Former FBI agent on Bush, Iraque, Brazil, the Falklands
The Portuguese newspaper Expresso published today an interview with Carlos Alberto Costa, a Portuguese with North-American nationality who worked with the FBI for 22 years. He defines himself as a conservative, following in the footsteps of Nixon and Reagan. I won't have this particular interview until tomorrow, when I'll translate it and post it, but I'll leave you with these declarations by CAC to Carta Capital (the whole interview is very much worth reading, he discusses things like the aborted radioactive bombing in Washington 2 years ago):
[Costa] Currently, the United States is increasingly becoming more isolated from the international community. Since last October the world is investing less in the United States than it used to. It is with foreign investments that the United States, the greatest debtor in the world, pays its debt. If U.S. policy continues this way, the credibility in the dollar will disappear. The U.S. foreign debt is not worrisome to the rest of the world because it is secured in the investors' faith and total credibility in the U.S. Government; that is, in its good reputation and in its economic and political stability. Such faith means confidence in a belief that is not based on evidence or facts. Nowadays, there is increasingly less faith and trust in my country's administration.
[Fernandes] Why?
[Costa] With the excuse of seeking weapons of mass destruction, the Bush administration trampled on the United Nations, demoralized it -- at least then -- and acted unilaterally.
[Fernandes] Did you have access to classified documents on Iraq? Were there secret reports confirming the existence of arsenals of weapons of mass destruction?
[Costa] Until I left the FBI in October, I was one of 45 FBI chiefs in the world working outside US borders. In my position I had access to top-level, Secret, Top Secret [preceding three words in English] documents, to each and every secret document that was made, including by the CIA. I here state that I have never read a secret document indicating the existence of weapons of mass destruction in Iraq. On the contrary, what I read during my four years in Brazil, and even in Washington, were reports stating the opposite. Many times I discussed this with FBI and CIA colleagues from different parts of the world and we agreed that the Bush and Blair administrations were only looking for a justification to invade Iraq. They fabricated information for the press, saying the contrary of what we all asserted, and that demoralized our intelligence community. Of course there are also people at the top of the intelligence services who are always more interested in their careers than in facts, and these people rearrange the facts the way the Bush administration wants.
[Fernandes] Can you give a personal example?
[Costa]I have often had great disputes over my intelligence reports because Washington wanted me to adapt facts to its paranoid needs... The problem is that Mr. Bush has not the least understanding of the world, and not even of his own country. Such arrogance will isolate the United States...
[Fernandes] From the rest of the world...
[Costa] The world is about to see that its faith and credibility in the US Government is simply a belief in a hesitating, arrogant, and paranoid administration. Do not forget that in other times it was us, the United States, all of us from these services, that at some moment or circumstance armed Noriega in Panama, supported the Contras in Nicaragua, were present in Chile during the Allende administration, and in the whole of Latin and Central America as well as in Asia...
[Fernandes] Always as a government policy...
[Costa] As a government policy; just as it was us and all our services who trained and gave support to Bin Ladin. Well, that is something we already know, you can say. OK, but who is speaking here now is someone with the authority of having worked for 22 years in the FBI and having commanded an international industrial spy and counter-intelligence section in Washington.
[Fernandes] You trained and armed Bin Ladin when he...
[Costa] While he combated the Soviets in Afghanistan. We supported Saddam Husayn so that he could restrain the ayatollahs in Iran, we gave him chemical weapons...
[Fernandes] When and how did you give him chemical weapons?
[Costa] For example, we supplied him with the anthrax, as well as other chemical weapons that we recently announced -- deceitfully -- we would go to look for now.
[Fernandes] Did you directly provide him with the means to produce anthrax?
[Costa] We gave him the technique and assistance.
[Fernandes] Who did that? At what time?
