Covert actions can be seen as problematic and it is often
linked to neo-imperialism. Chalmers Johnson, a respected political economist,
has deployed the CIA term ‘blowback’ to denote the unintended consequences of
covert actions that were deliberately kept from the American public. He also
uses the CIA as a primary exhibit in his argument about the scale of covert
political interference and economic imperialism in the world. For Johnson, many
of America’s current difficulties in the global south stem from vexatious
retaliations against CIA’s activities that ironically the American public knows
little about. The removal of a democratic regime in Iran and the installation
of the Shah in 1953 is an obvious example. Noam Chomsky argues that the
majority of covert action has focused on subverting democracies in the Third
World, typically by secretly funneling money to preferred candidates. (Johnson
2000, Chomsky and Otero 2003).
Aldrich, Richard J. "Intelligence" in Williams, Paul D. Security Studies: an Introduction. pp. 242-243.
