Luke Weiger said a few days ago that the Ba'athist regime in Iraq and Hussein specifically were and are regarded as a greta threat regardless of the fact that Poppy Bush armed him and that all other things being equal the CIA would love to take him out given half the chance. Here are some cites: Neighbors, Not Friends, Iraq and Iran after the Gulf Wars, " by Dilip Hiro, a left-liberal, just published by Routledge. The chapter I was just leafing through, "The Mother of all failed coups, " is on the intra-Kurdish struggles, aided and abetted and betrayed by the CIA in 1996. 5,500 agents and over 100 million dollars funnelled to Barzani of the KDP who switched over to the regime's side. Other books, see Peter Mantius and Patrick Cockburn. The Mantius book delves into BCCI, if memory serves. A long excerpt was published in In These Times. Michael Pugliese