[Costa] Donald Rumsfeld, current U.S. Secretary of Defense, when he was a special emissary of President Ronald Reagan; at the beginning of the eighties, during the Iran-Iraq War, in which more than 1 million people died on both sides. We did not maintain diplomatic relations with Iraq, as it was considered a country that supported international terrorism and was on the State Department's list of excluded countries. Nevertheless, the United States removed Iraq from that list in 1982, and on 20 December 1983 the same Rumsfeld of today met with Saddam Husayn in Baghdad. He befriended Saddam and gave him all the U.S. political and military support...
[Fernandes] What do you mean by "all" support?
[Costa] As I said, we gave him the technology for some of the weapons we were looking for during the war, but not only that. The White House and the State Department ordered the Export-Import Bank to finance the war for Iraq. This was well before the United States reestablished diplomatic relations with Iraq in 1984. Officially, our position was neutrality.
[Fernandes] Regarding neutrality, what was the real position of the United States, of its secret service, during the Falklands War between Argentina and the United Kingdom in 1982?
[Costa] We gave the English total intelligence support, especially through satellites. We took photographs, we learned the positions of the Argentine military, and we passed the information to the English. Simultaneously, we played with the Argentines. There was a doubt: If the English afterward decided to return the islands, which allegedly have oil beneath, to Argentina, we would want the Argentines to facilitate our access to them. We sold weapons to the Argentines, and even more: the British ships -- two destroyers, if I am not mistaken -- were sunk based on our satellite information, which provided the position of the British ships. The British were surprised. How is it that the Argentines found us? They found them because we supplied their position. Margaret Thatcher was in Washington at the time pressuring President Reagan. It was only then that we stopped passing information to the Argentines. We began to confuse them.
[Fernandes] It is known that things were that way in the real world, especially regarding great world powers, but this story...
[Costa] That is U.S. foreign policy. Those are the reasons why we currently do not enjoy peace. It is a country that has always been isolated by the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans but now this has reached a peak situation. No one doubts that Saddam Husayn is a criminal, but our administration's hypocrisy is matchless. When Saddam used our chemical weapons and our money to commit those atrocities against the Kurds in the north and the minorities in the south, we ignored it and looked away. We even gave him support. Now we use that as an argument to justify war. But you cannot fool everyone all the time...
[Fernandes] What does that mean nowadays?
[Costa] The credibility and faith in the United States are no longer the same as -- for example -- in the European Union. The euro is stronger than the dollar, the Europeans are trying to invest in their own house. The dollar value is based on the faith and credibility of the US Government. What is the current scenario in the United States?
[Fernandes] Tell us.
[Costa] Clinton had achieved a $127.3 billion surplus. In three years Bush cut taxes, increased expenses, especially defense expenses, he cut social programs, and so far he has produced a $541 billion deficit. This deficit creates risks for the world. There is great truth in the adage that says: "When the United States sneezes, the rest of the world catches the flu." The dollar devaluation will at some point bring as a consequence a hike in interest rates.
[Fernandes] What will Bush's economic legacy be?
[Costa] To balance its external accounts, the United States needs a volume of foreign capital investment equivalent to its deficit, something like $1 billion per day of foreign capital investments. The United States can no longer live on its own production. At the same time, the international community is beginning to understand that it can do without the United States; but the United States cannot do without the rest of the world. In predatory fashion, the United States takes from as much as it can from the world economy. In order to maintain its hegemony and standard of living, the United States will very soon need to fight diplomatically and militarily. We are 4.5 percent of the world population and we consume 45-50 percent of the world's raw materials. We are the biggest consumers of oil, and we emit 19.7 tons of carbon dioxide per person per year, which is pollution. Brazil emits 1.8 tons of carbon dioxide per person. Do not be deceived regarding the United States; what matters are its interests.
[Fernandes] Are you secret agents fully aware of that?
[Costa] With the excuse of seeking weapons of mass destruction, the Bush administration trampled on the United Nations, demoralized it -- at least then -- and acted unilaterally.
[Fernandes] Did you have access to classified documents on Iraq? Were there secret reports confirming the existence of arsenals of weapons of mass destruction?
