CIA activities by country
The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) is an agency of the federal government of the United States that has carried out numerous confirmed and alleged activities across the world since its founding in 1947.
Africa
[edit]Angola
[edit]During the Angolan Civil War, the CIA supported UNITA against the communist MPLA as part of Operation IA Feature. Funding UNITA with $32 million in cash and $16 million in weapons.[1]
Chad
[edit]Throughout the 1980s, the CIA supported dictator of Chad Hissène Habré as a counter to dictator of Libya Muammar Gaddafi. Habré later went to trial in 2015 in Senegal for crimes against humanity, torture and war crimes.[2]
Democratic Republic of the Congo
[edit]Libya
[edit]During the War on Terror, the CIA and British MI6 cooperated with the Gaddafi regime. This included renditions of Libyan dissidents back to Gaddafi's regime, where they were often tortured. This was exposed from documents found in Tripoli during the 2011 Libyan Revolution.[3][4]
Niger
[edit]In 2018, a CIA drone base near Dirkou operating out of a small commercial airport was revealed by the The New York Times.[5]
Somalia
[edit]The CIA has been alleged to have influenced the 1967 elections by financing Prime Minister Muhammad Haji Ibrahim Egal and other pro-western leaders.[6] In 2003, the CIA began to covertly arm and finance Somali warlords opposed to the Islamic Courts Union (ICU).[7] From the CIA station in Nairobi, Kenya CIA agents would make frequent trips to Mogadishu by plane where they would pay hundreds of thousands of dollars to the warlords. The CIAs policy was evaluated as a failure, due to the ICU continuing to hold power.[8][9] During the subsequent Ethiopian invasion of Somalia, the Bush administration expressed doubts about Ethiopia's ability to effectively use the new equipment it had been provided for the operation, prompting the further involvement of CIA agents.[10] CIA paramilitary officers participated in combat alongside the Ethiopian military from the outset of operations against the Islamic Courts Union.[11]
Alongside funding proxy wars in Somalia, the CIA has also financed a secret prison in Mogadishu, run by the Somali National Security Agency (now the National Intelligence and Security Agency), but entirely reliant on the United States. According to Somali government officials, American agents operate unilaterally in the country.[12]
South Africa
[edit]Former CIA agent and US diplomat Donald Rickard has claimed that the CIA helped arrest Nelson Mandela by informing South African police of his location in 1962, leading to the Rivona Trial and imprisonment until 1990. This is due to his associated with South African communists.[13][14] In a 2016 article, the African National Congress claimed CIA interference in South Africa was ongoing.[15]
Sudan
[edit]Americas
[edit]Canada
[edit]Chile
[edit]Colombia
[edit]Guatemala
[edit]The CIA has carried out a number of interventions in Guatemala, including:
- 1952: Operation PBFortune, a failed attempt to overthrow the democratically elected leader Jacobo Árbenz
- 1954: Operation PBSuccess, which overthrew Árbenz and led to decades of military rule in Guatemala
- 1954: Operation PBHistory, an attempt to prove a link between Árbenz and communism, while monitoring Latin American communists
Throughout the Guatemalan Civil War, the CIA trained the Guatemalan military, including during the Guatemalan genocide.
PBSuccess has been noted for radicalising Che Guevara towards Marxism.[16]
Honduras
[edit]Nicaragua
[edit]The CIA armed the Contras against the Sandinista government in the aftermath of the Nicaraguan Revolution from 1981 to 1990. This was hugely controversial due to human rights violations by the Contras, alleged cocaine trafficking and the Iran–Contra affair.
Peru
[edit]United States
[edit]Asia and Oceania
[edit]Afghanistan
[edit]Cambodia
[edit]China
[edit]Between 2010 and 2012, 30 CIA sources in China were lost due to arrests and executions.[17]
India
[edit]Indonesia
[edit]Iran
[edit]Iraq
[edit]Japan
[edit]Lebanon
[edit]William Blum has claimed that the CIA financed President Camille Chamoun during his run of the 1957 election.[18] The CIA also funded the Arabic magazine Hiwar under the cover of the Congress for Cultural Freedom in the 1960s.[19] Tim Weiner has claimed that during the Lebanese civil war that Christian leader Bashir Gemayel was on the CIA payroll and was a trusted source.[20] The 1983 US embassy bombing in Beirut killed several 8 CIA agents and in 2023 the CIA called it the "deadliest day in CIA history".[21] The role of the CIA in the 1985 Beirut car bombings has been debated.[22][23]
Myanmar
[edit]North Korea
[edit]Pakistan
[edit]Philippines
[edit]Turkey
[edit]Vietnam
[edit]Europe
[edit]Austria
[edit]In late August 2024, the CIA was credited with warning Austrian authorities of a planned terrorist attack by ISIS at a Taylor Swift concert.[24]
France
[edit]Germany
[edit]Hungary
[edit]Italy
[edit]Soviet Union
[edit]Spain
[edit]The CIA was suspected by the Spanish government in the 2019 North Korean Embassy in Madrid incident. In which the defector organization Free Joseon broke into the North Korean Embassy in Madrid and stole hard drives before handing them over to the FBI.[25]
United Kingdom
[edit]See also
[edit]References
[edit]- ^ Weiner, Tim (2007). Legacy of Ashes: This History of the CIA. Doubleday. pp. 348–349.
