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December 21, 2016
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CIA Engaged in Foreign Vote Meddling for Years
A gauge to
remember how
this feels
P eter
C erto
Even in an
election
year
as shot through
with conspiracy
theories as this
one, it would
have been hard
to imagine a bigger bombshell
than Russia intervening to help
Donald Trump. But that’s exact-
ly what the CIA believes hap-
pened, or so unnamed “officials
brief on the matter” told the
Washington Post.
While Russia had long been
blamed for hacking email ac-
counts linked to the Clinton
campaign, its motives had been
shrouded in mystery. According
to the Post, though, CIA officials
recently presented Congress
with a “a growing body of intel-
ligence from multiple sources”
that “electing Trump was Rus-
sia’s goal.”
Now, the CIA hasn’t made
any of its evidence public, and
the CIA and FBI are reportedly
by
divided on the subject. Though
it’s too soon to draw conclu-
sions, the charges warrant a seri-
ous public investigation.
Even some Republicans who
backed Trump seem to agree.
“The Russians are not our
friends,” said Senate major-
ity leader Mitch McConnell,
announcing his support for
a congressional probe. It’s
“warfare,” added Senator John
McCain.
There’s a grim irony to this.
The CIA is accusing Russia of
interfering in our free and fair
elections to install a right-wing
candidate it deemed more favor-
able to its interests. Yet during
the Cold War, that’s exactly
what the CIA did to the rest of
the world.
Most Americans probably
don’t know that history. But in
much of the world it’s a cru-
cial part of how Washington is
viewed even today.
In the post-World War II
years, as Moscow and Wash-
ington jockeyed for global in-
fluence, the two capitals tried to
game every foreign election they
could get their hands on.
From Europe to Vietnam and
Chile to the Philippines, Amer-
ican agents delivered brief-
cases of cash to hand-picked
politicians, launched smear cam-
paigns against their left-leaning
rivals, and spread hysterical
“fake news” stories like the
ones some now accuse Russia of
spreading here.
Together, political scientist
Dov Levin estimates, Russia and
the U.S. interfered in 117 elec-
tions this way in the second half
the 20th century. Even worse is
what happened when the CIA’s
chosen candidates lost.
In Iran, when elected leader
Mohammad Mossadegh tried
to nationalize the country’s BP-
held oil reserves, CIA agent Ker-
mit Roosevelt led an operation
to oust Mossadegh in favor of
Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi.
The shah’s secret police tortured
dissidents by the thousands,
leading directly to the Islamic
Revolution in 1979.
In Guatemala, when the
democratically elected Jacobo
Arbez tried to loosen the U.S.-
based United Fruit company’s
grip on Guatemalan land, the
CIA backed a coup against him.
In the decades of civil war that
followed, U.S.-backed security
forces were accused of carrying
out a genocide against indige-
nous Guatemalans.
In Chile, after voters elected
the socialist Salvador Allende,
the CIA spearheaded a bloody
coup to install the right-wing
dictator Augusto Pinochet, who
went on to torture and disappear
tens of thousands of Chileans.
“I don’t see why we need to
stand by and watch a country go
communist due to the irrespon-
sibility of its own people,” U.S.
Secretary of State Henry Kissing-
er purportedly said about the
coup he helped orchestrate there.
And those are only the most
well-known examples.
I don’t raise any of this history
to excuse Russia’s alleged med-
dling in our election — which, if
true, is outrageous. Only to sug-
gest that now, maybe, we know
how it feels. We should remem-
ber that feeling as Trump, who’s
spoken fondly of authoritarian
rulers from Russia to Egypt to
the Philippines and beyond,
comes into office.
Meanwhile, much of the
world must be relieved to see the
CIA take a break from subvert-
ing democracy abroad to protect
it at home.
Peter Certo is the editorial
manager of the Institute for Pol-
icy Studies and the editor of Oth-
erWords.org.