The Central Intelligence Agency just opened a museum citing their successes and failures. Supposedly it has their mistakes, too. I wonder if it has the following failures and mistakes.

            The earliest failure I remember is their attempt to overthrow Fidel Castro by the most incompetent invasion in history. I did a written ten page paper on this while I was in grade school. No wonder John Kennedy never trusted the CIA after that debacle.

            The CIA supported Ayatollah Khomeini comfortably in France before going back to Iran.

            Even more convoluted is Panama’s Manuel Noriega who the CIA helped to become the transit manager for drugs coming from Columbia’s drug lords to the United States. The CIA wanted to keep track for some reason. When he got too involved and made millions while President, they got our military to invade and arrested him.

            How many National Leaders of countries we didn’t like were killed by the CIA. I once read a long list of attempts to kill Castro including poison and an exploding cigar. In 1970 we overthrew President Allende Gossans of Chile to put in Pinochet Ugarte. Allende supposedly killed himself. Over 3,100 people disappeared during Pinochat’s rule but the CIA kept him in power until they got too much heat from the President and Congress. We will never know how many more.

We have a habit of getting rid of a leader we don’t like and then finding out our new pick is much worse. Power corrupts and we give people absolute power to haunt the CIA’s decisions.

            On, don’t forget their intelligence on Iraq’s nuclear and biologic weapons. They don’t deserve all the blame since Vice President Dick Cheney put a heavy finger on the editing of the report to former President George W. Bush.