By MUMIA ABU-JAMAL
In the week of the Senate Intelligence Select Committee’s report on CIA torture of terror suspects, we’re reminded how little Americans know about how the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency rolls in the real world.
Predictably, the 500-page summary of a 6700-page report erupted into a political and media firestorm. Networks and cable news outlets are happy as kittens on catnip!
But truth be told, this ain’t a new story. The CIA, the executive hand of the President, has been involved deeply in every crime known to man—for decades.
Journalist John Kelly, in an article published in the 2002 book “Into the Buzzsaw,” cites a pretty interesting source for his revelation that the CIA commits literally hundreds of crimes a day, and thousands per year. The source? The CIA itself.
In his piece, Kelly cites a U.S. Intelligence Committee staff report citing such crimes. They have overturned governments, launched assassinations, armed criminals to attack their governments. And we’re shocked that they tortured people? Seriously?
Every President since the 1930s has been seduced by lure of the CIA to make the world in their own image, sometimes by removing leaders they didn’t like. Power like that is irresistible. And the CIA, made immune by a law passed by Congress and signed by Bill Clinton on Dec. 27, 2000, can violate any law, domestic or foreign, any treaty—or the Constitution itself—with complete immunity and impunity, as long as they are following a presidential order. Is that deep, or what?
So, did they torture people? Yep. Did they kill people? Yep. Did they violate laws? Yep. But guess what? Under the Intelligence Authorization Act of 2001, they’re immune from prosecution. That’s American law—the law of the outlaw.
© Copyright Mumia Abu-Jamal 2014
