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CIA Declassifies the "Family Jewels"
An anonymous reader informs us that the CIA has recently declassified for your reading pleasure some records relating to illegal spying, assassination attempts, and other goodies. These are available from the CIA's FOIA portal. From the BBC article: " Last week, CIA chief Michael Hayden announced the decision to declassify the records, saying the documents were 'unflattering but part of CIA history.' The documents detail assassination plots, domestic spying, wiretapping, and kidnapping... Among the documents is a request in 1972 for someone 'who was accomplished at picking locks' who might be retiring or resigning from the agency."
For example, readers from India might want to check out the CIA's files about the India-China war of 1962, especially since India's Freedom of Information laws (IIRC) don't cover matters of national security.
Where are the top secret documents about the assassination of Kennedy? I wanna read them!
No - it's sending the message "look we're a little bit naughty because we pick locks" as a distraction instead of sending the message that there are evil out of control bastards torturing people to death. The entire organisation is guilty by association and it is up to those that run it to fix those portions that would face war crimes tribunals in other situations.
If we were all peers, you'd have to worry about countries following that good-returns-for-marginally-despicable-behavior gradient, which snowballs as the low-hanging fruit is plucked and as nations progressively set bad examples for each other, in addition to the bad blood garnered over time. The existence of superpowers and nuclear deterrents has ended the brutal, organic relationships between countries. It may not last forever, and we should use this era of relative peace to consolidate power (a la the EU) and put institutions in place that will serve us better in a changing geopolitical climate and help us avoid old follies.
"Trolls they were, but filled with the evil will of their master: a fell race..." -- J.R.R. Tolkien on Olog-hai
It's a global economy - enemies don't have to invade to cause you harm. Let's take your syllogism (no one can invade Canada, therefore Canada has no enemies) and apply it to the United States. Clearly no one is in a position to invade the U.S. either... therefore the U.S. has no enemies? But... there are a few countries who certainly claim we're they're enemy.
...following the principles of Heisenburger's Uncertain Cat...
Yes, some interesting information, but the underlying purpose of releasing it is TOTALLY dishonest. My understanding is that the CIA is releasing information as a public relations gesture. My understanding is that the agency is releasing only information that no longer matters to it, with any modifications it wants to make.
Almost the CIA's ONLY purpose is to help rich people get richer by providing information and violence paid for by U.S. citizens. The organization did not just suddenly become honest. (Read the linked article.)
Bush and Cheney have consistently claimed they are above the law. This fits the definition of a dictatorship: "A form of government in which the ruler is not restricted by a constitution or laws or opposition".
The CIA invented a term for the destructive consequences of its actions: Blowback. Blowback doesn't matter to the agency, however, since it still gets what it wants. Also, for CIA employees, more trouble in the world means more money and promotions.
Remember, the terms NSA and CIA are just names that you are allowed to know, to try to get you to think you know what the U.S. government is doing. There are many agencies with names and purposes you are not allowed to know. If you are a U.S. citizen, you are, however, expected to pay. If you are not a U.S. citizen (and sometimes if you are), you may be expected to pay with your life.
I spoke with a professor who taught my course on U.S. Intelligence and National Security a while back. He had been a staffer with the Senate Intelligence Committee for over a decade and had read the entire classified version of the Warren Commission report. His opinion on it was basically this - there simply isn't any sufficient proof to tie the killing to anyone but Oswald, nor proof that Oswald had acted on anyone's behalf, although he did suspect some sort of Cuban involvement somewhere in the killing. But, he qualified, that his suspicions could not be proven and amounted to more of a gut feeling rather than something based strictly on evidence - Castro by then must have known of the numerous attempts Kennedy had ordered on his life.
Actually, I would expect Canada's military requirements to rise somewhat due to pressures from global warming. The legendary northwest passage is opening up, which will make Canada a major trade route and open up disputes over borders and natural resources (oil, fishing, etc.). There are already heated debates over whether these areas are international waters, or sovereign Canadian territory. Of course, most of those conflicts are relatively benign ones with the US at the moment, but I wouldn't put it past the Russians, Chinese, or North Koreans to try something shady. Maybe you won't need a huge army, but you will need a substantial navy/coast guard. Also, not to sound xenophobic, but there is the potential that Canada's relatively large immigrant population may increase its vulnerability to terrorism and other forms of extremism.
"Since when has the United States established rape rooms for political dissidents?"
Oh, the "rape rooms" line again. You mean like US state and federal prisons? Arrest and rape are so synonymous in our culture that it's trotted around as a punchline. We'll fly into a self-righteous rage over the punitive rapes of women in Pakistan, but, in the US, we joke about subjecting men to sexual assaults for as little as violating drug prohibitions.
Not a funny subject: A Timeline of CIA Atrocities.