Coll describes all the "bad guys" as killers, thugs, angry, fanatical, murderers, etc., etc., ... he goes into the weaknesses of governments like the Soviets, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, etc., but the USA is treated as this giant, seemingly benign, amorphous blob, against which some Jihadists have grievances "both real and imagined" and of which grievances, Coll will most likely describe the imaginary ones. The few Americans who die get a mini-bio, and we're to pause at the snuffing-out of their humanity and think that the world is a dangerous place for Americans. Of the tens of thousands of non-American victims, nobody so far (page 275) appears to merit this attention.
And US political leaders and foreign policy, CIA, etc., operatives, are always describe in a positive, or at least neutral light. Case-in-point, this bio of Cofer Black, the CIA's station chief in Khartoum, Sudan in the early nineties:
"After training in clandestine operations he volunteered for service [with the CIA] in Africa. He was dispatched as a case officer to Lusaka, Zambia, during the Rhodesian war next door. He transferred to Somalia for two years during a Cold War-inspired conflict between Ethiopians and Somalis in the sands of the Ogaden desert. He worked in South Africa during the racist apartheid regime's dirty war against guerrilla movements representing the black majority. While assigned to Kinshasa, Zaire, Black was involved in the Reagan administration's covert action program to arm anticommunist guerrillas in neighboring [sic] Angola. By the time he arrived in Khartoum, he was steeped in Africa's complexities." (p.267)
I'll say. I'd also say that he did yeoman's work in causing many of Africa's "complexities." Let's flesh out some of the work that Mr. Black was doing for the CIA in Africa:
Zimbabwe(Rhodesia): Here's a link to a book about the CIA's role in this conflict:
This text details how the US military and CIA colluded with Solider of Fortune magazine and others to send white mercenaries to fight for the Ian Smith regime in Rhodesia.
(we might have to take this book with a grain of salt, given the facts pointed out in this insightful review from an Amazon.com reader/reviewer):
... shithead.
I threw my copy away! Liberals are worse than cancer, and have wreaked this nation. The book, although having some historical value is a crusade for the liberals of the world. Throw away your guns. We can all live in peace. Yeah right. Dont waste your money.
Somalia/Ethiopia Cold War Proxy War:
Red Pepper
Throughout the cold war, Ethiopia and Somalia were used as proxies, receiving billions of dollars worth of weapons while famines and wars raged. US support for Haile Selassie, emperor of Ethiopia from the second world war until 1974, ensured US access to the important spy base at Kagnew, while next door the Soviet Union backed Siad Barre’s ‘Marxist’ regime in Somalia.
On the back of US aid, Ethiopia developed one of the largest armies in Africa, which it used to devastate Eritrean society. As Haile Selassie’s policies became increasingly unpopular (100,000 peasants died in a famine, in response to which one of his ministers said, ‘If we could save the peasants only by confessing our failure to the world, it is better that they die’), he was overthrown by the army, with Mengistu eventually taking control of the ruling military committee, known as
the Derg.
Ultimately, Mengistu preferred a relationship with the Soviets. Seeing Ethiopia as a more important prize than Somalia, the Soviet Union outbid the US, sending $9 billion in military hardware before Mengistu was ousted in 1991. Soviet aid allowed Mengistu to unleash terror on political opponents, as well as many ordinary civilians, and increase the war drive against Eritrea.
To add to the murky politics, Mengistu also received a little help from Israel, who bribed him to allow the deportation of Ethiopian Jews, whom it needed to bolster the Jewish population of Israel. Shortly after the deal, Israeli-made cluster bombs started falling on Eritrean towns. Across the border, the US supported Somalia. As early as 1977, the US promised to find allies who would be able to supply Somalia the military assistance that it would need to attack Ethiopia’s Ogaden region. Saudi Arabia, Iran, Egypt and Pakistan rushed in with the required aid.
In 1980, the US signed an arms deal that allowed it access to Somali bases. Under Reagan, the US supplied more than $680million to Siad Barre, at least $195 million of which was intended for
military use (dramatically higher when related aid is counted), despite congressional obstacles. The US claimed its relationship had a moderating impact on Somalia. Human Rights Watch disagreed, claiming that 50,000 of Barre’s own civilians were killed and half a million displaced in the late 1980s.
For the US and the Soviet Union, local suffering counted for no more than the proclaimed ideology of their proxy dictators. The important thing was the global edge that arming such countries could bring to their overall game.
"He worked in South Africa during the racist apartheid regime's dirty war against guerrilla movements representing the black majority."
Drag a sentence out long enough and people might get confused enough to think that (in this case) "He" [Black] "worked ... representing the black majority."
That wasn't the CIA's position, I'd say. CIA vs. CP
Long before the Reagan administration, white liberals in the United States and South Africa understood the threat of communism in South Africa and took action, in concert with the CIA, to undermine that threat, even if this delayed, by necessity, the end of apartheid.
and Znet
The CIA's interventionist role in southern Africa is well documented. In the 1970s, for example, the CIA joined hands with the South African intelligence community. According to former secret
agent Martin Dolinchek, the American and South African secret services groomed and propped up the Inkhata Freedom Party (IFP). At the same time, a campaign of covert propaganda and disinformation was launched to discredit the ANC. By 1984, with the ANC conveniently banned from free political activity, the IFP was able to claim nearly one million members in more than 2,000 branches. This rose to 1.6 million in 3,000 branches in 1989, and today the figure of more than two million members is generally quoted by IFP officials, headed by a small band of white people who play a disproportionate role near the top of the party.
Anti-Communist Guerrillas in Angola: Third World Traveller
The Angolan intervention is a strong candidate for the most pointless CIA operation ever. Certainly the ratio of blood spilled to goals achieved-to the extent that those goals can even be determined- makes it one of the agency's biggest fiascoes.
...After $40 million and thousands of dead, Congress-in a rare display of principle-cut off funds for the Angolan war in 1976, the first time it had ever voted to shut down a CIA operation. Unfortunately, the CIA managed to sustain the killing off-the-books until Reagan took office in 1981. Millions more dollars and thousands more lives were then wasted until, in 1990, the ongoing Angolan stalemate at last resulted in an election.
When Savimbi lost overwhelmingly to the MPLA, he cranked the war right back up again, initially with further CIA funding. Finally, in 1993, the US distanced itself from Savimbi and recognized
the MPLA government, but the war still continues. So far, more than 300,000 Angolans have died, 80,000 are crippled, 50,000 orphaned, and the damage to property exceeds $50 billion.
Y'see, info like this would help give the reader a better sense of the "War on Terror" than this lazily drifting over the surface of the US presence in the world.
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