CIA "Family Jewels" Don't Tell the Whole Story

The release of hundreds of pages of classified CIA documents to the public recently has exposed a systematic effort by the US government to spy on and suppress political opposition in the US to its policies.

But few in the media have examined the CIA's international role. At the other end of this link, writer Michale Schwartz looks at the CIA's role in terrorist bombings in the 1980s in Lebanon.

Schwartz writes:

The CIA did not just try to assassinate Muhammad Husain Fadlallah. Instead the Agency carbombed his entire neighborhood with an explosion that was felt "miles away in the Chouf Mountains and well out in the Mediterranean." Whether or not the cleric was the perpetrator, the message would be clear to all concerned: attacks on American marines would result in retribution against the whole offending community. It was, in short, an act of state terrorism. Eighty-one people were killed and over 200 wounded in the crowded impoverished Bir El-Abed neighborhood where Fadlallah lived.

In charge of gathering information for the operation, despite warnings that the CIA"s planned retaliation against this individual was probably unwarranted, was current Defense Secretary Robert Gates.

Read the full article here...

Rise in Sectarian Violence in Baghdad

Last week a handful of Republican Senators stood up and suggested they could no longer support Bush's Iraq war policy. They couldn't wait until September as he asked them to in order to determine the success of the "surge."

According to the Washington Post, the number of murdered bodies in the streets of Baghdad has risen 41% over what it was in January when Bush's "surge" was ordered.

Recall that the "surge" was ordered to stabilize Baghdad and quell the growing sectarian strife, which the Bush administration has steadfastly refused to call civil war.

The murders are the clearest indicator of the level of sectarian based violence and have nothing to do with Al Qaeda, the supposed "enemy #1" in Iraq.

With daily car bombings, mass civilian casualties inflicted in the civil war, whole sections of the country and the city of Baghdad itself under the control of groups unaffiliated with the government, security and stability are no closer today than they were four years ago.

The conflict is exacerbated, not eased, by the presence of the US military as an occupation force. Broad hostility toward the US has grown in Iraq as well as toward the relationship between the Iraqi and US governments. Despite the fact that the Iraqi government was elected by a large portion of the population, it is increasingly appearing to be little more than a voice for Bush.

This policy is a failure and because Bush views the current situation as "normal" and has failed to consider alternatives, Congress will have to stop him before more US troops are killed. Security and stability will only be achieved by adopting a new course: troop withdrawal, full sovereignty for Iraq, inter-sectarian talks, good-faith regional diplomacy, boosted reconstruction efforts, and insertion of international peace keepers.

Republicans who have expressed displeasure with Bush's stay-the-course mentality have to do more than talk. They are going to have to vote to bring the troops home and for a new direction.