Dirty Tricks Done Cheap?

Trevor Royle is the Diplomatic Editor for the Glasgow Sunday Herald, and one of the most experienced hard-nosed journalists and historians in Europe today. That is why I am worried by his most recent editorial which almost forwards the thesis that the US is behind the assasination of Hariri in Lebanon.

In appointing Negroponte, a career diplomat, Bush has brought a new and, to many, unwelcome twist to the US war on terror. Coming on top of his statement that he would support Israel if it mounted an attack against Iran’s nuclear facilities, and following recent talk of enforcing regime change in Iran and Syria, it sends the signal that the US is entering a new phase in its operations against those countries suspected of sponsoring al-Qaeda and its allies...

...Not only does this make him the most powerful member of the Bush administration, but it also heightens fears the US could be returning to “dirty war” tactics which allowed CIA-trained operatives to pinpoint and neutralise known terrorist targets or obstructive political leaders.

Extra-judicial killings of this kind have been in the CIA repertoire since it began its response to the 9/11 attacks. Sources close to the White House have already admitted the US might have to resort to this approach in its policy of fomenting internal regime changes in the Middle East.

A senior strategist in Washington told the Sunday Herald that the US had no intention of getting bogged down as it had done in Iraq and that the next two stumbling blocks, Iran and Syria, would have to be approached in a more subtle way.

“We are in no position to take any military action just now and, in any case, the odds are stacked against us,” he said. “ Iran is on the point of developing nuclear weapons and Syria is a patron of terrorism. Both have created a powerful alliance, both need to be brought round and both need to mend their ways. If they are not open to negotiation, we’ll have to take a more indirect approach.”

...With aerial attacks out of the question at the moment, that leaves the option of covert operations aimed at making life impossible for the administration and paving the way for a more sympathetic government. Last week’s assassination of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafiq al-Hariri is a good example of this approach. No serious group has claimed responsibility for the operation, which was well planned and efficiently executed, but the attack has created the kind of uncertainty that can encourage change.

...And that is why the appointment of John Negroponte as DNI has raised eyebrows inside and outside of Washington. At the time, in a previous incarnation as a diplomat in Honduras between 1981 and 1985, Negroponte turned a blind eye to atrocities and political assassinations carried out by US-funded Contra fighters during the illegal war against Nicaragua’s Sandinista government.

Read the article for yourself and tell me if I am misreading it. Royle seems to be suggesting, for the first time by a serious journalist unless I am mistaken, that the US may have funded a group inside Lebanon to carry out the assasination, with a view to furthering the US' agenda. Could this be true? If so, then the prime suspect has to be the person who has stepped forward with so much to gain from Hariri's death, the man who changes sides whenever it will further his own agenda and is no stranger to atrocities, Druze leader Walid Jumblatt. No-one is asking questions about him, yet the details of his sordid history are easily available online.

All of this is speculation, of course. There is no evidence to date. Maybe it would make a good spy thriller.