Talk:U.S. Intelligence and terrorism in the 1970s

Both the title and some of the text are easily misread. My first reaction to the title was to wonder what terror US intelligence agencies inflicted in the 70s. Bombing Cambodia & Laos? When I see "Attacks on US soil started in 1975, for which the Federal Bureau of Investigation was the lead agency." I find myself wanting to say no, the DEA actually conducted more attacks than the FBI.

Partly, this is just me being cynical, but the wording should be improved to avoid the ambiguities. Sandy Harris 02:33, 13 February 2009 (UTC)

Your point is well taken about the FBI, but, since this article does need expansion, there are issues that blur between counterterrorism to protect U.S. interests, and also supporting groups that might be difficult to categorize in their operations in support of U.S. programs abroad. For example, the U.S. was focused on the Cold War, and that included actively supporting the Afghan resistance to the Soviets. With hindsight, some of the supported Afghan groups later became associated with anti-U.S. terrorism. The Iran-Contra situation also reflects the reality that the world of covert operations is, as various writers have called it, an infinity of mirrors.

Work is needed; feel free to clean up the FBI phrasing. Admittedly, I wouldn't get in the middle of ATF activities at Waco, which, to me, was more easily explained by incompetence than anything else -- that was, of course, in 1993. DEA support of terror against narcotics traffic? Again, one gets into definitions. Mitrione?

No, I wouldn't call the bombing of Cambodia and Laos terrorism or especially part of intelligence community operations. Air campaigns in Cambodia and Laos were military. More complex were operations such as the Phoenix program and especially its predecessors, the more directly CIA-run Provincial Reconnaissance Unit. Were they conducting counterterror? There was unquestionably use of terror by the Viet Cong in some of their operating areas in the late sixties. Most of the covert activities in Southeast Asia were in the fifties and sixties. Howard C. Berkowitz 03:09, 13 February 2009 (UTC)