CIA activities by country

Last updated

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.

Contents

Africa

Angola

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

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

Libya

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

In 2018, a CIA drone base near Dirkou operating out of a small commercial airport was revealed by The New York Times. [5]

Somalia

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

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

Americas

Canada

Chile

Colombia

Guatemala

The CIA has carried out a number of interventions in Guatemala, including:

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

Nicaragua

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

United States

Asia and Oceania

Afghanistan

Cambodia

China

Between 2010 and 2012, 30 CIA sources in China were lost due to arrests and executions. [17]

India

Indonesia

Iran

Iraq

Japan

Lebanon

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

North Korea

Pakistan

Philippines

Turkey

Vietnam

Europe

Austria

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

Germany

Hungary

Italy

Soviet Union

Spain

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

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Muammar Gaddafi</span> Leader of Libya from 1969 to 2011

Muammar Muhammad Abu Minyar al-Gaddafi was a Libyan revolutionary, politician and political theorist who ruled Libya from 1969 until his assassination by rebel forces in 2011. He came to power through a military coup, first becoming Revolutionary Chairman of the Libyan Arab Republic from 1969 to 1977 and then the 'Brotherly Leader' of the Great Socialist People's Libyan Arab Jamahiriya from 1977 to 2011. Initially ideologically committed to Arab nationalism and Nasserism, Gaddafi later ruled according to his own Third International Theory.

CIA cryptonyms are code names or code words used by the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) to refer to projects, operations, persons, agencies, etc.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Hissène Habré</span> Chadian politician and convicted war criminal

Hissène Habré, also spelled Hissen Habré, was a Chadian politician and convicted war criminal who served as the 5th president of Chad from 1982 until he was deposed in 1990.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Carlos Castillo Armas</span> President of Guatemala from 1954 to 1957

Carlos Castillo Armas was a Guatemalan military officer and politician who was the 28th president of Guatemala, serving from 1954 to 1957 after taking power in a coup d'état. A member of the right-wing National Liberation Movement (MLN) party, his authoritarian government was closely allied with the United States.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">1954 Guatemalan coup d'état</span> CIA-backed deposition of Jacobo Árbenz

The 1954 Guatemalan coup d'état deposed the democratically elected Guatemalan President Jacobo Árbenz and marked the end of the Guatemalan Revolution. The coup installed the military dictatorship of Carlos Castillo Armas, the first in a series of U.S.-backed authoritarian rulers in Guatemala. The coup was largely the result of a CIA covert operation code-named PBSuccess.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Miguel Ydígoras Fuentes</span> 32nd President of Guatemala (1958-63)

José Miguel Ramón Ydígoras Fuentes was a Guatemalan military officer and politician who served as the 32nd president of Guatemala from 1958 to March 1963. He was also the main challenger to Jacobo Árbenz during the 1950 presidential election. Ydígoras previously served as the governor of the province of San Marcos.

Operation PBFortune, also known as Operation Fortune, was a covert United States operation to overthrow the democratically elected Guatemalan President Jacobo Árbenz in 1952. The operation was authorized by U.S. President Harry Truman and planned by the Central Intelligence Agency. The United Fruit Company had lobbied intensively for the overthrow because land reform initiated by Árbenz threatened its economic interests. The US also feared that the government of Árbenz was being influenced by communists.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">History of Libya under Muammar Gaddafi</span>

Muammar Gaddafi became the de facto leader of Libya on 1 September 1969 after leading a group of young Libyan Army officers against King Idris I in a bloodless coup d'état. When Idris was in Turkey for medical treatment, the Revolutionary Command Council (RCC) headed by Gaddafi abolished the monarchy and the old constitution and established the Libyan Arab Republic, with the motto "freedom, socialism and unity". The name of Libya was changed several times during Gaddafi's tenure as leader. From 1969 to 1977, the name was the Libyan Arab Republic. In 1977, the name was changed to Socialist People's Libyan Arab Jamahiriya. Jamahiriya was a term coined by Gaddafi, usually translated as "state of the masses". The country was renamed again in 1986 as the Great Socialist People's Libyan Arab Jamahiriya, after the United States bombing that year.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Central Intelligence Agency</span> National intelligence agency of the United States

