The CIA

Libya: The Free Libya Army has assaulted and taken Tripoli. This should spell the end of the conventional phase of the Libya War. Over the weekend a sophisticated pincer movement engulfed Tripoli as a massive number of sleeper cells were activated within the capital city by imams giving a coded message through the traditional call to prayer. The sleeper cells were installed months ago. The entire operation was highly coordinated and speaks toward a much bigger CIA and French intelligence presence in Libya than anyone guessed possible. Big problems are still possible in Libya, primarily a guerrilla campaign against oil infrastructure. Western intelligence will have its hands full dealing with the aftermath of the war.

Syria: The Syrian rebels will now be emboldened by the success in Libya. Assad will have to use air power to stop them; something he has not yet done to any significant degree. NATO will have to start an air war against Assad and travel the same path that it took in Libya. If not, Iran will vastly increase its power in the region since Assad is an Iranian puppet. And Iran will then have Iraq surrounded. Iran is already engaging in a low level war against Iraq. American and European voters will go insane at the prospect of Libya style air war in Syria. It might be possible to avoid all this if Congress can somehow be forcibly removed from CIA oversight; i.e. targeted assassinations could wipe out Assad's government and Syrian rebels could be built up covertly.

Afghanistan: European leaders within NATO and western diplomats are calling for the resignation of Kandahar police chief, General Raziq, the CIA's point man in southern Afghanistan. Essentially the complaint against Raziq is that he is too hard on the Taliban. When NATO gives Raziq captured insurgent prisoners to interrogate they come back from the interrogation cells bearing the marks of obvious torture. NATO no longer gives Raziq any prisoners.

Afghan experts agree that Raziq is the only man in southern Afghanistan that the Taliban fears. The bad guys are happy they no longer will have to face Raziq if they are captured by NATO troops. But if they are captured by Razik's forces, it will now go even harder on the bad guys.

All of this highlights the crying need to get NATO, the State Department, the US Congress, and everybody else out of the CIA's face and turn it loose. By fits and starts this is indeed happening. The pace that it occurs will dictate whether the global recovery can remain intact.