DON'T PANIC ... It's Just the C I A

Most of the Rightwing are confused over Libya. They don’t know how to respond to the way the President has responded. Let’s be honest: Gaddafi’s not exactly your Hosni Mubarak. I mean, he doesn’t walk around in a tailored suit kitted out by Brooks Brothers. So whilst it’s funny to watch the Right contort themselves into a position where it seems as though they’re almost forced to side with Gaddafi in this mess, they haven’t exactly bought into another version of the big lie propaganda being subtly promoted by a less than salubrious media.

The latest magnificent obsession we’re being asked to gobble to the point of nausea is the fact that the President has signed a secret order authorising C I A operatives to go to Libya and liaise with the rebel forces.

With that announcement – let’s call it a leak, because that’s what it was – all the Firebaggers are crawling from the woodwork, all the Kucinichivites and Moorebots are wagging fingers and twittering remorselessly about something they had realised from the getgo, but which we lesser mortals, uncomprehendingly refuse to believe.

There! TOLD YA! Obama lied. No ground troops in Libya? Ha! Tell me another one. NOW tell me he’s not like Bush.

Well, he’s not. Sorry to disappoint you, but the C I A is not “troops on the ground,” and that secret order, the existence of which has just been released, was probably signed and blown into live several weeks ago, when this whole kerfuffle started, or shortly thereafter.

Tell you another thing too … They’re not alone, because MI5, the British Secret Service and their version of the C I A, has been right along beside them all the time.

Use your common sense, Firebaggers, Kucinichivites and Moorebots … how the hell else do you think Britain, France and the US got ground information about where Gaddafi’s army and military materiel was located? How do you think they knew where heavily concentrated civilian areas were in order to avoid collateral damage in the bombing raids? There’ve been intelligence operatives in that country for quite sometime.

In fact, they’re everywhere and in every country. In most of the Western countries, our allies, there’s a C I A operative planted in every U S embassy – a cultural or political attache or one of their respective staff. In countries which aren’t so friendly, their cover is deeper. And the same game is played with us on our home soil. How many years did that bevy of Russian spies live amongst the people in suburban New Jersey and Washington DC before their covers were blown?

Spies are just what they are: spies. They blend in with the scenery until the become part and parcel of the fixtures and fittings of a country. If they’re very good, they never get caught or exposed until well past their useful dates. If they are discovered, they know enough to face the consequences. It’s part of their job. They don’t swan around in Aston Martins, drinking martinis which are shaken and not stirred like 007, and they don’t disappear down telephone booths or use shoe phones like Maxwell Smart.

They’re there for a reason, and they’re here for a reason too, so let’s not panic and call the President a liar and stamp your feet and act like the emotional adolescents you are. One of the main reasons they’re in and about Libya is not only to find out the extent of Gaddafi’s strength or weakness, but also to find out exactly who these insurgents are whom we’re helping at the moment. After all, it pays to know if the enemy of your enemy is really your friend of just another asshole-in-training.

Who knows who leaked information about their existence or why it was leaked, but maybe it was done as a test. Maybe it was done for the President’s amusement, so he could watch the 24/7 news boys and girls push the fear and resentment button and watch the children perform their dance of indignance.

I guess after all the crap with which he has to deal, he needs a laugh, and he also needs to gauge the intellectual calibre of the country he governs.