[Costa] Until I left the FBI in October, I was one of 45 FBI chiefs in the world working outside US borders. In my position I had access to top-level, Secret, Top Secret [preceding three words in English] documents, to each and every secret document that was made, including by the CIA. I here state that I have never read a secret document indicating the existence of weapons of mass destruction in Iraq. On the contrary, what I read during my four years in Brazil, and even in Washington, were reports stating the opposite. Many times I discussed this with FBI and CIA colleagues from different parts of the world and we agreed that the Bush and Blair administrations were only looking for a justification to invade Iraq. They fabricated information for the press, saying the contrary of what we all asserted, and that demoralized our intelligence community. Of course there are also people at the top of the intelligence services who are always more interested in their careers than in facts, and these people rearrange the facts the way the Bush administration wants.
[Fernandes] Can you give a personal example?
[Costa]I have often had great disputes over my intelligence reports because Washington wanted me to adapt facts to its paranoid needs... The problem is that Mr. Bush has not the least understanding of the world, and not even of his own country. Such arrogance will isolate the United States...
[Fernandes] From the rest of the world...
[Costa] The world is about to see that its faith and credibility in the US Government is simply a belief in a hesitating, arrogant, and paranoid administration. Do not forget that in other times it was us, the United States, all of us from these services, that at some moment or circumstance armed Noriega in Panama, supported the Contras in Nicaragua, were present in Chile during the Allende administration, and in the whole of Latin and Central America as well as in Asia...
[Fernandes] Always as a government policy...
[Costa] As a government policy; just as it was us and all our services who trained and gave support to Bin Ladin. Well, that is something we already know, you can say. OK, but who is speaking here now is someone with the authority of having worked for 22 years in the FBI and having commanded an international industrial spy and counter-intelligence section in Washington.
[Fernandes] You trained and armed Bin Ladin when he...
[Costa] While he combated the Soviets in Afghanistan. We supported Saddam Husayn so that he could restrain the ayatollahs in Iran, we gave him chemical weapons...
[Fernandes] When and how did you give him chemical weapons?
[Costa] For example, we supplied him with the anthrax, as well as other chemical weapons that we recently announced -- deceitfully -- we would go to look for now.
[Fernandes] Did you directly provide him with the means to produce anthrax?
[Costa] We gave him the technique and assistance.
[Fernandes] Who did that? At what time?
[Costa] Donald Rumsfeld, current U.S. Secretary of Defense, when he was a special emissary of President Ronald Reagan; at the beginning of the eighties, during the Iran-Iraq War, in which more than 1 million people died on both sides. We did not maintain diplomatic relations with Iraq, as it was considered a country that supported international terrorism and was on the State Department's list of excluded countries. Nevertheless, the United States removed Iraq from that list in 1982, and on 20 December 1983 the same Rumsfeld of today met with Saddam Husayn in Baghdad. He befriended Saddam and gave him all the U.S. political and military support...
[Fernandes] What do you mean by "all" support?
[Costa] As I said, we gave him the technology for some of the weapons we were looking for during the war, but not only that. The White House and the State Department ordered the Export-Import Bank to finance the war for Iraq. This was well before the United States reestablished diplomatic relations with Iraq in 1984. Officially, our position was neutrality.
[Fernandes] Regarding neutrality, what was the real position of the United States, of its secret service, during the Falklands War between Argentina and the United Kingdom in 1982?
[Costa] We gave the English total intelligence support, especially through satellites. We took photographs, we learned the positions of the Argentine military, and we passed the information to the English. Simultaneously, we played with the Argentines. There was a doubt: If the English afterward decided to return the islands, which allegedly have oil beneath, to Argentina, we would want the Argentines to facilitate our access to them. We sold weapons to the Argentines, and even more: the British ships -- two destroyers, if I am not mistaken -- were sunk based on our satellite information, which provided the position of the British ships. The British were surprised. How is it that the Argentines found us? They found them because we supplied their position. Margaret Thatcher was in Washington at the time pressuring President Reagan. It was only then that we stopped passing information to the Argentines. We began to confuse them.
