This week on CounterSpin: The U.S. has been rattling the saber at Syria for the last few years, and the assassination of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri in mid-February has caused an escalation of US belligerence toward Syria-despite an apparent lack of evidence that Syria was involved in the killing. We'll talk about coverage of Syria with Professor Stephen Zunes, the chair of the Peace & Justice Studies Program at the University of San Francisco.

Also this week: George W. Bush recently nominated John Negroponte to be his national director of intelligence, a new government post recommended by the 9/11 Commisssion. According to one news report, Negroponte's life "has been a lesson in quiet and measured diplomacy." Well get a different take from Terry Allen, a reporter who covered Central America in the 1980s.

LINKS:

The Dangerous Implications of the Hariri Assassination and the U.S. Response, by Stephen Zunes (CommonDreams, 2/19/05)

Scandal? What Scandal?: Bush's Iran-Contra appointees are barely a story, by Terry J. Allen (Extra!, 9-10/01)