UTS

Ghosts of Plots Past (or, Assassins Are Not Wolves)

I'm rubbing my eyes. Yes, I have been staring at the computer screen too long, but that's nothing new. What is also nothing new is the AFP story I'm reading about an alleged plot to assassinate Iraqi Prime Minister Iyad Allawi.

I've got deja vu from it. I know I've read it before. Twice. Once in 1993, the other in 1986. The people who think these things up lack any semblence of imagination.

If Only Toppling the Media Were as Easy as Toppling a Statue...

Huh. Wow. Really? The tearing down of the statue of Saddam Hussein was a staged event carried out by a US Army psychological operations unit? Boy, I bet nobody saw that "revelation" coming. Well, surely since the LA Times reported the lie had been a lie today -- even if it was tiny (250 words) and buried on page A28 -- surely the other newspapers picked it up and they all printed corrections or retractions of their adulating, foaming-at-the-mouth, slobbering at the sight of victory coverage last year... Right?

"Don't worry. We knew all hell would break loose. It's cool."

Has anyone noticed US officials falling over themselves to make sure we all know they predicted there would be a massive spike in violence around what they cynically refer to as a "handover of sovereignty" on June 30? It's as if they expect us to believe that having foreseen it -- and let's face it, you could be living in a spider hole and have predicted this one -- is the same as having it under control.

"Nothing to see here, folks. Go on home. Nothing to see here."