The Wire

They were among the worst kept secrets in the history of the American central intelligence agency. Recently a series of reports detailing secret assassination attempts, abusive shock therapy, illegal surveillance of journalists and foreign political leaders were released to the public, called the CIA family jewels. Fifteen years after a freedom of information request for access to these seven hundred pages from 1959-1973, they became available in the George Washington University national security archives. We can now see proof that the CIA tried to assassinate Cuban leader Fidel Castro with poison pills, and had plans to murder the former Congolese leader Patrice Lamumba. DR David Palmer is a senior lecturer at Flinders University’s American Studies Department. He explained the most important thing to come out of the final release of the family jewels.