The problem began in 1958, with the formation of the United Arab Republic by Egypt and Syria. To protect Israel, the CIA armed Iraq's Kurds and encouraged them to revolt and attack Syria, which was considered a Soviet pawn. In response, Colonel Abdul Karim el-Kassem overthrew Iraq's King Faisal and restored relations with the Soviets. The coup d'etat incited nationalists in Lebanon's Arab community and in May 1958, armed revolt erupted in Beirut. The US Information Agency building was burned and sacked and the ARAMCO pipeline from Saudi Arabia to Tripoli was severed. To placate King Hussein, America began selling arms to Jordan and mounting covert operations against Iraq, including an MKULTRA operation in which the infamous CIA officer, Dr Sidney Gottlieb sent, from India, a handkerchief laced with poison to Colonel Kassem.

According to Seymour Hersh in The Dark Side of Camelot (Boston, MA: Back Bay Books, 1998, page 194): "the (CIA's Technical Services Division) created a poisoned handkerchief that was mailed with the approval of the agency's top management to the home of General Abdul Karim Kassem, the military strongman of Iraq. Kassem had seized power in a bloody coup and, to the dismay of the US, immediately restored diplomatic relations with the Soviet Union and lifted a ban on the Communist Party in Iraq. Sidney Gottlieb came up with the idea of infecting a handkerchief and mailing it to Iraq via the CIA station in New Delhi, India. 'It was not an assassination,' Gottlieb told (Hersh) in an interview. 'They [the CIA's Near East division] just wanted him to get sick for a long time. I went to (CIA Deputy Director of Plans, Richard) Bissell and he said go ahead.'

"Others in the agency saw it differently. One senior officer, in an interview for this book, revealed that the men running the Near East division were interested in getting rid of General Kassem permanently."

Incidentally, in a Frontline story aired on 25 January 2000, titled "The Survival of Saddam", it was revealed that Saddam Hussein, then an up-and-coming CIA asset and dictator, and other members of the Ba'ath party worked with "the Americans" to overthrow General Kassem. According to Frontline, "With CIA help, the Iraqi Ba'ath Party seized power in 1963. General Kassem was killed in the coup. The CIA provided lists of suspected communists for Ba'ath Party hit squads, who liquidated at least 800 people. Saddam Hussein rushed home to join in as a interrogator, torturer and killer."

I'm not saying the FBI should investigate the CIA, rather than the Russians or the Iraqis, but if you look at the record, the CIA alone has a history of sending black valentines. Who knows, may the CIA wants to keep the threat of terrorism alive and widespread, so more assaults can be made on our Civil Liberties, thus strengthening the National Security elite.