Imagine an agency so secretive and so corrupt that they can literally get away with criminal sexual abuse of children. Then imagine you are forced to pay for this agency and despite knowing that their agents are abusing children — even admitting to it — they are avoiding any kind of legal ramifications. Well, there is no need to imagine because that and more, is happening within the CIA and no one is doing anything about it.
Last December, through multiple FOIA lawsuits, Buzzfeed News obtained hundreds of internal CIA reports that detailed the rampant abuse. According to the reports, despite multiple agents and contractors, at least 10, being caught in child sex abuse situations, federal prosecutors have brought no charges. The abusers remain protected by the agency.
It’s been nearly a year since this information became public yet there has been no investigation and essentially no interest by anyone in D.C. or the political establishment to hold them accountable.
Buzzfeed reports that most of the cases were referred to US attorneys for prosecution but in an apparent quid pro quo scenario, the US attorneys send the cases back to the CIA to “handle them internally.” As a result of this scenario, these child-abusing monsters face no legal ramifications. At most, according to the report, they may lose their job or security clearance.
As Buzzfeed points out, some of these crimes are utterly horrifying and involve toddlers.
One employee had sexual contact with a 2-year-old and a 6-year-old. He was fired. A second employee purchased three sexually explicit videos of young girls, filmed by their mothers. He resigned. A third employee estimated that he had viewed up to 1,400 sexually abusive images of children while on agency assignments. The records do not say what action, if any, the CIA took against him. A contractor who arranged for sex with an undercover FBI agent posing as a child had his contract revoked.
Out of all of these monsters, only a single one was ever charged with a crime. In fact, that one individual, according to the report, was the only known case of a CIA staffer being charged with child sex crimes, ever.
When questioned about the unchecked abuse, the agency refused to elaborate, stating only that the CIA “takes seriously its responsibility to hold accountable federal government employees who violate federal law within our jurisdiction.”
Clearly, however, as these internal documents illustrate, that is not the case. What’s more, as the complete lack of interest by federal prosecutors highlights, no one takes it seriously.
According to the report, the reasoning behind not charging these CIA child predators with crimes is that their prosecution could reveal potential state secrets. As Buzzfeed reports, the former official, who reviewed the declassified inspector general reports, characterized the concern from CIA lawyers as, “We can’t have these people testify, they may inadvertently be forced to disclose sources and methods.”
Street Prophet
United States
