“Ye shall know the truth; and The truth shall set you free.”
The “unofficial” motto of the CIA is often highlighted for the sheer irony it turns a blind eye to. If one thing is certain about American intelligence it is that no one outside Washington's halls shall hear the truth. Given the recent chain of events and the organizations history in the Subcontinent, it’s only natural that speculations about a possible CIA link in Bangladesh's ongoing crises arise.
USAID operations and CIA case officers
Date: December 1966
Summary: From left to right: Don Sjostrom (USAID Refugee Operations Officer; killed in an attack at Na Khang in January 1967), Jerry Daniels (CIA), Mike Lynch (CIA), and Ernest Kuhn (USAID Refugee Operations Officer).
Site: L-13, Coordinates: UJ 9803
The operatives of the agency aren’t exactly strangers to Bangladesh either, Investigative journalist and former South Asia Correspondent of the Far Eastern Economic Review Lawrence Lifschultz has alleged that the assassination of Sheikh Mujibur Rehman, the first president of an Independent Bangladesh may have been orchestrated by the CIA itself due to his “soft corner” for the USSR. A direct manifestation of the Containment policy once followed by United States of America during the Cold War.
In our age however, the tactics followed are less violent in nature. Coups are not executed through bullets but rather ideological subterfuge. Most evidently, in June of this year Sheikh Hasina alleged that a “White Man” had threatened her with partitioning and carving out a Christian majority nation from the Chattogram region unless she gave sanction to a “foreign airbase”. While she pointed no fingers; she raised an allegory to the chaos of East Timor, something that saw heavy participation by the western bloc during the Cold War.
If this allegations is to be seen as true, then it could prove incredibly worrisome as North East Region which borders Bangladesh is already plagued by heavy religious turmoil coupled with a long history of insurgency. Any spillover from the conflict might as well set fire to the entire region if not handled delicately.
The protests violent escalation and a complete collapse of the Bangladeshi Regime has resulted in a takeover by Prof. Muhammad Yunus who is deeply respected across academic circles due to him being the recipient of the Noble Prize in 2006. Interestingly enough, Wikileaks names him as having been inclinated towards a political life since 2007. More interesting however is his history with US-AID visible since 2013 having fostered an active relationship with the same.
US-AID or the United States Agency for International Development has been noted as entity with some relations to CIA with photographs dating back to 1966 showing US-AID officers working in tangent with Agency operators in Vietnam. Once it partnered with the now defunct Office of Public Safety, a department under the CIA alleged to be training foreign police in "terror and torture techniques" and encouraging official brutality, according to a 1976 Government Accountability Office report.
The organization has had a visible history of political intrigue with the most controversial being its involvement in Cuban Social Media sphere to motivate a “Cuban Spring Uprising” by creating a platform to incite dissent against Castro’s system as claimed by an article of the Associate Press, a manipulated movement of the masses designed to abuse the virtues of democratic freedoms. An act we are seeing happen far too close for comfort.
Authored By
Mr. Kuvamjeet Singh
Research By
Mr. Mridul Paul
Editor in Chief (s), The Geojuristoday
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