We don't mess around in other people's elections, Jim?
Well...
The Russia hysteria that has taken hold in the United States has fixated on troll farms
and Facebook ads as evidence of an elaborate Kremlin conspiracy to manipulate the 2016
presidential election.
This paranoia, stoked by incessant corporate media coverage, has intentionally distracted
from the fact that the U.S. government has a very long and very bloody history of destabilizing
and overthrowing foreign governments that challenge its economic interests.
U.S. efforts at international sabotage continue to this day.
In fact, former CIA directors are even joking about it.
James Woolsey, a hardline neoconservative who led the CIA in the 1990s, insisted in
an interview on Fox News that when the U.S. meddles in foreign countries' politics, it
is "only for a very good cause."
Have we ever tried to meddle in other countries' elections?
Oh probably, but it was for the good of the system, in order to avoid the communists from
taking over.
For example, in Europe in '47, '48, '49, the Greeks and the Italians, we CIA ...
We don't do that now, though?
We don't mess around in other people's elections, Jim?
Well...
Only for a very good cause.
Can you do that, do a Vine video as former CIA director?
I love it.
Only for a very good cause in the interest of democracy.
Thanks for being here.
Always great to see you.
While the former head of the CIA may find this funny, Woolsey and Fox News host Laura
Ingraham are laughing about U.S. policies that led to the deaths of millions of people.
For many decades, the U.S. has trained and armed fascist death squads and propped up
murderous far-right dictatorships.
The most infamous examples of U.S. foreign meddling are the many military coups the CIA
orchestrated and supported in order to topple left-wing foreign governments.
In 1953, the CIA helped carry out a coup to overthrew Irans democratically elected government
on behalf of oil corporations.
The next year, the U.S. toppled Guatemalas democratically elected government on behalf
of rich land owners and food corporations.
Both countries elected left-wing leaders were replaced with brutal, authoritarian right-wing
dictators.
When voters in Chile elected Marxist Salvador Allende as president in 1970, the U.S. poured
billions of dollars into right-wing opposition groups and media outlets to try to unseat
him.
When that failed, in 1973, the CIA backed a military coup that violently toppled Chiles
democratically elected socialist government, and replaced it with Augusto Pinochet, a hyper-repressive
far-right despot who killed, tortured, and disappeared tens of thousands of leftists.
The capitalist dictator Pinochet drowned his political opposition in blood, always with
the staunch support of the U.S. government.
Former CIA Director Woolsey insisted the United States had to pursue these bloody policies
in order to support democracy.
But history shows the opposite to be true: the United States frequently subverted and
destroyed democracy expressly in order to defend capitalism.
Even the examples Woolsey cited in his Fox News interview demonstrate this.
It was for the good of the system, in order to avoid the communists from taking over.
For example, in Europe in '47, '48, '49, the Greeks and the Italians.
In Italy, the U.S. invested large sums in economic and military assistance to weaken
the Communist Party and prevent it from winning the 1948 election.
Communists had led the militant resistance against the Fascist regime before and during
World War II, and were so popular after the war that, had the U.S. not sabotaged the election,
it is likely the communists would have won.
In Greece, the U.S. and its partner the United Kingdom supported right-wing monarchist forces,
some of whom had collaborated with fascists, to fight against the communist partisans who
had bravely resisted fascism.
This eventually led to an authoritarian far-right military junta, which also enjoyed support
from the U.S.
Even the New York Times has come to acknowledge this violent history of U.S. foreign meddling.
A report noted Russias 2016 operation was simply the cyber-age version of standard United
States practice for decades.
Although the newspaper of record added, The United States departure from democratic ideals
sometimes went much further.
The former chief of CIA operations in Russia told the New York Times that the U.S. absolutely
has rigged foreign elections, and he added, I hope we keep doing it.
Reporting for The Real News, I'm Ben Norton.