CIA now kid-friendly

Right there in the upper right corner of the CIA's home page you've got the CIA Kid's Zone.

Taking a page out of Baldur von Schirach's playbook, the folks at Langley have put together some fun activities for the wee ones. You've got your wordsearch, coloring pages, and so much more. It's never too early to get the tikes revved up about the security of the reich!

But let me explain what led me to the CIA's Kid Zone.

It began with this article by Carole Antony on the Counterpunch site. Antony spins a compelling and plausible yarn about, among other things, the changing of the guard in Qatar.

Seems a CIA agent hand-delivered a note from somewhere really high up in Washington to the Emir, advising him that he was outta there, and that his son Tamim would take over. The reason? Allegedly, during the bin Laden raid in Pakistan, documents came to light tying Al Qaida financing to a member of the al-Thani clan. If the old Emir had a problem with the shuffle, he was told Qatari assets around the world would be frozen.

So why is the young al-Thani considered an improvement? Because he is a Sandhurst man! He may wear the flowing robes for the photo-ops but he's one of us through and through and he'll know what's expected of him when he gets a call from Whitehall or Washington.

Antony got these fascinating facts from Osama Fawzi, a "former high-ranking member of the Qatari information ministry." Fawzi is now based in the US and runs the website Arab Times, the largest Arab-American e-newspaper in the US.

Go ahead; click on it... right below the Arab Times logo is an advert for and link to the CIA!

Which is how I got to the CIA Kid Zone, but it also raises a couple of other questions. Is this an arms length advertisement by the CIA on an independent website, or is it something else? If it's just advertising, maybe the CIA would be interested in sponsoring a NASCAR driver? I know Mark Martin would appreciate ending his career with a reliable and well-funded ride.

If it's something else... hell, maybe Osama Fawzi knows what happened to Bandar?