The Other 9/11 by Jacob G. Hornberger September 11, 2023 Martin Luther King pointed out that the U.S. government is “the greatest purveyor of violence in the world.” While King’s memory has been honored with accolades, monuments, street names, and the like, I can’t help but wonder how many Americans have truly pondered his astute and discomforting observation about the U.S. government. After all, it seems to me that to be living under a government that is “the greatest purveyor of violence in the world” is not something to be proud of or pleased with. Today many Chileans might well be pondering King’s statement. That’s because today — 9/11 — is the 50th anniversary of the 1973 Chilean coup that the U.S. government inspired and encouraged. It was a coup that left thousands of innocent people dead, including the democratically elected president of the country, Salvador Allende, two American citizens — Charles Horman and Frank Teruggi — and some 3,000 other innocent people. It also resulted in the ...
Ukraine and the Cold War by Jacob G. Hornberger May 13, 2023 On October 25, 1970, a team of well-armed Chilean thugs attacked an automobile in which Chilean General Rene Schneider was traveling in downtown Santiago. Their aim was to kidnap and kill Schneider. Given that he was the overall commander of the Chilean armed forces, Schneider pulled out his pistol and fought back, but he was no match for the thugs. They shot him repeatedly, and a few days later, Schneider died from his wounds. What was unknown at the time was that it was the CIA that had hired the thugs to kidnap and assassinate Schneider. The CIA smuggled high-powered weapons into the country to enable them to kidnap and assassinate him. The CIA also paid them a large sum of money to commit the kidnapping and assassination. After Schneider’s death, the CIA secretly paid hush money to the killers in the hopes of keeping them from revealing the CIA’s role in the crime. Rene ...
Killing Communists with Impunity by Jacob G. Hornberger March 10, 2023 The New York Times recently carried an interesting article about the death in 1973 of Pablo Neruda, one of the most renowned poets in the world. Neruda was a Chilean citizen. He was also a strong supporter of Chilean president Salvador Allende, who the Chilean national-security establishment, with the encouragement of the U.S. national-security state, ousted from power in a violent coup in that year. The coup was headed by Chilean conservative military strongman General Augusto Pinochet. At the time of the coup, Neruda was suffering from cancer and was hospitalized. He died during the coup. The Chilean military-intelligence establishment claimed that he died from his cancer. There were always suspicions, however, that he had been murdered by the Chilean national-security establishment. Pablo Neruda The Times article describes a report from a team that examined Neruda’s remains. The team found bacteria within his body ...
Seven Days in May by Jacob G. Hornberger May 31, 2022 Yesterday, the Los Angeles Times published an op-ed entitled, “Why Does the Pentagon Give a Helping Hand to Films Like ‘Top Gun’?” by Roger Stahl, a communication studies professor at the University of Georgia and director of the documentary film “Theaters of War: How the Pentagon and CIA Took Hollywood.” The op-ed pointed ...
No Friendship or Neutrality with Russia by Jacob G. Hornberger March 28, 2022 If there is one thing the whole world knows, U.S. officials will not permit anyone to maintain a friendly or even a neutral relationship with respect to Russia and Russian president Vladimir Putin. If some foreign regime doesn’t stand squarely with the United States with respect to the Ukrainian conflict, it is considered an enemy and will likely ...
The Power to Assassinate by Jacob G. Hornberger March 1, 2022 The power to assassinate has become so deeply entrenched within the national-security branch of the federal government that hardly anyone gives it a second thought. State-sponsored assassinations now occur on a regular basis, especially in the Middle East. Most everyone, especially the mainstream press, treats them in a nonchalant, ho-hum way. Hardly anyone questions where this extraordinary power to ...
The CIA, Kennedy, and the Haiti Assassination by Jacob G. Hornberger July 16, 2021 The legal authorities have been rounding up suspects in the assassination of Haitian President Jovenel Moïse. Criminal prosecutions will follow. If those accused are found guilty, they were be punished with long terms in jail. Ironically, however, if the CIA or the Pentagon had been the ones that assassinated Moïse, the situation would be completely different. There ...
CIA Intervention in Venezuela by Jacob G. Hornberger May 6, 2019 As far as I know, no evidence has yet surfaced that definitively establishes direct CIA involvement in the U.S. regime-change operation in Venezuela. But it is a virtual certainty that the CIA is directly embroiled in the operation. How do we know that? Because that’s what the CIA does. It’s what it has always done. ...
The U.S. Government’s Love of Foreign Dictatorships by Jacob G. Hornberger January 31, 2019 Lest anyone be tempted to believe that President Trump and other U.S. interventionists are intervening in Venezuela because of some purported concern for the Venezuelan people, let’s examine just a few examples that will bring a dose of reality to the situation. This latest intervention is nothing more than another interventionist power play, one intended to replace one dictatorial ...
The Saudis Will Get Away with Murder by Jacob G. Hornberger October 29, 2018 In my article “Don’t Be Surprised If Saudis Get Away with Murder,” I detailed the U.S. national-security state’s kidnapping and assassination of Gen. Rene Schneider in 1970. The point I made is that the power to assassinate comes with any nation whose government is founded on the concept of a national-security state. That includes the United States, where ...
The Fear of Being Labeled a Conspiracy Theorist by Jacob G. Hornberger August 31, 2018 One of the CIA’s most successful propaganda campaigns in its 70-year history has been its use of the term “conspiracy theorist” or “conspiracy theory” to disparage anyone who dares to question the official narrative of the Kennedy assassination. The campaign has worked brilliantly. Today American society is filled with people who have a deeply seated fear of being labeled ...
Silence on U.S. Meddling Abroad by Jacob G. Hornberger August 3, 2018 Among the most fascinating aspects of the brouhaha over supposed Russian meddling in America’s electoral system is the total silence in the U.S. mainstream press about U.S. meddling in the political affairs of other countries. Consider the mass outrage and indignation among the mainstream press that Russia would actually want to help a U.S. presidential candidate who favors normalizing relations ...