CIA failure in China spy mission (Dalai Lama)

The CIA rarely admits much. And by then it's been turned to advantage to justify other crimes and operations. But any revelation begins to open our eyes about the secret affairs that motivate world politics, fuel anti-US anger, and reveal that Tibet is just a sad pawn between superpowers.

WASHINGTON (AP) – Detail by painful detail, the CIA is coming to grips with one of the most devastating episodes in its history, a botched cloak-and-dagger flight into China that stole two decades of freedom from a pair of fresh-faced American operatives and cost the lives of their two pilots.

US spy in China, weighed and measured like an alien after a crash landing (AP/file).

In opening up about the 1952 debacle, the CIA is finding ways to use it as a teaching tool. Mistakes of the past can serve as cautionary tales for today's spies and paramilitary officers taking on al-Qaida and other terrorist targets.

At the center of the story are two eager CIA paramilitary officers on their first overseas assignment, John T. Downey of New Britain, Conn., and Richard G. Fecteau, of Lynn, Mass., whose plane was shot from the night sky in a Chinese ambush. More>>

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Music and US spy commentary by the Dead Kennedys; report on the CIA by AP; report on the Dalai Lama by RT (Russian Television News in America).