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CIA Funding and Manipulation of US News Media | ||
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In the early 1950's, Radio Free Europe and Radio Liberty were organized by the CIA as outlets of propaganda. Headed by General Rodney C. Smith of the American army, Radio Free Europe's intent was to broadcast into the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe "to keep hope alive among our friends…to confuse, divide and undermine our enemies…" and, "…to encourage uprisings against their governments." Bing Crosby, Henry Fonda, Ronald Reagan, Rock Hudson, and Barbara Stanwyck all made propaganda films or radio broadcasts in support of Radio Free Europe. William J. Casey, Ronald Reagan's CIA director and one of Capital Cities' "founders, long-time counsel, board member and largest stock holders," put pressure on ABC and all of the major America news organizations to be more supportive of the Ronald Reagan administration's conservative agenda. In November 1984, William J. Casey asked the Federal Communications Commission to revoke all of ABC's television and radio licenses in retaliation for the network's airing of an ABC News report suggesting that the CIA had attempted to assassinate an American citizen. Four months later, Capital Cities bought ABC for $19.2 billion, while William J. Casey owned 34,000 shares of Capital Cities stock worth about $7 million. Antonio Mendez, a retired member of the CIA Office of Technical Services(OTS), wrote an article in the Winter 1999/2000 issue of the CIA journal Studies in Intelligence, where he documents his involvement in the rescuing of six Americans trapped in Iran during the 1979-1981 hostage crisis. Antonio Mendez and other operatives posed as a Canadian film crew scouting locations near Tehran. Although posing as Canadians, the establishment of their false identities was done with the complete cooperation of Hollywood, including the use of Columbia Studios for their "production offices" and, as part of their disguise team, an award winning makeup artist given the pseudonym of "Jerome Calloway", who was recently awarded the CIA's Intelligence Medal of Merit. In Antonio Mendez twenty page article there is no mention of the uniqueness of either the situation or of Hollywood government cooperation and, in fact, he even mentions that his relationship with "Jerome" at the time was already ten years in the making. Upon a search of the webpage for the Hollywood trade paper Variety, the name Tony Mendez came up as a technical advisor for the CBS drama about the CIA, The Agency. In October of 1999, the CIA held a lavish gala film premier for In the Company of Spies, the first spy thriller ever to bear the CIA's stamp of approval even allowing the director to shoot inside the CIA's Langley headquarters and provided 60 off duty employees to serve as extras. Bill Harlow, the CIA's director of public affairs, said "senior CIA officials realized several years back that assisting sympathetic film makers and authors was one way the CIA could be more open and accountable to the tax paying public without divulging operational secrets. They even persuaded Chase Brandon, a veteran paramilitary officer who has jumped out of airplanes for the CIA all over the world, to take a job in the public affairs office as the CIA's liaison to Hollywood in 1996." This has proven most effective, with scriptwriters even rewriting history to present an upbeat portrait of the agency. In 2001, three new television series The Agency, Alias, and 24 and seven films including Bad Company, The Bourne Identity, and The Sum of All Fears were made with the CIA's approval. It is almost impossible to know which corporations are owned and operated by the CIA. For example Air America was a wholly owned and operated subsidiary of the CIA. The CIA helped: In 1977, Richard Helms, the executive director of the CIA who authorized the September Plan, was convicted of perjury for lying to a Senate committee about the overthrow of the democratically elected government of Chile and the murder of Salvador Allende. Patrice Émery Lumumba, the first legally elected Prime Minister of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, was deposed in competing coup d'état sponsored by the CIA and the KGB during the Congo Crisis. He was later assassinated by the CIA. The CIA provided assistance to the Afghani mujahideen in a program called Operation Cyclone. Somewhere between $3 - $20 billion in American funds were funneled into Afghanistan to train and equip mujahideen, which included Osama bin Laden, with weapons, including Stinger surface-to-air missiles and training in the latest terrorist tactics. "In 1953, the United States played a significant role in orchestrating the overthrow of Iran's popular prime minister, Mohammed Mossadegh. The Eisenhower administration believed its actions were justified for strategic reasons, but the coup was clearly a setback for Iran's political development and it is easy to see now why many Iranians continue to resent this intervention by America in their internal affairs." - Madeleine Albright In 1963 General Abdel Karim Kassem was disposed by the Baath Party. The CIA helped the new Baath Party government in ridding the country of suspected leftists and Communists. In a Baathist bloodbath, lists of suspected Communists and other leftists provided by the CIA, were used to systematically murder untold numbers of Iraq's educated including hundreds of doctors, teachers, technicians, lawyers and other professionals as well as military and political figures. The CIA directed the exiled revolutionary Contras, who planted harbor mines and sank civilan ships in attempts to overthrow the democratically-elected Sandinista government of Nicaragua. After the Boland Amendment was enacted, it became illegal under American law to fund the Contras (Bleeding heart liberals at work again!). National Security Adviser Robert MacFarlan, Deputy National Security Adviser Admiral Poindexter, National Security Council staffer Oliver North and others, continued an illegal operation to fund the Contras which lead to the Iran-Contra scandal. The CIA has been accused since the year 2000 of attempting regime change in Zimbabwe, Venezuela, Libya, Equatorial Guinea, the Palestinian Authority, Somalia and Iran. The CIA of the United States of America brings freedom - in the form of military dictatorships - to the world!! The Broadcasting Board of Governors, with an annual budget of $544.5 million, was developed to oversee all civilian, non-military international broadcasting funded by the American government. This includes Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, Radio Free Asia, Voice of America, and the Office of Cuba Broadcasting. The mission statement spells out their purpose very clearly: "to promote and sustain freedom and democracy by broadcasting accurate and objective news and information about America and the world to audiences overseas," with an ultimate goal of creating a "Worldwide United States International Broadcasting System." Some of their current projects include: Voice of America, with programming in 53 languages to more than 90 million listeners and television and internet viewers around the world, "broadcasts daily editorials reflecting the views of the American government", with a recent creation of programs for North Koreans, "including North Korean Periscope and North Korean Defectors' Odyssey to provide a forum for defectors" Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty "continued its emphasis on regions in the front line of the American led 'war on terror'. The Office of Cuba Broadcasting, which oversees Radio and Television Marti, "is to emphasize American Cuban relations, the state of the Cuban economy, international human rights and the dissident movement on the island." More than half the languages broadcast by Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty are aimed at areas where the majority populations are Muslim. Among the board of directors for the broadcasting board of governors are: |
