Proven Examples of United States Covert Government Interference

INTRODUCTION

While doing some research for an upcoming thread I'm working on, I accidentally stumbled onto the following list:

COVERT CIA SPONSORED FOREIGN REGIME CHANGE ACTIONS.

Just as a regular member of ATS, I've come across posts accusing the USA of installing puppet regimes in foreign nations and purposefully subverting foreign governments in order to push their own interests.

But I guess I just never took the time to actually research it. But after stumbling upon that link above, the list of examples of the US doing such things is extensive.

Below are what I felt to be the most impressive examples. Remember, these are covert. Not just general cases of US foreign relations. If it was just typical foreign affairs I wouldn't feel it was that big of a deal but this was startling, IMO.

EXAMPLES OF US REGIME INTERFERENCE

IRAN 1953

In 1953, the CIA worked with the United Kingdom to overthrow the democratically elected government of Iran led by Prime Minister Mohammad Mossadegh who had attempted to nationalize Iran's petroleum industry, threatening the profits of the Anglo-Iranian Oil Company. Declassified CIA documents show that Britain was fearful of Iran's plans to nationalize its oil industry and pressed the U.S. to mount a joint operation to depose the prime minister and install a puppet regime. In 1951 the Iranian parliament voted to nationalize the petroleum fields of the country.

FURTHER READING.

QUICK SUMMARY: The elected government was purposefully toppled so the West could control Iran's oil sources.

Brazil 1964

With increasing warning of the impending coup against the democratically-elected President João Goulart, US President Lyndon Baines Johnson, according to an audio tape, directed taking "every step that we can" to support the overthrow of Goulart, who followed an independent foreign policy: he had been opposed both to the Bay of Pigs Invasion and the Cuban actions in the Cuban Missile Crisis. The US ambassador, Lincoln Gordon, in consultations with the President, asked for covert preparation to assist the coup plotters, who installed a military dictatorship.

The CIA performed psyops against Goulart, performed character assassination, pumped money into opposition groups, and enlisted the help of the Agency for International Development and the AFL-CIO.

FURTHER READING

QUICK SUMMARY: Overthrew the elected leader, replaced with military regime, sought to further US interests. Another reason it seemed was to prevent the nationalization of the phone company a friend of the US' CIA director owned:

ITT owned the phone company of Brazil; Washington was afraid Goulart would nationalize it. ITT's president, Harold Geneen, was friends with the Director of Central Intelligence, John McCone.

Venezuela 2002

In 2002, Washington is claimed to have approved and supported a coup against the Venezuelan government...

...The U.S. also funded opposition groups in the year leading up to the coup, channeling hundreds of thousands of dollars in grants to U.S. and Venezuelan groups opposed to President Hugo Chávez, including the labor group whose protests sparked off the coup.

FURTHER READING

That is just a few examples but if you check out the link at the beginning of this thread, it includes dozens more. They include financial assistance, attacking civilians, meddling in foreign enterprise and industry, etc.

MY THOUGHTS

I don't want to come across as unreasonable- in some of the examples, I can even support the US's involvement. Sometimes you do have to work under the radar in the interests of your country and your people. Or perhaps even to interfere for the good of the people in another country.

However, some of the examples are truly maddening, especially those that targeted civilians in order to get to the foreign governments or when we interfered not for justifiable causes but instead for our own financial interests or American corporate interests.

I would be truly angry to hear other countries were doing to us what we did to others. Undermining our government, way of life, industry, etc.

But that is just this isolationist's opinion.

reply to post by AshleyD


Thanks for the info. Some of it I've heard before but I think we all need a reminder every once in a while of exactly what our government is capable of doing. They are just too dang sneaky!

Yeah, I'm kind of behind the curve on this one! LOL! Like I said, I've heard about it and read about it all over ATS but for some reason it never clicked in my head what people were talking about. Then after coming across that page, it's like the light went on. So I wanted to share.

There are tons more examples. It really blew me away and I felt dense that it never registered sooner. Instead of it just being 'conspiracy chatter,' I realized it was very real... and very frequent. lol

reply to post by AshleyD


The entire of South and Central America has been affected by American Regime change from the 50's onwards to the new millennium. The stance of freedom and democracy is challenged pretty hard by the track record of who they backed during these coups/overthrows/regime changes.

Most countries went from freely elected governments to dictatorships.

They have also sponsored many civil wars in the same time frame.

Here's a couple of the more nasty one's.


Argentina
Chile

And don't forget the Iran Contra Affair, which was a direct result of CIA interference in Nicaragua.

Great point. There were A LOT of examples in the link located in the Middle East (which, in hindsight, really doesn't surprise me at all considering we have been obsessed with the region forever).

But there were a lot more South American examples than I had expected.

Here is a list given:

Russia
Communist states 1945-1989
Iran 1953
Tibet 1950s
Guatemala 1954
Cuba 1959
Democratic Republic of the Congo 1960
Iraq 1963
Brazil 1964
Republic of Ghana 1966
Iraq 1968
Chile 1973
Afghanistan 1973-74
Iraq 1973-75
Argentina 1976
Afghanistan 1978-1980s
Iran 1980
Nicaragua 1981-1990
El Salvador 1980-92
Cambodia 1980-95
Angola 1980s
Philippines 1986
Iraq 1992-1995
Guatemala 1993
Serbia 2000
Venezuela 2002
Haiti 2004
Palestinian Authority, 2
Iran 2001-present

Originally posted by AshleyD
Instead of it just being 'conspiracy chatter,' I realized it was very real... and very frequent. lol

This truly amazes me how many people think that when you talk about this stuff that you may be a little off your rocker and that we, as Cter's, are making the stuff up.

