At Least in the United
States, the 'Truth Eventually Emerges'
"If only we, as a society, could as thoroughly examine our past and discuss our mistakes. ... In Guatemala, ashes are swept under the rug and skeletons aren't hidden in closets, but in mass graves. Up to now, our legacy has been one of delay, injustice and agony."
Former democratically-elected President Jacobo Arbenz Guzman: The consequences of the CIA-backed coup that toppled him over 40 years ago are still being felt by Guatemalans.
Legacy of
Ashes is the title of 600
page work by Tim Weiner, a reporter for The New York Times. Published in
2007 and later an award-winning bestseller, it reveals the history of deceit, corruption
and failed intelligence at the Central Intelligence Agency since it's founding
in January, 1946.
The manuscript offers
details of Operation PBSUCCESS, designed at CIA headquarters in Virginia.
The covert war, waged by the CIA to topple the democratically-elected
government of Jacobo
Árbenz in 1953 and 1954,
was conducted by the Machiavellian Dulles brothers and arrogant
U.S. Ambassador Jack Peurifoy, who came to Guatemala offering a "stick"
and requesting "bombs and more bombs" for freedom.
The removal of
Arbenz was the end of a young democracy and the beginning of a 40-year storm
on earth. With more than 200,000 people killed or missing,
its legacy today is reflected by uncontrollable criminal cartels, mafias and
corruption everywhere. In 1994, an investigation by the director of the CIA revealed
that his agents had funded members of the Guatemalan military who were known "murderers,
torturers and thieves." The clandestine service also withheld information
from U.S. Ambassador
Stroock [1989-1992] and wiretapped and defamed Ambassador Marilyn McAfee
[1993-1996], accusing her of having a lesbian affair with her secretary, "Murphy,"
which turned out to be her dog.
[Editor's Note: According to the Washington
Post, quoting
Wiener's book, in 1994, the CIA chief of station confronted the
American ambassador, Marilyn McAfee, with intelligence, as she recalled, that "I
was having an affair with my secretary, whose name was Carol Murphy." The
CIA's friends in the Guatemalan military had bugged McAfee's bedroom and "recorded
her cooing endearments to Murphy. They spread the word
that the ambassador was a lesbian." There was only one problem: the
ambassador was married, not gay and not sleeping with her secretary." "Murphy"
was the name of her two-year-old black standard poodle. The bug in her bedroom
had recorded her petting her dog."]
Posted
by WORLDMEETS.US
At times, CIA history isn't dissimilar from evidence recently
published in Guatemala about the SAIA [Antinarcotics Analysis and Investigation Service]. Intelligence officials were involved
with drug traffickers, smugglers and criminal networks, all in the name of
civilian security and political stability. These badly understood pacts
with the devil create seismic government consequences
that weaken rather than strengthen institutions and the leadership.
But at least in the United
States, parts of the truth and history eventually emerge, slowly but
deliberately permitting mea culpas to fix the system. If only we, as a
society, could as thoroughly examine our past and memory and discuss our
mistakes, we would certainly be worthy of a more tolerant future and a stronger democracy. In Guatemala, ashes are swept under the rug and skeletons aren't hidden
in closets, but in mass graves. Up to now, our legacy has been one of delay, injustice
and agony. Our ashes are piling up.
