It is CIA disinformation to say that the thallium they wanted to dust inside his shoes was a harmless prank that would just make his beard fall out. That is a lethal dose, that causes a slow death over months from multiple organ failure. (Yes, one symptom is hair loss.) You can look it up in any chemical reference book. How come in all these years bourgeois commentators never do this elementary check but keep repeating CIA disinformation? jasonzenith.blogspot.com

The thallium that the CIA tried to poison Castro with is a lethal poison that causes a slow death over months. (Look it up in any chemical reference.) Lopate repeated the CIA disinfo that it was some harmless prank to make his beard fall out. After all these years, is it possible that no bourgeois commentator ever bothered to do the slightest research on thallium? Or are they deliberately promoting CIA disinfo? Jasonzenith.blogspot,com

The stupidity of actions like these, were base on the claims of "How dare you -inferior race and people-- stand up to us successfully".

So much is this true, that recent Wikileaks documents about the U.S. government's actions --along w/ that of the Vatican-- to prevent the return of the legitimaly-elected-president Aristide of Haiti (ousted by us), lets us understand so clearly, the why of the historical precarious situation of that country, Africa, and the rest of the third world.

Oh we're still so primitive... u_____u

Funny, Hugh Sansom, that you did not mention which fact I got wrong!?

Meanwhile, despite all the criticisms, most of the dictatorships, except in the Muslim world, have gone down. The few holdouts are Cuba, North Korea, and the Arab states and a handful of others.

Otherwise, all of Latin America, most of East Asia have become democracies,and I believe China will at some point as well.

The major holdouts are in the Muslim world, and that upheaval has only begun.

@jgarbuz -- At least try to get _one_ fact right. You have nothing right at all.

Worth nothing that Obama has proved _more_ secretive, more hostile to openness than Bush.

No, the "Palestinians" made it clear since 1947 that are not interested in a "two state solution" but only in getting rid of the JEwish state.

Even today, they refuse to recognize ISrael as the JEwish state, tribal homeland of the JEwish people. They do not want a separate state. They want an IRREDENTIST state that over time will overwhelm the Jewish state to create ONE "Palestine."

If a compromise and two state solution was what they wanted, they could have had it many times since 1947! Many times, including today.

Historian Gabriel Kolko and many others have documented that the CIA not only failed to learn from the Bay of Pigs, but got worse. The CIA, and almost all of the US 'intelligence' community, has been largely exempt from oversight throughout their histories. The relevant Congressional committees are packed with supporters who have swallowed the security state kool-aid.

So 50 years later, nothing has changed. "If we overthrow Saddam Hussein, everything will come up roses." And now, instead of one island 90 miles away, the Brave New World according to Obama is being brought to Iraq, Afghanistan (and Pakistan by extension), Yemen, Libya, Somalia.... But not Palestinians, who've made very clear their wish for independence for at least 44 years.