The Central Intelligence Agency, known informally as the Agency, metonymously as Langley and historically as the Company, is a civilian foreign intelligence service of the federal government of the United States tasked with gathering, processing, and analyzing national security information from around the world, primarily through the use of human intelligence (HUMINT) and conducting covert action through its Directorate of Operations. The agency is headquartered in the George Bush Center for Intelligence in Langley, Virginia.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">National Front for the Salvation of Libya</span>

The National Front for the Salvation of Libya (NFSL) was a political opposition group active during the rule of the Gaddafi regime in Libya. It was formed in 1981 and called for major liberalising reforms such as democratic elections, a free press, and the separation of powers. During the 1980s, it pursued a campaign of armed opposition to the Gaddafi regime and made several coup attempts, the most notable being its 1984 armed assault on Gaddafi's Bab al-Azizia compound in Tripoli. After the failure of this and several other coup attempts the group largely abandoned militancy, and instead used peaceful tactics to promote reform in Libya; in 2005, the NFSL joined with six other groups to form the National Conference for the Libyan Opposition.

The United States government has been involved in numerous interventions in foreign countries throughout its history. The U.S. has engaged in nearly 400 military interventions between 1776 and 2023, with half of these operations occurring since 1950 and over 25% occurring in the post-Cold War period. Common objectives of U.S. foreign interventions have revolved around economic opportunity, social protection, protection of U.S. citizens and diplomats, territorial expansion, fomenting regime change, nation-building, and enforcing international law.

Operation PBHistory was a covert operation carried out in Guatemala by the United States Central Intelligence Agency (CIA). It followed Operation PBSuccess, which led to the overthrow of Guatemalan President Jacobo Árbenz in June 1954 and ended the Guatemalan Revolution. PBHistory attempted to use documents left behind by Árbenz's government and by organizations related to the communist Guatemalan Party of Labor to demonstrate that the Guatemalan government had been under the influence of the Soviet Union, and to use those documents to obtain further intelligence that would be useful to US intelligence agencies. It was an effort to justify the overthrow of the elected Guatemalan government in response to the negative international reactions to PBSuccess. The CIA also hoped to improve its intelligence resources about communist parties in Latin America, a subject on which it had little information.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Chad–United States relations</span> Bilateral relations

Chad–United States relations are the international relations between Chad and the United States.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Chad–Libya relations</span> Bilateral relations

Chad–Libya relations have arisen out of centuries from ethnic, religious, and commercial ties.

The U.S. Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) has a history of interference in the government of Guatemala over the course of several decades. Guatemala is bordered by the North Pacific Ocean and the Gulf of Honduras. The four bordering countries are Mexico, El Salvador, Honduras and Belize. Due to the proximity of Guatemala to the United States, the fear of the Soviet Union creating a beachhead in Guatemala created panic in the United States government during the Cold War. In an interview, Howard Hunt, CIA Chief, Mexico, stated that "We were faced here with the obvious intervention of a foreign power, because these home grown parties, are not really home grown, they are being funded...or advised by a foreign power, i.e. the Soviet Union." The CIA undertook Operation PBSuccess to overthrow the democratically elected Jacobo Árbenz in the 1954 Guatemalan coup d'état. Carlos Castillo Armas replaced him as a military dictator. Guatemala was subsequently ruled by a series of military dictatorships for decades.

Chad is a country in Africa bordering Libya. The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) is the main intelligence agency of the United States of America. The CIA was active in Chad in the 1980s, due to what the US perceived as a strategic interest in limiting the power of its opponent Muammar Gaddafi, who had ruled Libya since 1969.

