I had no intention of getting into this, with so many other meat-and-potatoes topics backed up -- the rise of debt, the fall of Murdoch, technology, airplanes, Chinese troubles, the historical role of McConnell and Cantor, you name it. However: if it really is true, as originally reported by the Guardian, that the CIA ran a fake vaccination program in Pakistan to lure in members of the bin Laden family, as a way of getting samples of their DNA, that has tremendously damaging implications that must be addressed. As the Guardian said:



>>The CIA organised a fake vaccination programme in the town where it believed Osama bin Laden was hiding in an elaborate attempt to obtain DNA from the fugitive al-Qaida leader's family, a Guardian investigation has found. As part of extensive preparations for the raid that killed Bin Laden in May, CIA agents recruited a senior Pakistani doctor to organise the vaccine drive in Abbottabad, even starting the "project" in a poorer part of town to make it look more authentic, according to Pakistani and US officials and local residents.<<

Of course, of course: It is all to the good that bin Laden is gone; enormous credit goes to those at all levels who figured out how to get him; his absence gives the United States the best chance it is likely to have to end the distortions of a "global war on terror" and put the real, ongoing risks of terrorism in perspective with the other real risks we face. Almost any step toward the end of eliminating him was worthwhile.

But this phony vaccination campaign, if true, really pushes the boundaries of "almost." Around the world this will touch the very deepest sources of mistrust, fear, and hatred of the big, technological United States. We will (in this narrative) lie to people about basic questions of family health; we will prey on parents' concern for their children to lure them into situations where we can take samples of their tissues and fluids; we will say one thing and do another -- under white medical-technician jackets and a humanitarian guise. We will suggest that no aspect of our international presence is immune to penetration by spies.