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The Terrifying Background of the Man Who Ran a CIA Assassination Unit

theatlantic.com

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Re: The Terrifying Background of the Man Who Ran a CIA Assassination Unit

#91

Post by batista »

briandear wrote: post #38

It's almost ridiculous how some people get so indignant about CIA; I can almost feel their spittle as they shout at their computer screens. At the same time, people get equally outraged when terrorists kill people and then want to blame CIA for their failings. It's a bad world. I am not sympathetic to the plight of those who associate with terrorists (even if they themselves haven't committed a terrorist act) and fin…

>It's almost ridiculous how some people get so indignant about CIA; I can almost feel their spittle as they shout at their computer screens. At the same time, people get equally outraged when terrorists kill people and then want to blame CIA for their failings. It's a bad world.

For one, not all here are Americans. Some of us are Europeans, and lots of those are from countries that the CIA has royally fu*d over in the past. Like establishing a military dictatorship in my country in the 70s.

Second, it's "a bad world" mostly in part because of certain superpowers abusing their power and money-resource-influence grabbing. From the colonial overlords of the not-so-distance past, to the post-colonial overlords of today, and from the cold war superpowers, to the "global cop".

Things like arab fanatics are a sick byproduct of those forces (not to mention being directly _armed_ by the CIA in the past, like the OBL ally or that Hussein ally).

Re: The Terrifying Background of the Man Who Ran a CIA Assassination Unit

#92

Post by rdtsc »

briandear wrote: post #38

It's almost ridiculous how some people get so indignant about CIA; I can almost feel their spittle as they shout at their computer screens. At the same time, people get equally outraged when terrorists kill people and then want to blame CIA for their failings. It's a bad world. I am not sympathetic to the plight of those who associate with terrorists (even if they themselves haven't committed a terrorist act) and fin…

> It's a bad world. I am not sympathetic to the plight of those who associate with terrorists

So ... you are saying you are very much an anti-American. But your post indicates support for CIA, so I am confused.

Re: The Terrifying Background of the Man Who Ran a CIA Assassination Unit

#94

Post by autodidakto »

knowtheory wrote: post #22
daveying99 wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I thought they had changed their name to Xe services. What sort of name is Academi for a private mercenary company?

Honestly, that's probably why they changed it again. Blackwater was a comically villainous name to begin with.

Not only is it comically villainous, it's the technical term for waste water from toilets. That is, sewage. Whoever is picking their names needs to be, uhm, shot.

Re: The Terrifying Background of the Man Who Ran a CIA Assassination Unit

#95

Post by asto »

accountswu wrote: post #87
3amOpsGuy wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>> I am not sympathetic to the plight of those who associate with terrorists (even if they themselves haven't committed a terrorist act) and find themselves it Gitmo or dead. There is a view that the US actions are unfair and unjust. The delivery method is not terrorism but the end result is indistinguishable in terms of justness or fairness. For example, torturing a man not found guilty of any crimes. With that in m…

>There is a view that the US actions are unfair and unjust. >The delivery method is not terrorism but the end result is indistinguishable in terms of justness or fairness. For example, torturing a man not found guilty of any crimes. How is the delivery method not terrorism? If a guy named Muhammad kills 12 ordinary civilians he is a terrorist but if a guy named Andy/Joe/Steve kills 12 / 112 people in Iraq / Afghanist…

Muslimy named guy at Fort Hood? He is a Muslim!

According to eyewitnesses, Hasan had taken a seat at an empty table and bowed his head for several seconds when he suddenly stood up, shouted "Allahu Akbar!"

Re: The Terrifying Background of the Man Who Ran a CIA Assassination Unit

#96

Post by freshhawk »

Zakharov wrote: post #43
freshhawk wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Half true, not every government and not these kinds of tactics. The point is that when you move from dirty intelligence work to hiring mercenaries to perform large scale purges and intentionally make them unaccountable in order to shield yourself from war crime prosecution ... that's a level normally reserved for totalitarian states or exceptionally corrupt states. Since the 70's and 80's these types of organizations…

These aren't "large scale purges" or "death mobs", they're targeted assassinations. Blackwater, villainous as they may be, aren't killing indiscriminately to cause fear.

"deaths squads", and it's the exact definition of death squad. The fact that it fits a definition of a word isn't important anyway. The facts are.

Blackwater didn't get that "villainous" reputation by being particularily targeted. I guess you could argue that the frequently reported "indiscriminate" firing was a different Blackwater/Xe/Acedemi department and you might be totally right.

And I guess that depends on when the number of extrajudicial killings by a funded group kept unaccountable specifically to avoid prosecution reaches a level that you would call "large scale". No one seems to know the scale, but it's certainly beyond what any historian is going to call "targeted assassinations" in the future.

Re: The Terrifying Background of the Man Who Ran a CIA Assassination Unit

#97

Post by justindocanto »

chernevik wrote: post #28

That's quite a headline. But the article is mostly about delegations of authority (and that not in any real detail), a story of US contractors conducting assassinations, and one (1) corroborating opinion -- that corroboration in no detail, and almost certainly second-hand. There's a paragraph about the "terrifying background", in absolutely no detail whatsoever. This sort of thing has become a subgenre of its own, on…

This. The title for this article is misleading.

Re: The Terrifying Background of the Man Who Ran a CIA Assassination Unit

#98

Post by lusr »

mcantelon wrote: post #2

Having NGOs conduct killing on behalf of the government is a tried-and-true method of counterinsurgence (South American paramilitary death squads for example). The plausible deniability introduced by working through a proxy allows the government to conduct more politically risky operations (including false flag attacks if public support is waning). Criticizing the government becomes riskier. And, if not held in check…

What puzzles me is why the person delegating authority is not considered responsible for the actions of those whom authority has been delegated to. Authority was delegated, not responsibility.

Re: The Terrifying Background of the Man Who Ran a CIA Assassination Unit

#99

Post by cmdkeen »

fpp wrote: post #24
mcantelon wrote: post #2

Having NGOs conduct killing on behalf of the government is a tried-and-true method of counterinsurgence (South American paramilitary death squads for example). The plausible deniability introduced by working through a proxy allows the government to conduct more politically risky operations (including false flag attacks if public support is waning). Criticizing the government becomes riskier. And, if not held in check…

Well said - similar happened in Europe during the 1970s with people being classified as (left-wing) terrorists (and a few might have certainly been) and being "transported" between countries by so-called freelancers - TMK quite a few did not survive the travel and definitely no obituaries in the press.

It was also in the context of some European countries not co-operating with other countries to arrest/extradite terrorist suspects because they wanted a quiet life where terrorist groups didn't attack their interests.

Re: The Terrifying Background of the Man Who Ran a CIA Assassination Unit

#100

Post by mtgx »

kiba wrote: post #11

Never mind conspiracy theory, we have evidence openly showing how our government is doing bad things for the "right reason".

The road to hell is paved with good intentions. I'm sure the Spanish Inquisition had "good intentions" as well when they tortured the "heretics".

Governments can easily get out of hand if not vigilantly watched and stopped when necessary, or they will create situations where they can punish whoever they want for whatever reason they say.

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