Since the 1960s the United States Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) has engaged in a variety of covert activities in the east African country of Somalia. These activities have included financing pro-Western Somali political parties, funding warlords, extraordinary renditions and most recently operating black sites. Somali government officials have reported that American agents operate unilaterally inside the country.

Since the 19th century, the United States government has participated and interfered, both overtly and covertly, in the replacement of many foreign governments. In the latter half of the 19th century, the U.S. government initiated actions for regime change mainly in Latin America and the southwest Pacific, including the Spanish–American and Philippine–American wars. At the onset of the 20th century, the United States shaped or installed governments in many countries around the world, including neighbors Hawaii, Panama, Honduras, Nicaragua, Mexico, Haiti, and the Dominican Republic.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">History of the Central Intelligence Agency</span>

The United States Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) dates from September 18, 1947, when President Harry S. Truman signed the National Security Act of 1947 into law. A major impetus that has been cited over the years for the creation of the CIA was the unforeseen attack on Pearl Harbor, but whatever Pearl Harbor's role, at the close of World War II government circles identified a need for a group to coordinate government intelligence efforts, and the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), the State Department, the War Department, and even the Post Office were all jockeying for that new power.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">CIA activities in Lebanon</span>

CIA activities in Lebanon refers to confirmed and alleged activities carried out in Lebanon by the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA).

References

  1. ↑ Weiner, Tim (2007). Legacy of Ashes: This History of the CIA. Doubleday. pp. 348–349.
  2. ↑ Brody, Reed (2016-06-28). "Enabling a Dictator". Human Rights Watch.
  3. ↑ Batty, David (2011-09-03). "CIA worked with Libya in terror suspect renditions, documents show". The Guardian. ISSN   0261-3077 . Retrieved 2024-09-18.
  4. ↑ "Files show MI6, CIA link to Gaddafi". France 24. 2011-09-03. Retrieved 2024-09-18.
  5. ↑ "Deciphering the new CIA drone base in Niger". TBIJ. Retrieved 2024-10-15.
  6. ↑ Ellen Ray, William Schaap (1980). Dirty Work 2: The CIA In Africa. p. 16.
  7. ↑ 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.
  8. ↑ 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.
  9. ↑ Mazzetti, Mark (December 27, 2006). "U.S. Signals Backing for Ethiopian Incursion Into Somalia". The New York Times.
  10. ↑ 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...
  11. ↑ Hollar, Jullie (March–April 2008). "Rediscovering Somalia". Extra!. Fairness & Accuracy in Reporting: 13–15.
  12. ↑ 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.
  13. ↑ "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.
  14. ↑ 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.
  15. ↑ PRESSE, AGENCE FRANCE (2016-05-16). "CIA spy tip-off led to arrest of Mandela: report". Capital News. Retrieved 2024-10-02.
  16. ↑ "Guatemala: The coup that radicalised Che Guevara | Green Left". www.greenleft.org.au. 2014-05-30. Retrieved 2024-10-03.
  17. ↑ 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.
  18. ↑ Blum, William (2002). Rogue State: A Guide to the World's Only Superpower (2nd ed.). South Africa: Spearhead. p. 171.
  19. ↑ 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.
  20. ↑ Weiner, Tim (2007). Legacy of Ashes: The History of the CIA. New York: Doubleday Broadway Publishing Group. pp. 389–390.
  21. ↑ "Never Forgotten: The Deadliest Day in CIA History - CIA". www.cia.gov. Retrieved 2024-10-02.
  22. ↑ Zoglin, Richard (12 October 1987). "Did a Dead Man Tell No Tales?". Time. Retrieved 29 March 2011.
  23. ↑ "Terrorist Attacks on Americans, 1979–1988". PBS. n.d. Retrieved 23 January 2007.
  24. ↑ "CIA: We foiled Taylor Swift terror attack". POLITICO. 2024-08-29. Retrieved 2024-10-14.
  25. ↑ Jones, Sam (2019-03-13). "Spain investigates possible CIA links to embassy break-in". The Guardian. ISSN   0261-3077 . Retrieved 2024-10-03.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.