Good article by retired Special Forces Officer Dan Marvin on torture and assassination plots

...the people on the ground who do the really dangerous stuff - the killing, the terrorizing, and sabotage - are people from outside the agency. Special Forces personnel such as I, even common criminals loaned to the Company by underworld Mafia bosses, would be used and then maintained on the "rolls" or discarded in one fashion or another when the powers that be considered them "expendable." The late Green Beret Major John Strait put it clear and simple: "They [the CIA] use you like a condom. Once you've served their purpose, they shit-can you."