Click here to access an interview with Douglas Valentine with an introduction by Kim Petersen posted on Dissident Voice.
Valentine has contributed so much to reveal the criminal secrets of the CIA, and much of it can be accessed directly or indirectly in this article. It must be understood that the word "criminal" must be understood in the context of what ordinary people refer to as gross anti-social acts, but the concept doesn't apply to class structured nations in which a ruling class commit such crimes. A crime is always an official crime when it seriously offends the ruling class of any society. The CIA, like all government secret agencies, functions in complete secrecy to protect the interests of the ruling capitalist class (from domestic dissidents as well as foreign antagonists) who created them. Thus, they commit crimes (in the ordinary sense) with impunity.
I've always wondered how Valentine could get away with hoodwinking so many CIA officers into revealing such criminal activities. Valentine offers an explanation. He convinced CIA Director William E. Colby that he was on the side of the Empire because he had written a book about his father in WWII (The Hotel Tacloban), his conventional appearance, he was not seen as a journalist, didn't ask any direct questions regarding the dirty secrets of the CIA, and most importantly (in my view) because of the military chain of command in the CIA and because of the practice of compartmentalization (CIA agents were given only information that they needed to know to carry out their assignments).
Also I've always wondered how the CIA could have let him get away with reporting their dirty secrets without any reprisals (much less by losing his life). Because as Sen. Chuck Schumer stated, the CIA and other secret agencies that serve the ruling class "have six ways from Sunday at getting back at you". I've never read of any harm or threats that have come to Valentine. Of course, they have gone out of their way to insure that very few Americans have learned of his disclosures.
Perhaps this is the major way that our masters control dissent and opposition in the USA: they prevent any information inimical to their interests from being picked up by the vast majority of Americans. Our masters have gained complete control over the spread of information. I offer my own experience as an example: I have written about a revolutionary strategy to overthrow the rule of the capitalist class, and I've suffered very few consequences except for one late night journey--no, doubt picked up through emails to my sister--when I was threatened with being run off the road, and was followed clear to my home. Because my website and comments have been read by a relatively few people, I don't represent any threat to them. And, I am retired thus that they cannot threaten my access to jobs.
The answer to the question in the title, "Whose Side is the CIA On?", is simply "their side": that of the tiny ruling capitalist class that created them.
