Speaking of the CIA

Their Iraqi pal's unpopular:

NAJAF, Iraq, Dec. 4 -- An angry crowd attacked a convoy carrying former interim prime minister Ayad Allawi in the Shiite holy city of Najaf Sunday, pelting it with shoes, bricks and rocks as gunfire echoed in the area, according to Allawi aides and witnesses at the scene.

This reminds us of our arrival in Czechoslovakia about fifteen years ago on a pilgrimage to Pilsen, the birthplace of good beer. The lead story in The Prague Post was headlined, "Havel egged in Bratislava," and it wasn't long before the Czechs showed the Slovaks the door.