[Fernandes] It is known that things were that way in the real world, especially regarding great world powers, but this story...
[Costa] That is U.S. foreign policy. Those are the reasons why we currently do not enjoy peace. It is a country that has always been isolated by the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans but now this has reached a peak situation. No one doubts that Saddam Husayn is a criminal, but our administration's hypocrisy is matchless. When Saddam used our chemical weapons and our money to commit those atrocities against the Kurds in the north and the minorities in the south, we ignored it and looked away. We even gave him support. Now we use that as an argument to justify war. But you cannot fool everyone all the time...
[Fernandes] What does that mean nowadays?
[Costa] The credibility and faith in the United States are no longer the same as -- for example -- in the European Union. The euro is stronger than the dollar, the Europeans are trying to invest in their own house. The dollar value is based on the faith and credibility of the US Government. What is the current scenario in the United States?
[Fernandes] Tell us.
[Costa] Clinton had achieved a $127.3 billion surplus. In three years Bush cut taxes, increased expenses, especially defense expenses, he cut social programs, and so far he has produced a $541 billion deficit. This deficit creates risks for the world. There is great truth in the adage that says: "When the United States sneezes, the rest of the world catches the flu." The dollar devaluation will at some point bring as a consequence a hike in interest rates.
[Fernandes] What will Bush's economic legacy be?
[Costa] To balance its external accounts, the United States needs a volume of foreign capital investment equivalent to its deficit, something like $1 billion per day of foreign capital investments. The United States can no longer live on its own production. At the same time, the international community is beginning to understand that it can do without the United States; but the United States cannot do without the rest of the world. In predatory fashion, the United States takes from as much as it can from the world economy. In order to maintain its hegemony and standard of living, the United States will very soon need to fight diplomatically and militarily. We are 4.5 percent of the world population and we consume 45-50 percent of the world's raw materials. We are the biggest consumers of oil, and we emit 19.7 tons of carbon dioxide per person per year, which is pollution. Brazil emits 1.8 tons of carbon dioxide per person. Do not be deceived regarding the United States; what matters are its interests.
[Fernandes] Are you secret agents fully aware of that?
[Costa] Obviously. But no country is going to fight for the interests of others. U.S. Government leaders do what is in their interests, and we came here to look after our interests. Period. The rest is rhetoric.
He was fired upon refusing to spy on the Muslim community alleging it was anti-constitutional. He further explains how the Brazilian Federal Police has been bought by the US years ago, how FBI spies such as himself move around freely, how they manipulate the press (one of their most important roles). He says he's taken precautions against coming down with "lethal flu". Good luck to him.
He was fired upon refusing to spy on the Muslim community alleging it was anti-constitutional. He further explains how the Brazilian Federal Police has been bought by the US years ago, how FBI spies such as himself move around freely, how they manipulate the press (one of their most important roles). He says he's taken precautions against coming down with "lethal flu". Good luck to him.
More to come soon.
posted by Lioness @ 2:50 pm
3 furballs
3 Comments:
Great job on the translation, Lioness. Very good reading. I was I could say I was shocked, but I am not. I never held that many illusions to begin with, but "The Secret War Against The Jews" cured me forever. One thing stands out from the G-man's testimony: It's all about interests. There's never any other reason or motive.
As long as we keep that in mind, we won't get too disappointed by whatever happens in Iraq, or Israel.
Don't believe for one second that Bush went to Iraq so the Iraqi's could have democracy. Don't believe for a second that Clinton extorted Oslo because he loved Barak, or even Arafat. WhatEVER the reason, filantropy it was not.
But I love it when shit like this floats to the surface. Nothing ever really changes. But it's nice to see a few red cheeks every once in a while.
See, this is how I know you DON'T click on my links (shame, some are really fabulous, like the Quiet Foxes in the Dull post)- anywaaay, I didn't translate a thing, it was already in English. Credit where credit is due and all that.
Very interesting post, a little frightening for me to read.
I love the new template! Very fun!
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