NP? black valentines

[Doug Millison]

http://www.counterpunch.org/valentine3.html

"[...] while the sending of anthrax to U.S. citizens seems to be yet
another bizarre aspect of the on-going terror attacks on America, there is
a precedent, and it is connected to America's on-going woes with the Arab
world.

The problem began in 1958, with the formation of the United Arab Republic
by Egypt and Syria. To protect Israel, the CIA armed Iraq's Kurds and
encouraged them to revolt and attack Syria, which was considered a Soviet
pawn. In response, Colonel Abdul Karim el-Kassem overthrew Iraq's King
Faisal and restored relations with the Soviets. The coup d'etat incited
nationalists in Lebanon's Arab community and in May 1958, armed revolt
erupted in Beirut. The U.S. Information Agency building was burned and
sacked and the ARAMCO pipeline from Saudi Arabia to Tripoli was severed. To
placate King Hussein, America began selling arms to Jordan and mounting
covert operations against Iraq, including an MKULTRA operation in which the
infamous CIA officer, Dr. Sidney Gottlieb sent, from India, a handkerchief
laced with poison to Colonel Kassem.

According to CIAnik Seymour Hersh in his JFK-bashing book, The Dark Side of
Camelot (page 194): "the (CIA's Technical Services Division) created a
poisoned handkerchief that was mailed with the approval of the agency's top
management to the home of General Abdul Karim Kassem, the military
strongman of Iraq. Kassem had seized power in a bloody coup and, to the
dismay of the U.S., immediately restored diplomatic relations with the
Soviet Union and lifted a ban on the Communist Party in Iraq. Sidney
Gottlieb came up with the idea of infecting a handkerchief and mailing it
to Iraq via the CIA station in New Delhi, India. 'It was not an
assassination,' Gottlieb told (Hersh) in an interview. 'They [the CIA's
Near East division] just wanted him to get sick for a long time. I went to
(CIA Deputy Director of Plans, Richard) Bissell and he said go ahead.'

"Others in the agency saw it differently. One senior officer, in an
interview for this book, revealed that the men running the Near East
division were interested in getting rid of General Kassem permanently."

(Incidentally, in a Frontline story aired on 25 January 2000, titled The
Survival of Saddam, it was revealed that Saddam Hussein, then an
up-and-coming CIA asset and dictator, and other members of the Ba'ath party
worked with "the Americans" to overthrow General Kassem. According to
Frontline, "With CIA help, the Iraqi Ba'ath Party seized power in 1963.
General Kassem was killed in the coup. The CIA provided lists of suspected
communists for Ba'ath Party hit squads, who liquidated at least 800 people.
Saddam Hussein rushed home to join in as a interrogator, torturer and
killer.")

So, if the FBI is looking for motive and method (meaning modus operandi),
the CIA must rate as a prime suspect in the anthrax black valentines that
are currently being sent across the country. The motive, of course, is to
keep the threat of terrorism alive and widespread, so more assaults can be
made on our Civil Liberties, thus strengthening the National Security
elite. The method of sending envelopes packed with poison, as we know, was
developed and perfected by the CIA.

Over to you, Governor Ridge."