For anyone that is reading this, those link's in my post up there^^^, they are from the NSA archives housed at at George Washington University.

That's right folks, THE NSA.

Some would call this diplomacy. But they rarely acknowledge that it is a double edged sword. The State Dept. along with the CIA has always tried to change the game in this Nations favor and most often failed. All those who enact these programs think their hi-fallutin’ ideas will produce something positive but fail to realize that common sense dictates.

We do this more than you think. Not just for regime change, necessarily, but to support leaders we like and can work with, and to destabilize or oust the ones we don't and can't.

It's definitely not just the CIA, although the CIA is definitely one group.

Right now, I'm aware of maybe a half dozen projects in South America through old buddies and 'whatnot'. That's the ones I'm aware of. I'd suspect we've got guys in any South American country that matters. For that matter, Cuba's got guys in there, so does Russia; China's got a lot of "advisory teams" in Africa right now.

Africa will be the next cold war hot spot with CIA/other vs the Chinese being the main two contingents.

Originally posted by GAOTU789

For anyone that is reading this, those link's in my post up there^^^, they are from the NSA archives housed at at George Washington University.

That's right folks, THE NSA.

No, not at all. The links are to the National Security Archive, which is a tax exempt research foundation and library housed at George Washington University, not the National Security Agency. Two very different things.

ETA - You should have been aware of that from the subject material. The NSA (the intelligence one) doesn't do that sort of thing. They do crypto and signal intelligence. Period. You want interference with foreign governments, that's a different collection of TLAs entirely.

I can see where some of the information might be a little shocking to those new to the subject.

But, having a little bit of knowledge here and there on the subject, I am going to say this much, with respect to the title.

If the Government really wanted something to be covert, it would be....you wouldn't be finding it. The only reasons it is available to find is because someone somewhere along the line wanted someone somewhere along the line to find it and read it.

Whether or not we are willing to admit some things to ourselves, we latently condone any of the activity of, even yes, installing puppet governments all in the name of self-preservation.

Let's all be truthful to ourselves without answering it out loud - if we knew that these installations were done so it couldn't first be done to us, then do we have a problem with it? My guess is, that many would not, even if they decried it.

That's not to say this isn't good information.

reply to post by Bedlam


Africa is not the "next " Cold War hot spot. It has been there all the while. Lots of resources there to exploit and cheap labor to get to them.

If Africa ever got their act together and became a Nation rather than a continent. They would rule the world, just through economics and resources alone.

The "School of Americas" graduates have done some really horrible stuff in our name, but that is what elected officials have ordered them to do.
I know because I was a soldier and they told me.

Originally posted by TDawgRex
reply to post by Bedlam

 

Africa is not the "next " Cold War hot spot. It has been there all the while. Lots of resources there to exploit and cheap labor to get to them.

It's really starting to ramp up, though, and get serious.

A lot of raw materials we need are either there or in China, and China's not sharing. If they can tie up the African sources, we'll be in trouble.

reply to post by Bedlam


China really doesn't have that many resources for the size of it. America has, how shall we say, GOBS of energy resources and yet we do not use them. Whether it is through environmentalists or what have you supposedly stopping the energy companies. I think we are sitting on our stuff until the world runs dry (though it will never happen) of options. The companies know what they are doing. And TA-DA!, Here we are to save the day!

reply to post by TDawgRex


My research indicates Africa is a biowar petri dish where products such as AIDs and various hemorrhagic diseases were tested by rogue elements that were using WHO as the lay down system via vaccinations.

Originally posted by 7thcavtrooper
The "School of Americas" graduates have done some really horrible stuff in our name, but that is what elected officials have ordered them to do.
I know because I was a soldier and they told me.

edit on 9-6-2011 by 7thcavtrooper because: I didn't finish my statement

Hey, one for all, all for one, donchaknow.

It's still there, they just call it WHISC now. And they're still doing the same things. If you go to the right Army bases, you can see the WHISCies doing their field combat training. Sort of funny to see them with various unit patches and name tags like "Anderson" or "Jones",when they're all from Venezuela or somewhere and can't speak a word of English.

Originally posted by TDawgRex
reply to post by Bedlam

 

China really doesn't have that many resources for the size of it. America has, how shall we say, GOBS of energy resources and yet we do not use them.

It's the rare earths and metals that I'm thinking of, more than energy, although Africa's got that too.

You want lanthanum and whatnot, it's hard to come by here.

reply to post by Bedlam


I've worked with the WHISC. I've never seen them as Anderson or Jones. They teach tactics and strategy. However, what they do at home is a totally different story.

Originally posted by TDawgRex
reply to post by Bedlam

 

I've worked with the WHISC. I've never seen them as Anderson or Jones. They teach tactics and strategy. However, what they do at home is a totally different story.

I've seen some FTX's with platoons of Hispanic folk with creatively faux uniform markings at one training facility I could mention. It's fun to watch them go to the Fedex and send stuff back home. Also sort of a giveaway - it's a security problem I reported last year. Not cool to go to Fedex with your name tape reading "Anderson" when you're sending packages to Senora Gonzales in [xxx]. In mass. Twenty soldiers at a time.

You have forgotten all of the velvet and colored revolutions that took place in Eastern Europe and the former U.S.S.R. If you think they just sprang up on their own, without any help from outside, you are just not looking hard enough. It took a LOT of effort to make those revolutions happen.