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From 1947-1949, the CIA funneled arms and cash to Greece to fuel a civil war against partisans who freed the country from the Nazis.
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In 1948, the CIA used “all feasible means” to save Italy’s pro-US government in rigged elections.
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In 1953, the CIA and MI6 couped Iran after it nationalized its oil, installing a puppet who reigned until 1979.
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In 1954, Guatemalan President Jacobo Arbenz was couped after threatening the United Fruit Company’s banana interests.
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In the 1950s, the USSR, GDR, Poland, China and DPRK accused the CIA of introducing invasive pests to undermine food security. The agency also tried air-dropping fleas and mosquitos to see if they could spread disease.
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After Fidel Castro came to power in Cuba in 1959, the CIA concocted literally hundreds of plots to kill him, from an exploding cigar to fungus-infected diving suit, poison pen and just hiring the mafia to rub him out.
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In 1962, the DoD and CIA hatched a plot to stage false flag attacks in US cities to blame Cuba and justify an invasion. JFK rejected the plan. The CIA later targeted Cuba using terrorism, including the 1976 bombing of a civilian airliner that killed 73.
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In 1962, a CIA provided South African authorities information on anti-Apartheid leader Nelson Mandela's whereabouts, assuring his imprisonment for 27 long years.
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Castro wasn't the only one on the CIA's hit list. In 1961, Belgian mercs murdered Congolese President Patrice Lumumba with CIA help. In 1963, the agency helped kill its own puppet – South Vietnamese leader Ngo Dinh Diem.
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In 1966, the CIA helped oust Indonesian President Sukarno, replacing him with a dictatorship that killed up to 3 million people.
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In 1973, the CIA couped Chilean President Salvador Allende and replaced him with a junta known for torture, disappearances and mass imprisonment. In 1975, the new regime and CIA hatched Operation Condor – helping dictators across Latin America crush dissent and fuel instability.
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In the 70s and 80s, the CIA trafficked drugs in Asia and Latin America, both to earn money and support regional allies.
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Investigative journalist Gary Webb, who exposed the plot – which included flooding America’s own inner cities with crack, was found dead, two gunshot wounds to the head, in 2004. His death was ruled a ‘suicide’.
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Americans haven't been immune to other CIA crimes as well. In 1950, the agency began experiments known as Project BLUEBIRD and MK ULTRA using drugs to modify behavior. In 2019, investigative journalist Tom O’Neill shed light on MKULTRA's role in the 60s Manson murders to discredit the hippie peace movement.
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In the 1950s, the CIA began warrantless wiretapping of US citizens. Despite assurances in the 70s that these activities had stopped, Edward Snowden and WikiLeaks revealed in the 2010s that the CIA and NSA had learned to monitor virtually every communication device worldwide.
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A 2017 WikiLeaks dump revealed that the CIA could fake foreign hacking using the Marble Framework anti-forensic tool.
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In 2024, US media uncovered that the CIA rebuilt Ukraine's security services from the ground up, from intel collection to torture techniques. This included 12 "forward operating bases" near Russia.
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In 1999, Historian Frances Stonor Saunders revealed that besides coups and murders, the CIA engaged in bizarre projects like arts funding, including abstract 'modern art’.
