By Les Payne, June 23, 2002, Long Island Newsday

Barbarism, as it creeps back out of the bog, is being imposed upon the world as a behavior system for geese under which what's good for the goose is not considered good for the gander.

How else can one interpret the lone superpower plotting to kill the leader of another country? This, we're told, is precisely the Bush administration's covert action plan for toppling Saddam Hussein with extreme prejudice. In this hot pursuit of the Iraqi goose, President George W. Bush clearly envisions no blow-back scenario for the gander.

Assassinating world leaders is nothing new to U.S. presidents. Secret executive death orders on foreign leaders have helped solidify the republic's global power over the years. No lesser a light than President Dwight Eisenhower, the pacifist-warrior who upon his retirement warned of the military-industrial complex, ordered the elimination of Patrice Lumumba, the duly elected prime minister of the freshly liberated Congo. In addition to the murdered Lumumba, the Cold War barbarism targeted world leaders on both sides, none so lucky as Fidel Castro, whose name once held down the top spot on a U.S. executive action hit list.

The ever-crafty Comrade Castro, of course, has survived 10 U.S. presidents, three of whom were themselves shot at, another of whom was attacked in Georgia by a vicious, homicidal rabbit. The U.S. president most inclined to assassinate Castro was himself assassinated by one Lee Harvey Oswald, a shadowy drifter reputed to be kindly disposed toward Castro's Cuba.

This conspiracy web brings us back to the goose and the superpower gander.

Executive assassination orders on world leaders, once kept so very secret, are these days floated like Wild West handbills. This covert presidential finding was reduced to a CIA directive stamped "eyes only" and, in real time, faxed over to Bob Woodward of The Washington Post. To his credit, Woodward followed the dictates of his craft and shared this covert information with the American public.

This is how we came to learn last week that the sitting president of the United States has placed a hit order on the sitting president of Iraq.

The Saddam Hussein threat, not to be minimized, is linked to his support for global terrorist groups. Left unstated is the Iraqi leader's Castro-like survival as an endless taunt to President W's father, 10 years removed from his role as commander-in-chief in the Persian Gulf War. Still, the death plot against Hussein is supported, we're told, by Congress, which differs from a rubber stamp in these matters only in that a rubber stamp leaves an impression.

"If in fact we have an opportunity to make the world safer," said House Majority Leader Richard Armey (R-Texas), "I'm sure it's a wise thing to do."

Saddam Hussein's cardinal sins notwithstanding, it is not clear how the lone superpower makes the world safer by enacting a code making it acceptable for one world leader to murder another world leader. Bush's idea, of course, is that this right to assassinate will be limited only to his administration so divinely chosen of the Lord.

This, as the CIA well knows, is not exactly how the real world works. It is perhaps why Woodward was slipped the contents of that covert presidential finding. Even in time of active war, nations are reluctant to assassinate an opposing head of state, for the simple reason that such a samurai sword has a double edge.

If justice is to prevail, and barbarism avoided, all nations must be weighed equally on the scales of global law. Already, the United States may be in for some harsh and surprising rulings not yet brought to book in outposts such as Vietnam, Nicaragua and Chile.

That aside, consider the reaction to the disclosures in Bob Woodward's story - had an American president been so targeted, instead of Saddam Hussein. What follows is a verbatim account of an edited Washington Post story of June 16, substituting President Bush's circumstances for that of Saddam Hussein's:

"President Saddam Hussein early this year signed an intelligence order directing his secret police to undertake a comprehensive, covert program to topple President George W, Bush, including authority to use lethal force to capture the American president, according to informed sources.

The order, an expansion of a previous presidential finding designed to oust Bush, directs the Iraqi secret police to use all available tools including:

Increased support to American opposition forces inside and outside the U.S. including money, weapons, equipment, training and intelligence information.

Expanded efforts to collect intelligence within the U.S. government, military security service and overall population where pockets of intense anti-Bush sentiment have been detected.

Possible use of secret police and Republican Guard units, similar to those used against Kuwait and the Kurds.

Such forces would be authorized to kill Bush if they were acting in self-defense."

Such a plan would be as chilling for the gander as it is for the goose.

Copyright © 2002, Newsday, Inc.

Reprinted from Long Island Newsday:
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