For
a while now, the premier intelligence agency of a nuclear armed state has been
conducting itself in a dangerous manner. The agency has spent enormous amounts
of money to carry out terrorist activities on foreign soil, destabilise
democratic governments in an attempt to increase its spheres of influence,
kidnap and torture civilians without due process, and has assassinated
individuals deemed unfriendly.
This agency, for all
intents and purposes, has gone rogue.
The country in question
itself has a tarnished record. It constantly violates human rights and
international laws, has been responsible for various wars which it has many
times unilaterally initiated or instigated. It also has a history of
financially and politically supporting dictatorial regimes.
The rogue agency in
question, is the CIA. And the country in question, is the United States of
America (USA).
The tools by which we
determined that the agency has gone rogue have the ones used by the US to
categorise other agencies.
The US used these tools,
in their most famous example, to claim that the Pakistani-run intelligence
agency ISI has gone rogue. To argue their point, they have cited the following
two examples, among others.
First, the US claimed
that the ISI cannot be reined in by its civilian governments; that it instead
jealously guards its operations and even spies on its civilian government.
Secondly, the US went as
far as to say that the ISI does not even answer to the Pakistani military. The
US claimed that the operations of the ISI, like allegedly supporting the
Taliban and other terrorist organisations, was contrary to public statements by
the Pakistani military establishment.
The US has categorically
stated that as such, the ISI had become a ‘state within a state’.
The allegations, for the
most part, do ring true. And they are as true for the ISI as they are for the
CIA (and now the ISI).
The CIA fit both these
criterion and has demonstrated its independence from the American civilian
government and military, when during several congressional hearings, it has
repeatedly refused to hand over control of its international drone campaign,
only relenting finally to a slow transition over the course of several years.
The CIA carried out drone strikes, contrary to repeated assurances by the
civilian government of America’s will to adhere to international laws. And all
of this comes after decades-old history of military coups, terrorism,
supporting non-democratic actors and most recently, spying on American allies.
The fact that this is
happening in the world’s most powerful nuclear armed state is all the more
worrying.
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