Without even getting into the dirty tricks during the cold war, even just confining it to after the turn of the century.....
We appear to have a couple of rogue agencies, the CIA and the NSA.
The CIA enabled the lies that lead to the unwarranted aggression of the Iraq invasion and subsequent occupation. To add to this; nobody has been held responsible.
The CIA were central to the extraordinary rendition program and the subsequent torture.
The NSA seems to know no boundaries when it comes to spying all and sundry, with no distinction between "friend" and "foe".
So we:
Invade a sovereign nation for no other reason than our President wills it and our senators fail to prevent him and almost unanimously agree that it is a good thing.
The US tortures then desperately tries to cover it up, and nobody pays for this breech of International treaties, oh sure a few were sacrificed on the alter in the name of protecting those that gave the orders.
The US assassinates people in sovereign nations based upon information supplied by an agency known for enabling lies and illegal war.
The US now has an agency being accused of covering up, lying and spying on the government's own oversight committee.
The US still has the chutzpah to call out other nations for doing the same, or at least apparently doing the same according to the same sources that have been lying and conniving for decades.
So, either they are rogue agencies or they are rogue by design, I tend to lean towards the latter.
Forget the Cold War, so old hat; the raisons d'etre used to hide behind are the War On Terror with a sprinkling of the War On Drugs.
Who to believe?
I'll start with nobody at all, and expect to be lied to as a matter of policy.
Oh and as for the no fly lists, what a joke they are.