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In his "Time to Move On essay, Panetta uses the expression "in our democracy, a phrase that may no longer apply to this nation because in good measure the CIA has been allowed to operate above the law: to assassinate, murder, torture, kidnap, and conduct itself like the "Gestapo President Harry Truman said he feared it would become when he signed the legislation that created the Agency in 1947. No democracy can long allow a secretive criminal cadre to operate in its midst as an arm of government. Gangrene spreads.
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In his "Anti-Empire Report of August 4th, Washington investigative journalist William Blum charted more than 50 CIA attempts over the years to overthrow foreign governments, "most of which had been democratically-elected. These included Portugal, 1976; Jamaica, 1980; Chad, 1982; Grenada, 1983; Fiji, 1987; Panama, 1989; Nicaragua, 1990; Bulgaria, 1990; Albania, 1991; Ecuador, 2000; and Venezuela, 2002.
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If the CIA was a municipal police department that had gone corrupt, an incoming chief would clean house and make any rogue cops who dishonored the badge stand trial. No honest reformer would take over a vast, multi-billion criminal enterprise which is what the CIA has become and brag to the world that its gangsters "truly are America s first line of defense, as Panetta has said of its employees. As the above list indicates, the CIA is no protector of democracy. It is a proven serial killer of democracies. Its covert practices are in stark opposition to the Ten Commandments, the Sermon On The Mount, international covenants, and the U.S. Constitution. If Panetta will not purge the spy agency of its criminal element he is certainly unfit to lead it and should be fired. As the U.S. has 15 other intelligence agencies, it has no need of one that feeds it false information. Congress could shut the Agency down by turning off its funding and the sun will come up tomorrow just the same.
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(Sherwood Ross is a Miami-based reporter. To support his Anti-War News Service or to comment on this article, contact him at sherwoodr1@yahoo.com)
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