture and send it back to Iran so and then their families would be tortured by Savak.

So don’t try to separate the CIA from what Savak did. The CIA is a criminal organization. Its crimes are well-known to the people of the world and the people of the world, like I said before, they admire Che Guevara; they admire the people who fight against US imperialism whether it’s from the Pentagon, the CIA or whatever forces. This drone policy is a murderous policy to serve Wall Street.

[In response to George Lambrakis] It absolutely does. Wall Street runs the United States. The banks and the corporations run the Democratic and Republican parties and that is very clear to anyone who does any research. I absolutely have a point of view and I’m opposed to what this government does around the world. I’m opposed to the policies of murder. I’m opposed to it!

Press TV: Caleb Maupin, in closing over to you, thirty seconds please.

Maupin: Well, there was one thing which our guest said that I agree with, that there are millions of Americans who oppose the policies that are coming out. There are millions of people living in the United States who do oppose the policies.

They are being implemented to serve Wall Street and that is why millions of people hate the government in the United States.

That’s why there is mass protests and demonstrations like the Occupy movement and that is absolutely the truth and people need to stand up and they need to be in the streets and they need to stand with the people of the world against Wall Street and bankers and fight for peace, jobs, democracy, equality and all the things that the CIA attempts to rob from people around the world. We need to stand with the people of the world and fight for justice.