- ^ Brody, Reed (2016-06-28). "Enabling a Dictator". Human Rights Watch.
- ^ Batty, David (2011-09-03). "CIA worked with Libya in terror suspect renditions, documents show". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 2024-09-18.
- ^ "Files show MI6, CIA link to Gaddafi". France 24. 2011-09-03. Retrieved 2024-09-18.
- ^ "Deciphering the new CIA drone base in Niger". TBIJ. Retrieved 2024-10-15.
- ^ Ellen Ray, William Schaap (1980). Dirty Work 2: The CIA In Africa. p. 16.
- ^ Cocodia, Jude (2021-04-03). "Rejecting African Solutions to African Problems: The African Union and the Islamic Courts Union in Somalia". African Security. 14 (2): 110–131. doi:10.1080/19392206.2021.1922026. ISSN 1939-2206. S2CID 236350899.
- ^ Mazzetti, Mark (2006-06-08). "CIA failed in Somalia, officials say - Americas - International Herald Tribune". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2023-02-28.
- ^ Mazzetti, Mark (December 27, 2006). "U.S. Signals Backing for Ethiopian Incursion Into Somalia". The New York Times.
- ^ Polk, William R. (2018). Crusade and jihad: the thousand-year war between the Muslim world and the global north. The Henry L. Stimson lectures. New Haven ; London: Yale University Press. p. 459. ISBN 978-0-300-22290-6. OCLC 982652240.
Since the Bush administration doubted that the Ethiopians would use the new equipment effectively, it decided to participate in the campaign with American Special Forces and agents of the CIA. It was an offer Ethiopia could not refuse: money, arms, and the creation of an American shield to protect the regime. It began its unprovoked and ultimately unsuccessful invasion...
- ^ Hollar, Jullie (March–April 2008). "Rediscovering Somalia". Extra!. Fairness & Accuracy in Reporting: 13–15.
- ^ Mueller, Jason C. (July 2023). "Does the United States owe reparations to Somalia?". Race & Class. 65 (1): 61–82. doi:10.1177/03063968231155358. ISSN 0306-3968 – via Sage Journals.
- ^ "Ex-CIA spy admits tip led to Nelson Mandela's long imprisonment". The Guardian. 15 May 2016. Archived from the original on 16 May 2016. Retrieved 20 May 2016.
- ^ Taylor, Adam (2021-12-01). "The CIA's mysterious role in the arrest of Nelson Mandela". Washington Post. ISSN 0190-8286. Retrieved 2024-10-02.
- ^ PRESSE, AGENCE FRANCE (2016-05-16). "CIA spy tip-off led to arrest of Mandela: report". Capital News. Retrieved 2024-10-02.
- ^ "Guatemala: The coup that radicalised Che Guevara | Green Left". www.greenleft.org.au. 2014-05-30. Retrieved 2024-10-03.
- ^ Choi, David. "The CIA falsely believed it was 'invincible' in China — here's how its spies were reportedly discovered and killed in one of the biggest blows to the agency". Business Insider. Retrieved 2024-10-14.
- ^ Blum, William (2002). Rogue State: A Guide to the World's Only Superpower (2nd ed.). South Africa: Spearhead. p. 171.
- ^ Elizabeth M. Holt (2013). "'Bread or Freedom': The Congress for Cultural Freedom, the CIA, and the Arabic Literary Journal Ḥiwār (1962-67)" (PDF). Journal of Arabic Literature. 44: 83–102. doi:10.1163/1570064x-12341257. Archived from the original on 23 October 2021.
- ^ Weiner, Tim (2007). Legacy of Ashes: The History of the CIA. New York: Doubleday Broadway Publishing Group. pp. 389–390.
- ^ "Never Forgotten: The Deadliest Day in CIA History - CIA". www.cia.gov. Retrieved 2024-10-02.
- ^ Zoglin, Richard (12 October 1987). "Did a Dead Man Tell No Tales?". Time. Retrieved 29 March 2011.
- ^ "Terrorist Attacks on Americans, 1979–1988". PBS. n.d. Retrieved 23 January 2007.
- ^ "CIA: We foiled Taylor Swift terror attack". POLITICO. 2024-08-29. Retrieved 2024-10-14.
- ^ Jones, Sam (2019-03-13). "Spain investigates possible CIA links to embassy break-in". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 2024-10-03.