Former CIA chief to John Pilger: backing Pinochet’s crimes in Chile was ‘worth it’
‘Is that OK, to overthrow a democratically elected government?’ ... ‘Well, it depends.’
For those who believe in the whole narrative about how the USA fights for freedom and democracy or whatever, there was a time when the CIA – before it openly integrated into the newsrooms of media corporations like NBC and CNN – was candid about its real mission.
In this video, journalist John Pilger interviews former CIA Latin America chief Duane Clarridge about how easily and happily the CIA overthrew democratically elected governments whenever it wanted.
It is with almost startling bluntness that Duane Clarridge reveals what was always known by the anti-imperialists – how the CIA put down Salvador Allende and raised up the fascist dictator Augusto Pinochet in Chile in 1971. He openly admits that Pinochet committed many horrific crimes against the popular forces, commenting simply that it was “worth it”.
Arrogantly declaring that “the only reason [Chile] exists is because of Pinochet”, Clarridge goes on and on confidently defending the role of the CIA without hesitation.
Clarridge has done what most stooges of imperialism cannot: he has accepted the essence of his position – that he did terrible things and supported terrible governments purely in the interests of his own country’s ruling class (those oft-talked about ‘national security interests’).
There is no dilly-dallying, no ‘buts’ or ‘howevers’. He tells Pilger with conviction that “we” (imperialism) do what we do to “protect” people. It is implied that by ‘people’ he simply means the ruling class of his own country and their profit-taking, although he believes that this in turn is somehow in the interests of the rest of the citizens of the United States of America.
