The Hollow Beacon: America’s Human-Rights Sermons and the CIA’s Secret Crimes

By Mohamad Hammoud

A History Stained in Shadow

When the United States steps onto the global stage to lecture other nations on human rights, it does so with the confidence of a country that believes itself above reproach. From State Department reports to presidential speeches, America presents itself as a moral compass — a beacon of freedom and dignity.

For those who know the record, however, that voice rings hollow—echoing through decades of covert wars, secret prisons, and nations left in ruins. The truth is that the US government, through the CIA and other agencies, has orchestrated some of the most egregious human-rights violations of the modern era — not only abroad but against its own people and allies. The deeper one digs, the clearer it becomes that this history is stained with innocent blood.

Experiments and Betrayals at Home

Project MK-ULTRA is not a conspiracy theory but a documented program in which the CIA, from the 1950s into the 1970s, sought mind-control techniques. History.com reported the agency dosed unwitting American and Canadian citizens with LSD, subjected people to electroshock, isolation and even sexually abused them— all without consent. CNN noted that then-CIA Director Richard Helms ordered many MK-ULTRA files destroyed in 1973, obscuring the full scope of harm. Victims were left permanently damaged; some, like Frank Olson, died under suspicious circumstances after being secretly dosed. The surviving record reveals a chilling disregard for human life in the name of national security.

These were not rogue agents. MK-ULTRA was run through more than 80 institutions — universities, hospitals, prisons — using front organizations to funnel money and avoid accountability. The Church Committee concluded in 1975 that prior consent was not obtained from subjects, a breach of the Nuremberg Code, which the US once championed.

When Leaders Proposed Murdering Their Own People

Even more disturbing is Operation Northwoods, a 1962 Joint Chiefs proposal to stage false-flag terrorist attacks on American soil. ABC News reported the plan included hijacking planes, bombing civilian targets in Miami and Washington, D.C., and sinking boats of Cuban refugees to be blamed on Havana — measures intended to justify war with Fidel Castro.

President John F. Kennedy rejected the plan, but its drafting and presentation by senior military leaders exposed a profound moral rot: officials willing to sacrifice Americans to manufacture consent. The Guardian later confirmed the document remained secret for decades until declassification in the 1990s.

Assassinations Abroad

The CIA’s disregard for life extended far from US shores. The New York Times documented plots to assassinate leaders such as Patrice Lumumba and Fidel Castro — hundreds of schemes against Castro alone, from poisoned cigars to exploding seashells. These plans violated international law and attacked national sovereignty.

In the 1980s, the shadow of war reached the Middle East. Bob Woodward, in Veil: The Secret Wars of the CIA, reports that a 1985 car bombing in Beirut aimed at cleric Sayyad Fadlallah missed its target but martyred some 80 civilians and wounded hundreds. Woodward states that the CIA collaborated with local operatives during the campaign. No one was held accountable, and Washington has not officially acknowledged responsibility.

Hypocrisy in Practice

Today, the US still publishes human-rights reports, sanctions regimes and delivers moral lectures — even as it conceals decades of abuse. The Washington Post reported in 2020 that the CIA’s post-9/11 interrogation program used waterboarding, severe sleep deprivation, and rectal feeding — techniques meeting the international definition of torture. The Senate Intelligence Committee’s 2014 report detailed these practices and found that they produced little reliable intelligence; yet, prosecutions did not follow.

Mainstream media periodically cover such revelations, but often without connecting them to the larger narrative of American exceptionalism. CNN has reported on the CIA’s drone strikes and their horrific toll on civilians in Afghanistan and Pakistan; The New York Times revealed in 2021 that a secret US strike cell, Talon Anvil, was linked to hundreds of civilian deaths in Syria. One former officer told the Times, “They didn’t care about who they were killing. They killed my uncle and his 9-year-old son”.

A Pattern of Shadow and Silence

These are not isolated mistakes. They form a pattern: operations carried out under secrecy, moral shortcuts justified as necessity, victims left unacknowledged. The US government funds and arms regimes that commit abuses while simultaneously sanctioning rivals for lesser crimes — a double standard that corrodes credibility and fuels resentment.

The Question of Reckoning

The American people deserve the whole truth. The international community deserves honesty, not performative morality. To regain its moral leadership, the United States must declassify archives, investigate past abuses, and provide redress where possible. Accountability is not an act of self-flagellation; it is a prerequisite for genuine authority.

The beacon is broken. The question is simple: will the United States fix it, or continue to pretend it still shines?