A secret service to be proud of

Fri, 22 Jul 2005 23:09:46 +0100

Those gargantuan footprints and some good detective work by the Italian police based on unsecured cell phones (evidently from a batch issued to the U.S. diplomatic mission in Rome), hotel bills, credit card receipts, and the like have given us a glimpse into the unexpectedly extravagant "shadow war" being conducted on our behalf by the Bush administration through the Central Intelligence Agency. So let me skip the normal discussions of kidnappings, torture, or whether we violated Italian sovereignty, and just concentrate on what those footprints revealed. If the President's Global War on Terror has been saddled with the inelegant acronym GWOT, the Italian rendition operation should perhaps be given the acronym LDVWOT or La Dolce Vita War on Terror. [Tom Engelhardt]

With people like this fighting our corner in the Global War on Terror we can all sleep a little safer in our beds. Those of us staying in 5 star hotels on the taxpayers dime can anyway.

Backfired

Fri, 09 Jun 2006 17:44:07 +0100

That's hardly surprising. How many times have we seen the US establishment back something to the hilt only to discover that the plot backfires by inspiring opposition? This is one of many problems of the US government. Its crackdowns usually end up working as advertisements (think of drugs, for example). All throughout Latin America, we've seen this happen with politics: US support is often the kiss of death. Especially in a country like Somalia, with so many factions, US backing is something to hide because it can only fire up the opposition. -- Via Lew Rockwell

This is a reference to the rise of Islamic militia in Somalia despite (and quite possibly because of) the CIA throwing hundreds of thousands of dollars of US tax payers money at secular warlords in aother bungled attempt to influence politics in that country.

Really the CIA seem quite hopeless at this stuff, you'd think with the all the practice they've had meddling in other countries they might show some skill at it by now.

Of course at this rate I don't think the $10bn that the Department for Homeland Security(sic) is currently wasting will be enough. I think more lobbyists are called for!

Curiouser and Curiouser! on cia

A secret service to be proud of

Backfired