Conspiracies Confirmed

WASHINGTON — For three decades, reports of rogue CIA operations from plotting Fidel Castro's assassination to collecting files on U.S. citizens have trickled into the public arena. Now the agency is acknowledging its past illegal activities and revealing in startling detail how it crossed the line. Tuesday's disclosure of the CIA's secrets from the 1950s until the early '70s shows how the agency repeatedly violated its own charter. As the CIA now endures criticism for its role in pre-Iraq war intelligence failures, it has exposed past flaws by complying with a 15-year-old request to disclose those activities.

Gen. Michael Hayden, the CIA director, said the agency has learned "from its history" and moved beyond the abuses detailed in the report. "We will find in the press coverage of today's release reminders of some things the CIA should not have done," Hayden said in a note to agency employees. "The documents truly do provide a glimpse of a very different era and a very different agency." Critics say the modern CIA is too quick to distance itself from past abuses. The documents provide an important historical record of the CIA's "skeletons," said Thomas Blanton, director of the National Security Archive, a watchdog group. The Archive's 1992 Freedom of Information Act request prompted the documents' release.

• JJ Commentary: Many who were declared “conspiracy nuts” are owed an apology. Now the issue is whether the CIA has been reformed, or continues its illegal rogue activities in even greater secrecy.