Ever since its conception in 1947 under the National Security Act, the CIA has consistently worked to overthrow governments -- many elected democratically -- and in their place support coups or repressive dictatorships whose only redeeming feature was their obedience to the United States' interests. It has helped cause genocide, war and suffering in many countries abroad and will continue to do so in the future. The first step in moving to a better world is to stop these covert, inhumane and unethical spy organizations in all nations of the world, starting right here at home with the CIA.

The CIA's original mission was to establish an organization that could covertly obtain information relating to the national security of the United States, sparked by the growth of the Soviet Union. It wasn't even six years before it started branching out and becoming a force that could be called upon by the president or other interested parties to depose governments abroad that seemed to be moving away from under the U.S. world hegemony.

In 1953, Jacobo Arbenz Gúzman, the democratically elected president of Guatemala, was overthrown because of his leftist leanings and desire to break the United Fruit Company's (now known as Chiquita) illegitimate hold on the biggest source of income for Guatemala -- fruit.

The CIA supported Colonel Carlos Castillo Armas, who ended up being the catalyst for the military government, which ruled the country for almost 40 years. As you may know, during the military rule and subsequent political unrest, more than 200,000 Guatemalans died at the hands of paramilitary groups supported by the government, and yes, the CIA. The CIA provided more than $10 million in support to the military government and had agents' help suppress human rights abuses reports.

The CIA even helped with the "scorched earth" campaign, which was a massive plan to kill all political dissidents, most of them the local Mayans.

Because a popular president decided to give the land of the peasants back to the peasants and force the United States to break its illegitimate control of the fruit trade, the CIA was brought in and wreaked havoc upon the country that has left an imprint that will take decades to erase.

This isn't all, either, the examples just go on, including, the overthrow of Salvador Allende Gossens in Chile in 1973 and subsequent military rule of Pinochet. Another example would be the strong support of the contras in Nicaragua and mining of two of the country's harbors, and eventual Iran-Contra scandal. Also, the overthrow of Muhammad Mossadegh in Iran in 1953; the attempted invasion of Cuba in 1961 by Cuban exiles; and even beliefs such as the CIA helping install Saddam Hussein in power and being the catalyst for the entrance of crack into American ghettos in the 1980s. The violation of human rights is the common thread that links all CIA operations.

In almost every case, the CIA has carried out actions that are against the principles the country was founded on. The United States is supposed to be the bastion of democracy and freedom, but the CIA has ignored that principle and helped prop up repressive dictatorships so as to ensure economic and political servitude to the rich elites dominating this country. The CIA ignores the concept of human rights, seeing human life as a mere detail in the larger picture of American global domination.

The CIA does all this to supposedly protect the national interests and citizens of this country, trying to turn small developing countries into the enemy so as to secure support. How does it feel to know your "freedom" has been at the expense of the thousands who have been killed or displaced by the CIA?

An ex-CIA operative stationed in Ecuador from 1957 to 1969, Philip Agee, has made it his policy to expose this organization and all its covert operations. He said this about the CIA in 1975: "The CIA is nothing more than the secret police of American capitalism, plugging up leaks in the political dam night and day so that shareholders of U.S. companies operating in poor countries can continue enjoying their rip-off."

The CIA is a relic, an organization that has managed to undermine the universal idea of freedom and democracy.

It is time the CIA said its farewells. The KGB did it long ago. The world will become a better place when organizations as this do not exist to destroy the very principles its country is supposed to espouse.