WORLDVIEW

A news report from Bethlehem appeared yesterday in the Independent , a prominent British newspaper — CIA blamed as deal to end Bethlehem siege falters .

According to the reporter, Phil Reeves, agents of the CIA and Israel's domestic security service Shin Bet were directed to take charge of the standoff at Bethlehem. The initial negotiators, having worked for weeks to resolve the issues, were dismissed with little ceremony, while arrangements were made to transfer 13 Palestinians to Italy.

Italy protested, saying they were not formally notified, cancelling a flight for the suspects. The arrangements, directed by the CIA's Tel Aviv station chief Jeff O'Connell, apparently stalled because "someone simply forgot to tell the Italians."

President George W Bush now sends the head of the CIA (Bush the Elder's old job) back to the Middle East, where he continues his role as an active participant in the peace proceedings.

Spying trade

The spying trade has always been around, but it got a growth spurt during and just after World War Two. The US merged its wartime spy agency into the new Central Intelligence Agency.

Its policies and activities are largely concealed, though it is known that for many years the US has used the CIA to actively influence the political path of other countries.

The policy of secrecy in the strategies and tactics employed are concealed from the American public under the rubric of national security. The acquiescent American public pays for this international gamesmanship, confident that their elected representatives keep things within moral and ethical bounds.

To avoid public condemnation, activities which no honourable country would allow are carried out in friendly countries, whose agents are secretly funded and have received training by the US. Though the costs of international surveillance and active interference is a major item in the US budget, the taxpayers get no detailed accounting of how the money is actually spent.

Normally these activities are kept out of sight, and the secret agents operate discreetly and clandestinely under a cover of diplomatic immunity. They rarely act openly as agents, and for the CIA and the Shin Bet to take over the situation in Bethlehem from the diplomats marks a new stage in international affairs.

The spies are seen to be coming out of the closet, revealing their true role. They hope to find public acceptance of their activities, along with their eavesdropping on all communication and physical change from orbiting satellites. It is all justified as a necessary part of the diaphanous "war on terrorism".

Covert operations

The US recently announced that, as a matter of public policy, regimes taking positions unfavourable to US economic and military interests are targets for a "change of regime". This is a threat that both overt military and covert operations will be employed without further notice.

As expected, the nations of the world have received this news with extreme distaste, and the long-term consequences for America are certain to be unfortunate. They have stated that the "war on terrorism" justifies a new policy of unilateral action that respects no boundaries and no rights.

The US has not only failed to meet respectable goals to reduce environmental destruction, it has opposed the United Nations attempt to eradicate land mines, opposed the UN resolution against torture of prisoners, opposed efforts to establish an international court of justice, and now plans to renege on earlier agreements and treaties, including the treaty to reduce nuclear arms.

The US, like Israel, thumbs its nose at the rest of the world, confident that weakness, apathy and desire for goodwill in the rest of the world will permit such arrogance.

The US, with the opposite intent, is voluntarily withdrawing into its island fortress. Even as more billions are spent on foolish expeditionary adventures around the world, the reserves of American respect and admiration drain away.

If a man in a kampung (village), finding a chicken killed, declared war on an unknown culprit and divided his neighbours into "friends and enemies" everyone would consider him insane.

But he of the wounded pride, filled with anger and self-righteous indignation, will not listen, even to old friends. It recalls two ancient sayings, "Pride goeth before a fall" and "He whom the gods would destroy, first makes angry."

HARUN RASHID is a scientist avidly interested in the application of Islamic principles in international affairs. The promotion of goodwill through civilisational dialogue motivates his writing. His Worldview column is a personal analysis of Malaysian affairs from a global perspective.